Playground Zero
Sarah Relyea
(Author)
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
It's the season of siren songs and loosened bonds―as well as war, campaign slogans, and assassination. At the height of the Vietnam War protests, Washington lawyer Tom Rayson uproots his family for the freewheeling city of Berkeley. While Tom pursues a romance with a sexy colleague in the Marin County woods, Marian joins a peace party that's running a Black Panther for president and meets the Berkeley revolution. But for young Alice, her parents' liberating forays become a blind leap in a city marked by beauty and social change―and for a girl, that's no Summer of Love. Feeling estranged from her family, Alice embraces the moment and falls in with Jim and Valerie Dupres. Jim and Valerie have been learning the ropes on Telegraph Avenue, cadging meals at a nearby communal house and camping out in People's Park. Soon they're confronting National Guardsmen. As family and school fade away in a tear-gas fog, Alice feels an ambiguous freedom. Caught up in a rebellion that feels equally compelling, scary, and absurd, Alice could become a casualty--or she could defy the odds and become her own person. One thing is sure: there's no going back.
Product Details
Price
$16.95
$15.76
Publisher
She Writes Press
Publish Date
June 09, 2020
Pages
432
Dimensions
5.4 X 8.5 X 1.3 inches | 1.2 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781631528897
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About the Author
Sarah Relyea is the award-winning author of Playground Zero, a coming-of-age novel about the 1960s, and Outsider Citizens: The Remaking of Identity in Wright, Beauvoir, and Baldwin, a work of literary criticism. Sarah grew up in Berkeley during the counterculture movement of the 1960s. She has taught at universities in New York and Taiwan. Sarah lives in Brooklyn, New York, and continues to spend time in Northern California.
Reviews
2021 International Book Awards Finalist in Fiction: Literary
Fifties and tossed into a culture of anything goes will appeal to
readers wanting to learn more about Berkeley's days of rage." --Historical Novels Review "Like the writing of Jodi Picoult, Sarah Relyea has the ability to build
a particular drama into a compelling plot, unveiled through multiple
points of view. . . . Through music, literature, and actual events, the
author creates a clear picture of the 1960s, especially the tumultuous
events and the free-love flower power that swept the west coast in
particular. This is a powerful, historical drama. Well constructed." --Readers' Favorite, five-star review
"An eerily compelling déjà vu of the free, wild, and jeopardy-ridden kid scene in late-1960s Berkeley. Uncanny and powerful." --Charles Degelman, Editor, Harvard Square Editions "Like a trip through the Looking Glass, Sarah Relyea's engrossing debut
novel takes you by the hand back to the sixties, where social rules were
being challenged and political upheaval was the norm." --Patricia Hurtado, Brooklyn writer and journalist with Bloomberg News "A fascinating exploration of a strange and exciting time in US history .
. . I was totally immersed in the story as Alice grows and develops in a
world in which freedom has many different outcomes."
--NetGalley
2021 Readers' Favorite Book Awards Finalist in Fiction: Social Issues
Fifties and tossed into a culture of anything goes will appeal to
readers wanting to learn more about Berkeley's days of rage." --Historical Novels Review "Like the writing of Jodi Picoult, Sarah Relyea has the ability to build
a particular drama into a compelling plot, unveiled through multiple
points of view. . . . Through music, literature, and actual events, the
author creates a clear picture of the 1960s, especially the tumultuous
events and the free-love flower power that swept the west coast in
particular. This is a powerful, historical drama. Well constructed." --Readers' Favorite, five-star review
"An eerily compelling déjà vu of the free, wild, and jeopardy-ridden kid scene in late-1960s Berkeley. Uncanny and powerful." --Charles Degelman, Editor, Harvard Square Editions "Like a trip through the Looking Glass, Sarah Relyea's engrossing debut
novel takes you by the hand back to the sixties, where social rules were
being challenged and political upheaval was the norm." --Patricia Hurtado, Brooklyn writer and journalist with Bloomberg News "A fascinating exploration of a strange and exciting time in US history .
. . I was totally immersed in the story as Alice grows and develops in a
world in which freedom has many different outcomes."
--NetGalley
