Minerva, 1889 – 1890, Roman goddess of poetry, music, wisdom, and warriors (Greek, Athena), bronze sculpture by Norwegian American artist, Jakob H. F. Fjelde, downtown Minneapolis Central Library, Minneapolis, Minnesota, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
The first black hole was discovered in the same decade that Star Wars was released (and not by Columbo, Charlie’s Angels, or Sonny and Cher). It was the 1970’s, and you were probably wearing Halston ultrasuede or cashmere, leisure suits, platform shoes, string bikinis, and hot pants. Or maybe you were more the Birkenstock type, sporting tie-dye jeans, crocheted vests (think orange and lime green), and bouncy, wide bell-bottoms.
In 1977, there was a world shortage of coffee and prices soared from 50¢ a pound to $3.20 (isn’t it around $12 a pound today?). You might have been playing a lightshow guitar (imitating Pink Floyd), or listening to the Stones, Roberta Flack, the Eagles, Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, Tony Orlando (knock 3 times), or Gladys Knight and the Pips, on your new Sony Walkman.
The Beatles broke up, Jack Nicholson flew over the cuckoo’s nest, Harold and Maud were the May/December romance of the big screen, playing next to The Deer Hunter, Deliverance, and Saturday Night Fever. Yes, John Travolta was hot (even before his Pulp Fiction days). So was Billie Jean King, Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali, and Jesus Christ Superstar (did you see Andrew Lloyd Webber on American Idol?).
If you are under 21 and voted during the 2008 Presidential Primary, you can thank the 1970’s — the voting age in the U.S. was lowered to 18. And Paper Mate introduced a new erasable ink pen, allowing you to wipe out those pesky voting mistakes in a single swipe.
But don’t jump too fast. It was before the age of the hanging chad. The Apple II computer had just hit the market, the first email took a lumbering ride across ARPANet (central backbone during the development of the Internet), and Intel’s first microprocessor 4004 (1971) contained 2,300 transistors (today’s will run 3,000 times faster).
In the 1970’s Annie Hall was all the rage, along with Club Med, the VCR, streaking (yes, I tried it), and Pet Rocks (move over Sony the Pug!). Patty Hearst wielded her first machine gun, Son of Sam ran loose in the streets, Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, murdered 1-2 million people, and the Ohio National Guard shot and killed 4 college students at Kent State during an anti-war demonstration. Doesn’t that just blow your mind?
In the Me Decade, Elvis died of an overdose. So did Sid Vicious and Jim Morrison. Life and Look magazines were defunct by the end of the decade, along with cigarette advertising on TV, the draft, the VW bug (so they thought), and the Vietnam War. There was a recession in 1974 on top of an oil crisis in 1973 (what’s changed?). And TV would never be the same: Bonanza ended after 14 years; Gunsmoke after 20; and Ed Sullivan called it quits after 23 years.
You don’t see that kind of longevity in 21st Century media. Nor would you ever see televised daily proceedings of a national debacle like Richard Nixon and Watergate.
The world’s first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, was born in England, CAT-scans were introduced, the Heimlich maneuver perfected, and popular 70’s culture was buzzing with new words and phrases: Murphy’s Law, Pro-choice, pumping iron, Punk rock, Rubik’s cube. Don’t rock the boat!
Money, money, money — 180,000 Americans were millionaires by the mid-70’s, an average hospital stay would set you back $81 a day, and a First Class postage stamp was 6¢ (Airmail, 10¢). The Metropolitan Museum paid $5.5 million for a Diego Velázquez portrait, while the Susan B. Anthony dollar took a political nosedive.
Rupert Murdoch bought the New York Post in the 70’s, and Cosmopolitan blossomed with Helen Gurley Brown at the helm. But literature (and a few oddball tomes thrown in for good measure) still boomed under the watchful eye of Minerva, Roman goddess of poetry and wisdom.
You can tell a lot about a person by the books they read. You can also tell a lot about a culture. In the 1970’s, here’s what America was reading.
