Tag Archives: seventies

Another Look:   Sunflower: A Novel

A sequel of sorts to The Misadventures of Mama Kitchen: In early 1970 a new era, the Age of Aquarius, seems to be dawning. Penny, who adopted the name of Sunflower on the way to the Woodstock Music and Arts … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Drop City by T. C. Boyle

I bought Drop City months ago but put off reading it until now. For one thing, it’s a long novel, and for another, I didn’t know what to expect. Whenever I have taken up novels having to do with the … Continue reading →

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Book Review: The Armageddon Rag by George R.R. Martin

Although set in the 1980s, this book is actually about the 1960s. I lived the sixties in the early seventies, but I recognized all the cultural buttons Martin pushes, the references obscure and famous, and the sense of loss of … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974 by Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer

As soon as I first picked up this volume of modern history, I knew it was going to be important to me. I put my name on the reserve list at the library (still poverty-stricken here, folks) and patiently waited … Continue reading →

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A Second Look: Love Children: A Novel

It is the mid-1970s.  The Summer of Love and the Woodstock Music Festival have come and gone.  Into the atmosphere of cynicism and doubt following the wild optimism of the youth revolution the Love Children, raised from birth by benevolent … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan

In my search for new nonfiction books to read, I perused recent awards lists and came across this title. It surprised me that a book on surfing should have won a Pulitzer Prize, but as I read brief descriptions of … Continue reading →

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Sunflower: A Novel by John Walters – Now Available!

“Sunflower”, my third novel, is now available on Amazon in a print edition here, and in an electronic edition here. This is what the back cover copy says: “In early 1970 a new era, the Age of Aquarius, is dawning. … Continue reading →

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The Ongoing Relevance of the Sixties and Seventies

Last night I watched a wonderful film called “Pirate Radio”.  I had seen it in Greece a few years ago; the European title is “The Boat That Rocked”.  It’s the story of a time in England when it was illegal … Continue reading →

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Book Review: The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics by Bruce J. Schulman; Part Two:The Book Itself

In the first post about this book I recounted what the seventies mean to me personally.  Heady times they were, to be sure, and integral to my development as a writer.  Now I will go into an analysis of the … Continue reading →

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Book Review: The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics by Bruce J. Schulman; Part 1: What the Seventies Mean To Me

I graduated high school in the class of 1970, having just turned 17 years old.  After a few months of drinking and carousing I was off to university in California.  At the time I hadn’t a clue about what anything … Continue reading →

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