A book that makes you cry.
Had a cathartic sob on the bath on Saturday night when I finished The Pursuit of Happiness by Douglas Kennedy. It managed to have sentiment without sentimentality, cracking dialogue, handsome men, forthright women and political heroes.
It was set in post WW2 New York, and makes me want to know more about the McCarthy era, the public people that were black listed, the events leading up to Arthur Miller writing The Crucible. It also neatly tied into the mini-series I watched recently, Palace of Dreams, how the Depression forged extreme political allegiances that polarised people during the 1950s.
It was sad and emotional, and also had a lot of resonance to the era we live in now, of conservatism and what it takes for the zeitgeist to change. Is it inevitable?
Had a cathartic sob on the bath on Saturday night when I finished The Pursuit of Happiness by Douglas Kennedy. It managed to have sentiment without sentimentality, cracking dialogue, handsome men, forthright women and political heroes.
It was set in post WW2 New York, and makes me want to know more about the McCarthy era, the public people that were black listed, the events leading up to Arthur Miller writing The Crucible. It also neatly tied into the mini-series I watched recently, Palace of Dreams, how the Depression forged extreme political allegiances that polarised people during the 1950s.
It was sad and emotional, and also had a lot of resonance to the era we live in now, of conservatism and what it takes for the zeitgeist to change. Is it inevitable?
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