CCLaP Fridays: Crystal Ships, by Richard Sharp
This week Karl Wolff reviews “Crystal Ships,” by Richard Sharp, a novel about surviving the Sixties. Continue reading CCLaP Fridays: Crystal Ships, by Richard Sharp
Tag: the Sixties
Elysiana by Chris Knopf
The novel Elysiana is about the eponymous barrier island off the coast of South Jersey. Chris Knopf, known for the Sam Acquillo Hamptons Mystery novels, has written a self-contained novel set in the summer of 1969. It begins with Midwestern girl Gwendolynn Anders suffering a bad drug trip. Time loses coherence as Gwendolynn experiences memories and flashbacks, seeing herself at a party, and then finding herself in the back of car. She gradually regains control of her mental faculties and then realizes she is on Elysiana. The island, only twenty-five miles long and a mile wide, presents a microcosm of … Continue reading Elysiana by Chris Knopf
White House Years (1979) by Henry Kissinger
Tears of a Courtier Political memoirs are works of self-justification. In the case of Henry Kissinger, he packages these self-justifications in the first volume of his memoirs, White House Years (1979). As a major partner with President Richard Nixon, Kissinger, working as the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (more commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor), he followed Nixon’s wishes to direct the nation’s foreign policy from the White House. Kissinger transformed himself from a Harvard academic to a diplomat engineering international relationships (political and military) of world-historical importance. During this period, Nixon and Kissinger could … Continue reading White House Years (1979) by Henry Kissinger
I Think, Therefore Who Am I?: Memoir of a Psychedelic Year, by Peter Weissman
In the film The Limey (Steven Soderbergh, 1999), the record producer Terry Valentine offers his girlfriend an evocative speech describing the Sixties. “Did you ever dream about a place you never really recall being to before? A place that maybe only exists in your imagination? Some place far away, half remembered when you wake up. When you were there, though, you knew the language. You knew your way around. That was the sixties.” After a pause, he continues. “No. It wasn’t that either. It was just ’66 and early ’67. That’s all there was.” Peter Weissman’s memoir I Think, Therefore … Continue reading I Think, Therefore Who Am I?: Memoir of a Psychedelic Year, by Peter Weissman
The Driftless Area Review 