1974
Book description
“In this remarkable memoir, the qualities that have long distinguished Francine Prose’s fiction and criticism—uncompromising intelligence, a gratifying aversion to sentiment, the citrus bite of irony—give rigor and, finally, an unexpected poignancy to an emotional, artistic, and political coming-of-age tale set in the 1970s—the decade, as she memorably puts it,…
Why read it?
3 authors picked 1974 as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
This is a tightly focused memoir of a turbulent time in American history experienced by a 20-something fledgling writer trying to understand and relate to an older man haunted by guilt and memories of what he witnessed in Vietnam.
This is another book that examines the effect of historic events and public dystopia on the inner lives of human beings living through those times.
From Nina's list on helping you survive and even laugh at our dystopian times.
This is a small slice of life in the mid-1970s, a memoir of a strange quasi romance between the writer, a 20-something East Coast aspiring writer transplanted to San Francisco and an older man, Daniel Ellsberg's partner in the crime of the Pentagon Papers, Tony Russo. Prose evokes the San Francisco of that intense time, and the feeling of being in one's 20s, and the strangeness of being a young woman interacting with an older man, and her inability to understand just how damaged Rand Corporation employee Russo was by guilt over the Vietnam War.
This one shows a side of the Bay Area that few people know about. I loved this book because Francine Prose recounts her time living amongst the people who stole the Pentagon Papers and made them public. Her descriptions of San Francisco at night are haunting, and the book has a foreboding that creates high drama.
A pivotal event in ending the protracted war in Vietnam, this book is an important source document for anyone researching this era.
From Joan's list on 1970’s art & politics.
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