Reading the 20th Century discussion

Every month we discuss a book on a specific era or a theme. This book will be the winner of a group poll.


Our February 2022 theme is 1960s and the Counterculture

If you feel inspired, please nominate a 20th century book centred around the 1960s and the Counterculture that you would like to read and discuss. It could be fiction or non-fiction

Please supply the title, author, a brief synopsis, and anything else you'd like to mention about the book, and why you think it might make a good book to discuss.

Happy nominating.

Okay, I'll get the ball rolling with a nomination for....


Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me (1966)

by

Richard Fariña

It seems to meet our brief well and is readily available on Kindle

That said, it also seems to be a novel very much of its time so expect some unreconstructed attitudes

Fariña evokes the Sixties as precisely, wittily, and poignantly as F. Scott Fitzgerald captured the Jazz Age. The hero, Gnossus Pappadopoulis, weaves his way through the psychedelic landscape, encountering-among other things-mescaline, women, art, gluttony, falsehood, science, prayer, and, occasionally, truth.

Richard Fariña had an interesting if short life....

Richard Fariña was an American writer and folksinger.

With an Irish mother and a Cuban father, Farina was born a rebel. He grew up in Brooklyn, pre-revolutionary Cuba and Ireland. At 18 he was associated with members of the IRA, and was asked to leave Ireland. At Cornell University in the late fifties Farina was suspended for his part in a student protest, but was promptly reinstated when fellow students threatened to take further action to support him.

Leaving Cornell in 1959, he lived in Paris and London, surviving by 'music, street-singing, scriptwriting, acting, a little smuggling, anything to hang on'. In 1963 he returned to America and married Mimi Baez, sister of Joan, and they became a folk duo. Their debut album was recommended by the New York Times as one of the ten best releases of 1965.

Farina was killed in a motorbike accident, just two days after his book Been Down so Long It Looks Like Up to Me had been published. The book has become a cult classic among fans of the 1960s and counterculture literature. The novel also had a huge influence on his close friend Thomas Pynchon, who later dedicated his book Gravity's Rainbow (1973) to Fariña

I'll nominate Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion:

A ruthless dissection of American life in the late 1960s, 'Play It as It Lays' captures the mood of an entire generation, the ennui of contemporary society reflected in spare prose that blisters and haunts the reader. Set in a place beyond good and evil - literally in Hollywood, Las Vegas, and the barren wastes of the Mojave Desert, but figuratively in the landscape of an arid soul - it remains more than three decades after its original publication a profoundly disturbing novel, riveting in its exploration of a woman and a society in crisis and stunning in the still-startling intensity of its prose.

It's available on Kindle and paperback in various editions but this cover grabbed my attention:

I will throw Utopia Avenue into the ring, as I love books about fictional bands....

Utopia Avenue might be the most curious British band you've never heard of.

Emerging from London's psychedelic scene in 1967, folksinger Elf Holloway, blues bassist Dean Moss, guitar virtuoso Jasper de Zoet and jazz drummer Griff Griffin together created a unique sound, with lyrics that captured their turbulent times. The band produced only two albums in two years, yet their musical legacy lives on.

This is the story of Utopia Avenue's brief, blazing journey from Soho clubs and draughty ballrooms to the promised land of America, just when the Summer of Love was receding into something much darker - a multi-faceted tale of dreams, drugs, love, sexuality, madness and grief; of stardom's wobbly ladder and fame's Faustian pact; and of the collision between youthful idealism and jaded reality as the Sixties drew to a close.

Above all, this bewitching novel celebrates the power of music to connect across divides, define an era and thrill the soul.

'The great rock and roll novel - an epic love letter to the greatest music ever made and the book the music has always deserved' Tony Parsons

Thanks RC and thanks Susan - a couple of strong nominations that look extremely tempting. Love that cover RC!


Who else is nominating?

Or thinking about it?


Nominations so far...

Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me (1966) by Richard Fariña (Nigeyb)
Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion (Roman Clodia)
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell (Susan)

I've been torn about six books but I think I will nominate 1963: The Year of the Revolution by Ariel Leve. I have it on Kindle. It looks like hardcover is about the same price as the Kindle - $7 here.

It sounds as though this portion of the revolution set up the late revolution. And I think it is worldwide.

I haven't started this book yet.

Thanks Jan

Four nominations and counting


Who else is nominating?

Or thinking about it?


Nominations so far...

Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me (1966) by Richard Fariña (Nigeyb)
Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion (Roman Clodia)
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell (Susan)
1963: The Year of the Revolution by Ariel Leve (Jan)

I'm thinking about it...

Thanks for the update Judy


Nominations so far...

Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me (1966) by Richard Fariña (Nigeyb)
Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion (Roman Clodia)
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell (Susan)
1963: The Year of the Revolution by Ariel Leve (Jan)

I won't be nominating anything, as there are already at least two books on the list that interest me.

Just decided I'm not going to nominate after all - I found a few interesting books but they weren't very widely available and I also fancy reading a couple of the existing nominations.