1 9 7 0 ‘ s – B E S T S E L L E R S
FICTION
- Love Story; Oliver’s Story, Erich Segal
- The French Lieutenant’s Woman, John Fowles
- Islands in the Stream, Ernest Hemingway
- Travels with My Aunt, Graham Greene
- Rich Man, Poor Man, Irwin Shaw
- Wheels; Overload, Arthur Hailey
- The Exorcist, William P. Blatty
- The Day of the Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
- Message from Malaga, Helen MacInnes
- Rabbit Redux, John Updike
- The Betsy, Harold Robbins
- The Winds of War, Herman Wouk
- Jonathan Livingston Seagull; Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, Richard Bach
- The Odessa File, Frederick Forsyth
- My Name Is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok
- Captains and the Kings, Taylor Caldwell
- Once Is Not Enough; Delores, Jacqueline Susann
- Breakfast of Champions; Jailbird; Slapstick: or, Lonesome No More!, Kurt Vonnegut
- Burr; 1876, Gore Vidal
- The Hollow Hills, Mary Stewart
- Evening in Byzantium, Irwin Shaw
- The Drifters; Centennial; Chesapeake, James A. Michener
- The Matlock Paper, Robert Ludlum
- The Billion Dollar Sure Thing, Paul E. Erdman
- Watership Down, Richard Adams
- Jaws; The Deep, Peter Benchley
- The Dogs of War, Frederick Forsyth
- The Fan Club, Irving Wallace
- I Heard the Owl Call My Name, Margaret Craven
- Ragtime, E. L. Doctorow
- The Moneychangers, Arthur Hailey
- Curtain; Sleeping Murder, Agatha Christie
- Looking for Mister Goodbar, Judith Rossner
- The Choirboys, Joseph Wambaugh
- The Eagle Has Landed, Jack Higgins
- The Greek Treasure: A Biographical Novel of Henry and Sophia Schliemann, Irving Stone
- The Great Train Robbery, Michael Crichton
- Shogun, James Clavell
- Humboldt’s Gift, Saul Bellow
- Trinity, Leon Uris
- A Stranger in the Mirror, Bloodlines, Sidney Sheldon
- The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien; Christopher Tolkien
- The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough
- How To Save Your Own Life, Erica Jong
- Delta of Venus: Erotica, Anaïs Nin
- War and Remembrance, Herman Wouk
- Fools Die, Mario Puzo
- Scruples, Judith Krantz
- Sophie’s Choice, William Styron
- The Dead Zone, Stephen King
- The Third World War: August 1985, Gen. Sir John Hackett, et al.
- Smiley’s People, John Le Carré
1 9 7 0 ‘ s – B E S T S E L L E R S
NON-FICTION
- Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex but Were Afraid To Ask, David Reuben, M.D.
- The New English Bible
- The Sensuous Woman, “J”
- Better Homes and Gardens Fondue and Tabletop Cooking; Better Homes and Gardens Blender Cook Book; Better Homes and Gardens Home Canning Cookbook
- American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, William Morris
- Body Language, Julius Fast
- In Someone’s Shadow; Caught in the Quiet, Rod McKuen
- The Sensous Man, “M”
- Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown
- I’m O.K., You’re O.K., Thomas Harris
- Any Woman Can!, David Reuben, M.D.
- Inside the Third Reich, Albert Speer
- Eleanor and Franklin, Joseph P. Lash
- Wunnerful, Wunnerful!, Lawrence Welk
- Honor Thy Father, Gay Talese
- Fields of Wonder, Rod McKuen
- The Living Bible, Kenneth Taylor
- Open Marriage, Nena and George O’Neill
- Harry S. Truman, Margaret Truman
- Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution, Robert C. Atkins
- The Peter Prescription, Laurence J. Peter
- A World Beyond, Ruth Montgomery
- Journey to Ixtlan; Tales of Power; The Second Ring of Power, Carlos Castaneda
- The Joy of Sex; More Joy: A Lovemaking Companion to The Joy of Sex, Alex Comfort
- Weight Watchers Program Cookbook, Jean Nidetch
- How To Be Your Own Best Friend, Mildred Newman, et al.
