The blurb on the book is
right: there are only a handful of
novelists who have looked at the 60s of demonstrations, civil disobedience, riots,
imprisonment and change. Why
is that, I wonder? Why hasn’t our Baby
Boomer major novelists tackled the dizzying world they grew up in, that shaped
their identities?
The
story begins when Nick’s Uncle Clem gives him the banjo that leads to him
forming a folk band with his best friend, Mitch, and two Melbourne sisters, Helen and Alison. Summer’s
Gone details Nick’s relationship with Helen and explores the nostalgia of
living in Australia
in the 1960s. There are romantic affairs, a briefly successful folk band, women’s
rights, sexual freedom, discourse around the Vietnam war - draft dodging and
conscription, and other social and political issues that have had far reaching
implications for following generations.
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