Sara, also divorced from her husband, a New York radio personality, “hibernated” for four years to write this book, and is once again living in Los Angeles and feeling good about her prospects.įor all the tribulations endured, then, Miss Davidson looks back on the 60’s as a time of confidence and exhilaration, and on herself and her peers as a “generation that was special. Natasha, breaking off a difficult relationship with a famous and wealthy sculptor, became a successful art dealer and married the man of her dreams. Divorcing Jeff, Susie set off for Southeast Asia and Taos, New Mexico, seeking her “identity.” She is back in Berkeley now, enrolled in medical school on an affirmative-action program to meet the “need” for women doctors. Yet despite it all, each, as she approached thirty, began to see the pieces of her life coming together. Miss Davidson stresses her belief that the girls’ bid for liberation was unprecedented and commendable, but the road to freedom was a rocky one, spelling trouble for all three they suffered anxiety over their careers, unhappy love affairs and marriages, and the general erosion of their youthful élan. As undergraduates, however, each resolved to renounce the easy suburban future to which she had been born and bred, vowing, instead, to experience life to the fullest and not be “hampered by convention.” Under the influence of Jeff Berman, a rising “star” in radical student politics, Susie developed a commitment to the “revolution” Natasha forewent the life of a doctor’s wife to pursue a career in New York and Sara set out to make it as a journalist of the counterculture. Raised in sun-washed Los Angeles, they had in common affluence, good looks, popularity, a loving and indulgent upbringing. Susie, Natasha, and Sara had all come to Berkeley from pretty much the same background.

Loose Change by Sara Davidson