- The Art of Walt Disney, Christopher Finch
- Alistair Cooke’s America, Alistair Cooke
- Sybil, Flora R. Schreiber
- The Total Woman, Marabel Morgan
- All the President’s Men; The Final Days, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
- You Can Profit from a Monetary Crisis, Harry Browne
- All Things Bright and Beautiful; All Things Wise and Wonderful, James Herriot
- The Bermuda Triangle, Charles Berlitz with J. Manson Valentine
- Angels: God’s Secret Agents, Billy Graham
- Winning Through Intimidation; Looking Out for #1; Restoring the American Dream, Robert Ringer
- TM: Discovering Energy and Overcoming Stress, Harold H. Bloomfield
- Sylvia Porter’s Money Book, Sylvia Porter
- Total Fitness in 30 Minutes a Week, Laurence E. Morehouse and Leonard Gross
- Breach of Faith: The Fall of Richard Nixon, Theodore H. White
- Roots, Alex Haley
- Your Erroneous Zones; Pulling Your Own Strings, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
- Passages: The Predictable Crises of Adult Life, Gail Sheehy
- The Grass ls Always Greener over the Septic Tank; If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries–What Am I Doing in the Pits?; Aunt Erma’s Cope Book, Erma Bombeck
- Blind Ambition: The White House Years, John Dean
- The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality, Shere Hite
- The Right and the Power: The Prosecution of Watergate, Leon Jaworski
- The Book of Lists, David Wallechinsky, Irving Wallace, and Amy Wallace
- The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, Carl Sagan
- The Amityville Horror, Jay Anson
- Gnomes, Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet
- The Complete Book of Running, James Fixx
- Mommie Dearest, Christina Crawford
- RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Richard Nixon
- Faeries, Brian Froud and Alan Lee
- The Muppet Show Book, the Muppet People
- The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet, Herman Tarnower, M.D., and Samm Sinclair Baker
- The Pritikin Program for Diet and Exercise, Nathan Pritikin and Patrick McGrady Jr.
- White House Years, Henry Kissinger
- Lauren Bacall By Myself, Lauren Bacall
- The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court, Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong
Study In Light, downtown Minneapolis Central Library, Minneapolis, Minnesota, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
-posted on red Ravine, Thursday, April 24th, 2008
-Resources: 1970’s Bestsellers List from Cader Books, Writer’s Dream Tools, and The Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library
-related to posts: The 1950’s – What Was America Reading?, The 1960’s — What Was America Reading?, and Book Talk – Do You Let Yourself Read?
Let’s see…
I was wearing sizzlers (ultra-mini skirt) and platform shoes. Or sometimes bell bottomed jeans with lots of patches, a peasant top, and sandals. No string bikinis, though. Just a regular bikini.
I listened to Motown music until I discovered Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen.
I think what blows my mind most is that my youngest son is now a student at Kent State University. They have a big memorial service every May 4th.
I must have been just as voracious a reader back in the day. I’ve read most of the fiction and some of the non-fiction on those lists.
Interesting walk down memory lane, QM. Thanks. 🙂
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Aargh – I remember being given the O’Neil book on Open Marriage by married friends, and dragged to Open Marriage workshops. I think my married friend’s husband was horny, bored and looking for a spicier alternative than the monogamous relationship with his wife. We had many long and convoluted arguments about the topic, and even though I was fairly open-minded I vigorously asserted that I was not yet ready to be in the societal vanguard, and was not willing to experiment with what I considered might be a more acceptable variation on “key parties”.
Reading through the list brings back many memories. Thanks, QM. G
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The post overall and the list of bestsellers in particular truly do bring back memories and give a flavor of what “the day’s” topics were.
Sometime that decade I did a book report on Gail Sheehy’s Passages, — about how my father exemplified the kind of people who moved through time in positive ways. (Always writing about my mom and dad, yep, even then.) I got an A+.
My recent organizing of Jim’s books turned up some of the titles on the Fiction list. And I remember Shogun — my dad read that, and I attempted it but never could make it through.
Hey, remember the TV series “Rich Man, Poor Man”? And how handsomely rugged Nick Nolte was, and how tepid his good, rich brother was (I can’t remember who played that brother, so uninspiring his character)?
Oh, and “The Amityville Horror,” the movie version, that is. And Kunta-Kinta (sp?) in “Roots.” Man, they must have turned out the TV miniseries or film versions of these books pretty quickly.
We recently rented “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” — Jim wanted the girls to see it. The movie version was a tad boring, although the message was wonderful. Be yourself. Lots of identity themes, both in fiction and non. I suppose that hasn’t changed a lot over time.
Oh, and fondue is making a comeback. I recently got one as a gift. Can’t wait to try it!
Great post, QM!
