Nirvana on Ninth Street — Susan Sherman

Set in the 1960s and 70s, Nirvana on Ninth Street is loosely based on residents who lived on and near Ninth Street between Avenues B and C in Manhattan, in what is now known as the East Village, during an extraordinary period when the area was a mecca of political radicalism and avant-garde poetry, music, and art. Rachel, a wholly fictitious character, ties the vignettes together. She is a woman who lives largely in a world of her own creation, remembering people from her past who live once again through her imagination. This book is the theater of the absurd, a comedy of errors, and brutal realism all rolled into one delightful, poignant, and sometimes tragic fantasy.