To summarize 1960s America with one event or novel would be a tremendous disservice to that era. The decade was shaped by the Vietnam War, political protests, the civil rights movement, second-wave feminism, hippie counterculture and a thriving music scene.
But these major events weren’t the only factors in shaping the decade and the people living in it. Location, race, gender, age and class all had an influence on the way these political and social changes affected people. The turbulence of the era was divisive and destroyed many families and relationships. Still, strangers and friends found a way to unite in favor of a common cause.
These six American novels are led by characters navigating their lives and relationships while dealing with the political upheaval of the 1960s.
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer combines a heist novel and social commentary in this thrilling picture of the 1960s.
Balancing a double life as a family man and a hustler is as challenging for Ray Carney as navigating New York City in the sixties. With economic pressure and the rise of racial inequity, providing for his wife and children is becoming next to impossible for this furniture salesman. Ray ventures into the world of crime to make some extra cash, joining his cousin and a crew of criminals to plan a heist. He becomes an accomplice in an armed robbery and finds himself on the hit list of the most powerful men in the city.
Colson Whitehead spent hours reading newspaper archives to help him achieve a realistic portrait of Harlem in the 1960s. The author doesn’t shy away from issues of racism, police brutality and patriarchy that shaped the era. (Read BookTrib’s coverage of Colson Whitehead’s work here.)
Home Front Lines by Brenda Sparks Prescott (Bedazzled Ink)
Four women deal with the challenges of motherhood during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Two African American military wives living on an Air Force base outside of D.C. and two sisters in Cuba struggle with protecting their children in the face of rising political threats. As women of color, the limitations set by the decade only serve to make life more difficult, and their husbands in positions of power are not proving helpful. The women, united by circumstance even across the ocean, take it upon themselves to send their children to safety as the threat of nuclear war looms.
This novel is more than a documentation of the time period; it is a portrait of motherhood, the dangers of breaking rules, and the power of systemic racism.
The Cold Six Thousand by James Ellroy (Vintage Books)
This literary noir takes what we know of the assassinations of John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy and turns it upside down to create a compelling alternate history.
The novel’s cast of characters consists of CIA and FBI agents, Vegas cops and Mafia members with questionable morals. The night after JFK’s assassination, the leads of this novel meet in Dallas to clean up the mess and tie up any loose ends. Readers quickly learn that the characters are conspiring in plots much more complicated and with worse implications than assassination.
This second novel in the Underworld USA Trilogy is characterized by short sentences, gratuitous violence and bold takes on alternate history. Ellroy discusses hatred as a motivation for committing these kinds of despicable acts, while he questions the corrupt organizations that founded contemporary America.
Revolution by Mike Bond
A beloved foursome of young Americans is separated across the globe during the late ‘60s in Mike Bond’s third novel of his America series, which includes America and Freedom.
Three siblings’ lives are irrevocably changed as the decade presents them with new challenges. Troy has volunteered to fight in the jungles of Vietnam to escape a tragic past. His brother Mick, who despises the war, is being hunted by the FBI for protesting. The boys’ sister, Tara, rocks the stage at Woodstock with her band but struggles with addiction. Mick’s girlfriend, Daisy has turned her attention toward work on Kennedy’s presidential campaign. Additional horrors of the decade paint the backdrop of these characters’ lives, like the student deaths at Kent State, the Kennedy assassination, and the terrors at the village in MyLai.
Mike Bond’s background in journalism makes this novel a well-researched piece of historical fiction. Bond’s prose is interspersed with lyrics and poetry, giving the book a sort of melody and vividly anchoring it in the time period when America is on the edge of revolution. (Read BookTrib’s review of Revolution here.)
Summer of ‘69 by Elin Hilderbrand (Little, Brown)
The Nantucket beach house can’t shelter the Levin siblings from the changes of the late 1960s.
The summer is turned upside down as the only son, Tiger, is deployed to Vietnam, leaving his four sisters at home.
Hilderbrand focuses on rising social and emotional tensions during the war period. One sister copes by drinking and using military connections to try and change Tiger’s assignment to somewhere safer or to bring him home. Another sister is turning 13 and is stealing to deal with the changes in the world and in herself. The third sister is pregnant and having marital challenges. And the final sister is facing scrutiny for her relationship with a Black Harvard student.
Summer nostalgia is clouded by wartime, racism and the struggle for women’s rights in what could otherwise be deemed a coming-of-age story. (Read BookTrib’s review of Summer of ‘69 here.)
The Drifters by James Michener (Dial Press)
Six people from around the globe find themselves forming a united front as they become entangled with the uniquely American challenges of the 1960s. Though not all six young people are from America, they are tied to the issues of the Vietnam War, counterculture, national identity and changing views on drugs and sex.
This novel centers on themes of coming of age at a pivotal time in history, and the desire for freedom and changing the world. The story takes the young drifters to different countries, painting portraits of each setting and character in vivid detail. Insights from the non-American members of the group expand Michener’s exploration of the socio-political issues of the late sixties.
