Living With the Dead Author:Alan Bernstein Living With The Dead follows the story of Toast Murphy over a period spanning from 1978 to 1995. Toast is a "Dead Head" (who, for those of you who don't know, means that he is a dedicated fan of the San Francisco rock group, the Grateful Dead; hence the title). We first meet our protagonist and his friends Cheech, Burn Out, Sunshine and Jimi i... more »n rural New England at a late-seventies Dead concert, where drugs and hormones flow freely. But events take a terrible turn soon afterwards when Toast's best friend Jimi is killed in a road accident, shortly after Jimi's girlfriend Burn Out discovers that she is pregnant. Devastated by the loss of his lifelong friend, Toast resolves to raise Jimi's son - named Jerry Garcia Goldberg in honor of the Grateful Dead's lead vocalist - and subsequently marries Burn Out despite his worsening drug addiction. During the eighties and early nineties, Toast's friends begin to leave their reckless lifestyles behind, but Toast remains unwilling to conform to the new era. And as the years pass and the cumulative effects of narcotic abuse begin to take their toll on his health, he finds himself having to reconcile his lifestyle with the solemn promise he made to be a good father to Jerry.« less