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[…] -related to posts: The 1960’s — What Was America Reading?, The 1970’s — What Was America Reading? […]
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[…] -related to posts: The 1950’s – What Was America Reading?, The 1970’s – What Was America Reading? […]
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Robin, sizzlers…that’s a new one to me! I guess I never wore them. And your son is at Kent State now. Wow. That was in 1970, I think, right on the 60’s cusp. The Vietnam War ended in 1975. I remember being in college and there were still a few sit-in’s and peaceful marches going on against the war. It was really winding down then though. It makes me wonder what your son’s perspective is on the Kent State history.
On MPR yesterday, I heard a show on the Columbia University protests in 1968 over the war and Morningside Park in Harlem. It’s been 40 years. One of the MPR reporters had been in his 20’s, covering the story at Columbia at the time. He had a unique perspective, well worth the listen. He said he learned a lot from that experience at Columbia — but he wouldn’t want to go back and revisit those times.
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G., the Open Marriage book stuck out for me, too. I remember hearing what a big deal it was back then. Oh, and those key parties. That’s where you walk into the party, drop your keys into a bowl, someone else draws one out at random, and that’s who you sleep with? No thanks!
I do remember it was an open time in terms of relationships. Coming on the tail end of the 60’s. It really didn’t seem like there was much middle ground or gray area. Once you crossed the line, it was hard to go back. It’s wild to look back at the 70’s, isn’t it? Just wild.
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Oh, G., I forgot to mention — I was amazed at how many books there were on women’s sexuality (many written by men which always boggles the mind). But some like the fiction of Anais Nin (Delta of Venus: Erotica) really broke things open for women in terms of sexuality. Some of that was a direct result of the Women’s Movement.
And then there was the polar opposite – The Total Woman by Marabel Morgan. Remember that scene in Fried Green Tomatoes where Kathy Bates meets Ed at the door dressed only in Saran Wrap? Well, that was the Total Woman. 8)
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ybonesy, I remember Gail Sheehy’s Passages, but I didn’t read it until the early 80’s. I think a tattered copy is still on my shelf somewhere. I remember Shogun, too. And a friend of mine, Buff, was reading Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee when I was in high school. She was always reading something great and I admired her for that.
BTW, Buff got her name from Buffy on Family Affair because when we played sports, she would put her hair in pigtails. 8)
Hey, remember how big Gnomes were in the 70’s? I never got into them but a lot of my friends did. I think the Gnome movement was heavily influenced by Tolkien.
Some things I noticed about these lists:
-3 Castaneda bestsellers that decade
-3 Vonnegut bestsellers, too
-the Bermuda Triangle – is that real or not?
-I wonder if I could survive on a blender cookbook? 8)
-the Thornbirds was HUGE, it seemed like everyone was reading it
-What’s with all the diet books? It seems like that happens every decade, but especially in the 70’s
-I’ll never forget The Exorcist (but I can’t remember if I ever read the book or just saw the movie when it first came out)
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QM – yes – the Total Woman phenomenon and the saran wrap bit LOMG!!! The only memory about saran wrap is a bunch of us girls trying to sweat cellulite off our thighs by wearing the stuff under our clothes. We really did sound like we were slithering too, except it wasn’t particularly sexy a sound. Do you remember the infamous Mark EDen Breast Developer- came in the post “in a plain brown wrapper”. My dear friend Carol ordered one (1974) and a bunch of us single girl teachers were drinking wine at her place as she carefully unwrapped it. It had bubble-gum pink plastic molded to fit the opposed palms, and a spring with extensions to which the dealies were attached, and one pressed the palms toward one another. It was quite funny, a bunch of 20something spinsters taking turns using it, while chanting ” I must, I must, develop my bust.” I think she ordered it from her subscription to Cosmo. Of course, Helen Gurley brown obviousy didn’t own one -she was pretty flat-chested.
And the Exorcist put me off Green pea soup for several years!!! G
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G., I’m cracking up over here, reading about the Mark Eden Breast Developer. At first, I didn’t remember it. But your great description jogged my memory — pressing the palms toward each other, and that big old spring in the middle. I mean, come on! I guess what it really did was develop the pectoral muscles underneath the breasts? That’s all I can figure!
I remember my mom had this machine, well, it was more like a small motor attached to a piece of wood. It had a canvas (I think) strap on it that went around your butt. When you turned it on, it vibrated your gluts, and was supposed to firm you up. I’ll never forget her on that machine. And I think I even tried it a couple of times, too. I wonder if she remembers. LOL
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[…] in the same decade that Star Wars was released and not by Columbo, Charlie??s Angels, or Sonny and https://redravine.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/the-1970s-what-was-america-reading/San Antonio Spurs Team Report USA […]
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Ah… Scruples. I’ve never been able to read anything else by Judith Krantz, but her three Scruples books, I must have read about 20 times each. Gigi! Spider! The divine Valentine… And Billy. Poor, shy, gorgeous, fabulously rich Billy. Those books were more deliciously indulgent than a massive donut.