Thanks Ben and thanks Judy


So it looks as though we might have all our nominations

Anyone else nominating?

Not this time Nigey, have a number of upcoming group reads and enough on this list that I wouldn't mind reading.

Not many nominations for this month. Wonder if we'll have an obvious favourite or another close run thing?

Poll's up


Vote here...

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...


Nominations

Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me (1966) by Richard Fariña (Nigeyb)
Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion (Roman Clodia)
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell (Susan)
1963: The Year of the Revolution by Ariel Leve (Jan)

It's not necessarily a bad thing to have fewer books this month as I'm often torn as to which one to vote for.

Looks like Joan Didion has got this one sewn up...



Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion - 7 votes, 58.3%

Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me (1966) by Richard Fariña - 4 votes, 33.3%

1963: The Year of the Revolution by Ariel Leve - 1 vote, 8.3%

Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell - 0 votes

Still time to vote for your choice so if you haven't voted yet, do!

We seem to have gone All American this time.

I still have an interest in reading one of the (un-nominated) suggestions made in the other thread about the 60's counterculture in England/London. Any particular recommendations?

These are great Ben...


Give the Anarchist a cigarette - Mick Farren
Groovy Bob: The Life and Times of Robert Fraser - Harriet Vyner
Days In The Life: Voices from the English Underground 1961-71 - Jonathon Green
Revolution In The Head - Ian MacDonald

Doubtless loads more that don't come to mind, or that I have yet to read but I have read those titles and can vouch for their quality

You could also take a look at Jon Savage's 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded

I think my choice was set in Soho. Not that anyone voted for it, but oh well.

Susan wrote: "I think my choice was set in Soho. Not that anyone voted for it, but oh well."

Sorry Susan, I liked the idea of the story the stumbling block was David Mitchell, I've never managed to finish anything of his.

I'm not sure about David Mitchell either Susan. I really liked Ghostwritten - a wonderful novel but thereafter he's written enormous off putting doorstops.

I struggled through Cloud Atlas which was not really worth the time investment.

I also read Number9Dream which was quite hard work too.

Utopia Avenue looks very promising but it's 576 pages so it's one I might get out of the library if I see it but, like Alwynne, I'm a bit wary of Mr M given my history with him.

I hadn't tried it, to be fair. I have also wanted to read Joan Didion, so that's fine.

Nigeyb wrote: "I'm not sure about David Mitchell either Susan. I really liked Ghostwritten - a wonderful novel but thereafter he's written enormous off putting doorstops.

I struggled through [book:C..."

I haven't tried 'Ghostwritten' I read most of 'Cloud Atlas' then skimmed and my reaction was pretty much the same as yours, gave up on Number9Dream' and 'Black Swan Green' early on.

Ditto, not sold on David Mitchell, I'm afraid. I finished Cloud Atlas but really didn't understand all the accolades for that book.

Not sure if I will read it - I am finishing her Slouching Toward Bethlehem. So far the Slouching essay has been the best. Book of essays from the mid-'60s.

I have read your nomination, Jan. It wasn't my favourite book on the year (see my review if interested) but I do agree with you that the Sixties revolution did start around that time.

Susan wrote: "I have read your nomination, Jan. It wasn't my favourite book on the year (see my review if interested) but I do agree with you that the Sixties revolution did start around that time."

Nice review. I haven't started it yet. Not sure I was interested in any of the other nominations.

I saw '63 through a teenager's eyes and not sure that I knew that much about the international aspects. Of course I remember the music groups - the Beatles, Stones and Dave Clark 5 immediately spring to mind. The previous year my brother graduated from high school (thank goodness, since I can't imagine going to high school while he was there) so he brought home other music - Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, etc. Expanded my musical and political knowledge.

Thanks everyone for nominating, discussing and voting.



We have a winner and it looks marvellous....

Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion

A ruthless dissection of American life in the late 1960s, 'Play It as It Lays' captures the mood of an entire generation, the ennui of contemporary society reflected in spare prose that blisters and haunts the reader. Set in a place beyond good and evil - literally in Hollywood, Las Vegas, and the barren wastes of the Mojave Desert, but figuratively in the landscape of an arid soul - it remains more than three decades after its original publication a profoundly disturbing novel, riveting in its exploration of a woman and a society in crisis and stunning in the still-startling intensity of its prose.

By coincidence, and as announced last night, my real world book group choice for February is....


The Year of Magical Thinking (2005)

by

Joan Didion


...so I have a double dose of Joan to look forward to in February


Sounds like a tough read...

'An act of consummate literary bravery, a writer known for her clarity allowing us to watch her mind as it becomes clouded with grief.'

From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage–and a life, in good times and bad–that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.

Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later–the night before New Year's Eve–the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary. In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over. Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma.

This powerful book is Didion's attempt to make sense of the "weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness . . . about marriage and children and memory . . . about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself."

Sounds like a very tough read, Nigeyb.

It is a tough read, Nigeyb, but a very, very good one.

Quite right, Kathleen. I read it after my father died. I should have waited a while.

Thanks all


Excited