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The year is 1969... a time when the youth of America is standing up to its elder rulers... when minorities are demanding their fair share of the American pie... a time when an eternal war fought for misbegotten motives and fueled by a continuous stream of some of the most outrageous lies ever fed to a people by its leadership over the previous eight years continues to gut an entire generation... a time when the old values, the old expectations, the old imperatives are knocked flat. Seen through the eyes of 21 year old college senior John Cassell, always out of money and soon to be out of college, it is a saga of coming of age... at a time when the younger generation accepted very little of the old yardsticks and guideposts which traditionally helped that process along. Based on a true story, and the stories of others, the book follows the young man into the year 1969 as he struggles with the decisions expected of him by elders and demanded of him by life. The story leads to a factory job in the pine barrens of his native New Jersey, thence overseas, to the stimulating atmosphere of a youthful community of international wanderers in Great Britain, to an Ireland torn by age old divisions, to France, whose gendarmerie remain brooding and vengeful in the wake of the bloody Sorbonne riots of the previous year, to the Spain of General Franco, and finally to the turbulence of North Africa.… (más)
johnwcassell: this fascinating book....drawn from the author's true life experience as doorman at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village...is the best book around on the vibrance and tragedy of the early Sixties. It ends where Crossroads begins.
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This was so great & I read it pretty quickly. I love the author's humor and I loved the journey he took. The author is so cool that he gave me a copy. It was well worth the read ( )
This is the very first book I read of John W. Cassells. It took me in from the first page. What an awesome author! He can break your heart one minute, and the next, you are rolling in the floor with laughter. He is my favorite authror! ( )
Review of John W. Cassell's "Crossroads: 1969", March 10, 2008 By jack engelhard
Review of John W. Cassell's "Crossroads: 1969" (Once, We Were Young) - By Jack Engelhard
John W. Cassell traveled to Europe in search of America and to understand this it helps to be a Child of the 60s -though in a sense we are all Children of the 60s since the art, the music, the literature and even the politics of that era, all of it is still very much alive. In "Crossroads: 1969," Cassell' uses a bio-novel technique to recover the past - the second half the 1960s and into the 1970s - and the result is a masterful rendering of an era.
In trying to find America, through the backroads and the highways of Europe, Cassell was obviously trying to find himself as well, and this no one ever achieves, something nearing perfection, but it's the pursuit itself that makes for an exhilarating adventure; in this case, Cassell's adventure, wherein he introduces us to new landscapes and new people, and we never know, until we turn the page, who might be waiting for him around the next corner.
Cassell writes it straight and his most noticeable skill is in his ability to take us with him wherever he goes. We're with him when a friend turns into an enemy and we're with him when strangers turn into friends and we're with him when at any moment he could be arrested by the French police or the Spanish police - or the dreaded ESTABLISHMENT.
We understand his shyness toward women at a time when women were getting bolder. This took some of us off stride.
This is all about being young and the 1960s were about many things, but mostly about being young. America, during that period, was going through the symptoms of birthing, or rather, renewal. America was trying to figure out exactly what kind of nation it wanted to be. Therefore, there was that, the Establishment, and then there was the counterculture.
Like so many of us, Cassell found himself caught in the middle. Lucky for us that he turned to writing to share the excitement of a nation and a man still unfinished.
The adventure continues.
Today, the lines are much more clear-cut. You're left or you're right. Back then, we were still trying to make up our minds.
The 1960s were the defining decade of a generation. But which America was the correct one for us?
Cassell doesn't lecture or pontificate. He only observes and lets us, his readers, arrive at the conclusions. That's what we call good writing, and as so often happens in this bio-novel - great writing. There are so many nuggets to choose from here, but Cassell pretty much puts his finger on what the 1960s were all about when he writes: "The future was certainly ours - there was nothing but time. Yet there was not a moment to lose."
What a beautiful snapshot! Yes, we knew that at this moment the decade belonged to us, we were all in revolt, and yet we recognized that at any moment it could all be over. Vietnam was happening, after all, and the cities were burning, and everybody, it seemed, had issues, so we knew that it could not last. How long could we continue to protest when at some point we'd actually have to raise a family and earn a living? We'd have to cut our hair and most likely join a corporation - the Establishment.
One day we would have to grow up.
Cassell did grow up and what an incredible bio he developed over the years, much too long and storied to repeat here, except to note that out of all that, he enlisted in the United States Air Force, served as a New Mexico State Trooper, and also served as a district attorney - but that only touches on his many achievements.
His greatest achievement, though, as far as this reviewer is concerned, is in reminding us that once upon a time we were young. Once upon a time everything was possible.
Maybe such a time will come round again.
Bravo, John W. Cassell!
Jack Engelhard's latest novel, "The Bathsheba Deadline," is now available in paperback. Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel "Indecent Proposal." less... ( )
Esta reseña ha sido denunciada por varios usuarios como una infracción de las condiciones del servicio y no se mostrará más (mostrar).
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide… Traditional Anglican Hymn
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Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
This is the story of that year, and those decisions. That our generation has, in the intervening years, become so stodgy and anxious to forget those times, and so acquiescent in bringing about today’s government-controlled society, is but a testament to just how wild and upside down things really were for those brief moments in our history. It is to those moments, and those that shared and shaped them with me, that this book is humbly dedicated. John W. Cassell Nu’uuli, American Samoa November 28, 2004
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Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
The author of this book, John W. Cassell, IS NOT the teetotaler 19th Century British publisher John Cassell. A search of our author's name can lead to an odd collection of books returned along with his action-adventure-courtroom drama-police procedural books mostly written in 1976 and the first decade of the 21st Century.
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Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
The year is 1969... a time when the youth of America is standing up to its elder rulers... when minorities are demanding their fair share of the American pie... a time when an eternal war fought for misbegotten motives and fueled by a continuous stream of some of the most outrageous lies ever fed to a people by its leadership over the previous eight years continues to gut an entire generation... a time when the old values, the old expectations, the old imperatives are knocked flat. Seen through the eyes of 21 year old college senior John Cassell, always out of money and soon to be out of college, it is a saga of coming of age... at a time when the younger generation accepted very little of the old yardsticks and guideposts which traditionally helped that process along. Based on a true story, and the stories of others, the book follows the young man into the year 1969 as he struggles with the decisions expected of him by elders and demanded of him by life. The story leads to a factory job in the pine barrens of his native New Jersey, thence overseas, to the stimulating atmosphere of a youthful community of international wanderers in Great Britain, to an Ireland torn by age old divisions, to France, whose gendarmerie remain brooding and vengeful in the wake of the bloody Sorbonne riots of the previous year, to the Spain of General Franco, and finally to the turbulence of North Africa.
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