What caught my eye on the list was all the animals. Some of them aren’t actually about animals, but a few are, and there’s a whole lot of animal references in the names.
Jonathon Livingston Seagull, Watership Down, James Herriott’s stories, Jaws and then the Jackal book, Eagle has landed, Rabbit Redux, The Thornbirds, Dogs of War, I Heard the Owl Call my Name, Dragons of Eden. I wonder if there’s a comparable number of literary critters on the current best selling list.
And Gnome! My brother and I loved that book. We checked it out of the library over and over and over. We always thought we were getting away with something cus there were little pictures of naked gnomes on some pages, but mostly it was just a crazy little world, all the habits and background. We probably both still quietly believe that gnomes are real.
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“platform shoes, string bikinis, and hot pants. Or maybe you were more the Birkenstock type, sporting tie-dye jeans, crocheted vests (think orange and lime green), and bouncy, wide bell-bottoms”
I wore all of these even though they were considered sinful by some in my family! :O
I still have two of Rod McKuen’s books in my library. They were gifts from a boyfriend. He was in a rock band. hee, hee.
This was fun…thanks for the memories!
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wow…a trip down memory lane…
I didn’t read much back then but Harold and Maude…well, I cracked up at that mention…that’s my favorite movie still QM.
I seem to remember jeans with rainbow stitching on the rear…yep, a big rainbow extending across a girls’ derriere and some real ugly shoes called wallobees…whew!
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Reading this was an extremely pungent memory jag…thank you for assembling so many reminders of where we’ve been in this ever fluid, ever changing cultural ride.
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Reading through these comments again. Really funny. It was like the 70s were a time where people believed you could get the bigger breasts, the trim hips by using these miracle products. (QM, I remember the hip vibrator belt thingy.)
For someone young at this time, the kinds of books you’d find on your parents’ shelves could be scandalous. In fact, it’s almost like everything some parents did in those days was scandalous. Lots of drinking, partying, experimenting. Glad my parents weren’t into the open marriage thing, though. 8)
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ybonesy, I think people still believe in miracle products to change the body, make it more youthful — but it takes the form of pills or the blade. Today people are more likely to do the nip and tuck, or plastic surgery, which seems just as crazy to me. Why not let your body age gracefully? We are all going to die.
The open marriage, I might have known one friend in junior high who had parents who were open to it. But it wasn’t part of my world growing up either. I did go through a time in my 20’s when I thought it might be possible to make something like that work — it was a colossal failure. I won’t be trying that again anytime soon. Very humbling. 8)
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amuirin, I had not noticed the list of animals, but you are absolutely right (comment #13). I wonder what was going on with that in terms of writing books. Was it the ecology movement and a different awareness towards animals, nature, the earth? Hmmm.
I knew there would be someone who loved the gnomes! I remember they were all over people’s lawns back then, too, in their gardens, with their pointy little hats and I think they had beards? It sure makes you wonder how things like that come to the forefront in writing and art. Some kind of paradigm shift.
Deborah, thanks for your comment. Pungent memory jag – I like that phrasing.
gypsy-heart, I don’t remember Rod McKuen’s books. I do remember that song, Child of the Universe. Well, it wasn’t so much a song as a person reciting, “You are a child of the universe” with music in the background designed to pull on your heartstrings.
It seems there were many romantic notions (and fantasies) of what the world was like going on during the 70’s. Maybe a reaction to the craziness and instability of the 1960’s.
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…Liked “Boogie Nights”? Get your rocks off reading In the Midst Of by C. M. Barons.
