The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 30 April 2000
by Margot Adler
The 1960s have become legendary for the turmoil, the experimentation, the political controversy, and the violence that permeated that decade. There have been many books memorializing that era. In this book, Margot Adler, a correspondent for National Public Radio, reflects on the sad tone of so many such books, and sets out determined to express the hope and confidence that many political experimenters of the time really did feel. She sensitively lays out her own background, among a politically and socially liberal family, especially her very giving mother (everyone should have a mother so open!). Adler then goes on to tell of her years in Berkeley, involved with the Free Speech Movement and in a correspondence with a soldier in Vietnam. These events charged Adler with confidence in the possibility of changing the world (and, like it or not, the events in the 60s certainly accomplished that). But learning about Vietnam from a foot soldier, and dipping into the many communist or socialist groups that thrived in Berkeley at the time, Adler eventually develops a much more complex view of "right" and "wrong" in the society she hoped to change. Later, she explores this complexity in visits to Cuba, on early morning radio and, only touched upon here, various Pagan religions. While she set out to express the hope so many had at the time, the book actually ended up feeling quite sad. There is a constant tone of hopeful searching that sounds earnest and youthful. The dawning of the complexity in the world is immediate, but also sad, in the sense of losing a certain amount of youthful idealism. Adler was, and is, a searcher, determined to do good in the world. What she finds is how incredibly difficult that can be. The book has a certain distance in it, as many of the events Adler describes are at an arm's length. There are events that may make the reader yearn for more detail from the author. Yet there are many meaningful and touching moments. Moments in which the author is opening up unknown depths of her heart. Perhaps not the most amazing memoir, this book is still very good, very worthwhile.