Sticker price on a 1975 Corvette was $6,550. A bag of Columbian: $30. In the Midst Of features a barefaced ensemble of true-to-age characters. Brian connects with an offbeat mentor cum older brother named Hollis in a lopsided relationship. Hollis moves on, but Brian will not let go. He clings to a myth perpetuated by dependency and self-denial. The 1970s was an era of global hang-time; the 60s pendulum had swung as far as the silent majority would allow. Poised to back swing, the repercussions were unclear. The shock value of the previous decade had been commercialized. Like pre-faded jeans: off-the-rack and ready-to-wear. “How’s your love life?” “Try it… You’ll like it!” …Couldn’t raise the eyebrows of the Tidy-Bowl man. The nation was in transition, post Watergate-pre AIDS. The war was over, and Disco was an urban anomaly. Americans shimmied into hip-huggers, submitted to analysis and shucked inhibitions. Suburban cool: Naugahyde living room set, Tiki-lit backyard and coveting the neighbor’s spouse. …Cocaine for your groove and a doobie to unwind. What distinguishes In the Midst Of? Barons’ characters are not trite icons typically enlisted to resemble the 70s. Brian, et al, leap beyond stereotypes; genuinely developed, invigorated by brisk and animated dialogue. The backdrop is vivid, an eclectic pastiche- definitive 70s. The era pretends to be a character, à la Grand Central Terminal, too epic for the label: train station. Brian and his friends’ lives play out, guided by elements more onerous than the clockworks of society and politics. They are ensconced on a college campus. Co-ed dorms, liberal drinking, open drugs and casual sex. Edge-lurking has always been fashionable. Hollis dangles by his fingertips. Beneath his public facade lies a disturbing void. His multiple secrets are protected by an ambiguity that passes for cool. His inner sanctum is Brian’s obsession; a fixation that yields a mirror with a chilling reflection. Hollis is the aim- as clear as the bull’s eye emblazoned on any Zen-archer’s target.
With plenty of allusions to 70s music and literature…
http://www.inthemidstof.info
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It’s definitely a good era to have as a setting for a book. I did like Boogie Nights. I remember we bought the soundtrack afterwards, we liked the music so much. But mostly I remember how it portended a comeback for what’s his name. Sheesh, I can’t believe I can’t remember the main character. ACK!! Somebody help me! Burt Reynolds. Whew, for a moment I thought I was having early onset Alzheimers.
But because I was too young to partake in the college campus scene or any of that, it’s really not something I’m drawn into reliving. (I didn’t live it the first time around.) Good luck with the book, or website.
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ybonesy, oh, my gosh, Burt Reynolds. Yeah, Boogie Nights. I didn’t see that film. But he was a porn star in it, wasn’t he? I think it depicted the pornographic film industry of the late 1970s and early 1980’s. It was a strange time. There was a weird documentary on Linda Lovelace on TV last week. I didn’t watch the whole thing, just ran into it in my travels across HBO. There was a lot of controversy about the way she was used and abused in 70’s porn. Not that I really want to go there in these comments.
BTW, about 70’s fashion — I was in a mall last weekend (there are many of them in MN and I rarely visit them) shopping with Liz’s family and we ran into so many retro 70’s fashion statements. I think the styles of the 70’s are making another comeback. It’s so strange how things circle around. A strange decade between the turbulent 60’s and the wealthy, extravagant, anything goes 80’s. I lived on the East Coast for part of the 70’s. And the other part, I was in Montana. Wild.
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Nice article! However, I believe that the “Me decade’ is usually reserved for the 1980’s, NOT the ’70’s!” Let’s get real; nobody could go from Haight-Ashbury in ’67 to Wall Street (Gorden Gecko/”Working Girl”) THAT fast!!!
Another great “reminisce” film about the greed of the ’80’s, affecting those who grew up in the 60’s and 70’s: “The Wedding Singer” w/Adam Sandler & Drew Barrymore.
Come on…you could NOT be of the “ME” decade before it happened, especially if you still thought Eric Clapton was god (“Slow Hand”???)! And even the 80’s was a GREAT party decade; I know because I live all 3 of ’em and am still going strong.
Sign me–Old Hippy/Punk & Proud
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ElektraOddysey, thanks for weighing in. Yeah, I think the 80’s was definitely a decade known for its extravagance and partying. I did my share back then but can’t even imagine it today (youth affords us a kind of fearlessness and carefreeness that takes a hike in middle age). 8)
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[…] was first published in Canada in 1967. Picked up by an American publisher in 1973, the book was on the 1970’s bestseller list. It was made into a film in 1973 and shown as part of the CBS television network’s “GE […]
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[…] the Twin Cities this week closed schools and businesses, persuading most of us to stay inside and curl up with a good book. But after seeing the images of photographer Angela Kelly, Liz was inspired to mix up a concoction […]
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