Split: A Counterculture Childhood

by Lisa Michaels

Book Overview

In this "disarmingly amiable reminiscence" (The Atlantic Monthly) that "may be the best argument for the left since Marx" (The New Yorker), poet and writer Lisa Michaels blends memoir with social commentary to tell a remarkable tale of growing up as a child of political activists during the early seventies. Michaels's upbringing was marked by communes, rallies, and road trips; as a young girl she traveled across the country with her mother and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395957885
• ISBN13: 9780395957882
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

So Enraptured, Read in One Day

This book is about a woman who struggles for concrete answers and from the beginnings of her reflections discovers time and time again that there is no right answer—only perspectives. It’s her struggle to put herself in these perspectives and to find her own perspective in life. To appreciate this book, don’t expect a "commercial" plot or a sensational lifestyle. It’s about evolution.The language she writes with and her comparisons and metaphors are not cliché and don’t allow for any type of categorization or stereo type. She amazingly puts into words nuances that we all think of but may have trouble relating to others who are not inside our psyches. The language is poetic and precise.

If you were born in the 60s you should read this book

This memoir took me by complete surprise. I have never found a first person account that so perfectly described my own unarticulated feelings about coming of age in the late 60s and the 70s -- the weird feeling that you want to be more like "everyone else" when your parents allow you to do anything. It also shed light on the painful experience of divorce when you're a kid, and how hard it is shuttling between parents and adjusting to their different worlds. Lisa's writing is so spare, thoughtful, and quiet--I love how accepting she is of the paradoxes of her childhood, and her refusal to blame anyone. I look forward to reading any other book she might write.

Couldn't put it down.

Split is a beautifully written memoir. No cheap shots here, no bratty self-absorbed rants against loved ones. Lisa Michaels' life has not been particularly melodramatic thus far; Split is a thoughtful recounting of a colorful, mostly happy childhood and young adulthood. She is the child of a politically radical rather and a very intelligent hippie mother who...split...when she was a baby. This is an intimate portrait of divorce, of living in and sometimes strung between two households, a young girl/woman trying to find her place during personally and nationally tumultuous times. What distinguishes Michaels' book from the pack of ordinary memoirs is her keen memory, her compassion, her courage to tell things as SHE sees them rather than attempting to be the voice of her generation or the didactic parrot of her elders.Michaels has an amazing eye for detail, an excellent command of language, and an impressive ability to spin a yarn. She is witty, too. I have so much confidence in her writing I'd read three hundred pages about her expeditions to the grocery store or what she did for summer vacation; fortunately Split covers far more ground. A good read of particular interest to anyone who came of age in the 60s and 70s, whose parents were left of center, or anyone who is curious about how the young people born of this significant time have fared now that they are old enough to reflect on their own experiences.

A talented, thoughtful, honest voice at work here.

Lisa Michael's book is a reader's treat. A fresh, intelligent voice in a young writer. How fortunate to look back on one's life from the vantage point of a young adult with compassion, humor and love in spite of losses, pain and confusion, and shape it in a rich and comprehesible way. Michael's life, though unconventional, but not extreme, helped her become the emotionally mature and sensitive individual she appears to be. Though there are many accounts of the lives of 60's activists and hippies, there are few about the perceptions, tribulations and experiences of the children. To have an account of one child's life written with grace and style is a contribution. Politics and parenting are not the real issues here. Parents were dedicated and loving people all with their own complicated backgrounds and lives to live. It is Michael's succinct and poetic rendition of her feelings, authentic and open that is of interest. Her affection for the significant people in her lif! e is transmitted with enough warmth to make them all appealing. The chapters of her travels were not merely descriptive, but downright exciting. Her writing here was especially vivid and visual. The poignant scene of her wedding was an apt summation of her generosity, love and compassion. A longing for family and attatchment that so many of us are feeling.

Vivid and beautifully written--highly recommended.

I was drawn into this book from the opening scene, when Michaels comes upon a photo of herself as a young child at an anti-war rally in an issue of Life Magazine from the '60s. In beautiful prose, she vividly recalls and re-creates an unconventional, counterculture childhood--one that could not have been more different from my own, in most respects. Which is exactly why I found Michaels's story so fascinating. She's a great storyteller--the book is gripping, funny, touching, intelligent, fair. My partner read it, too, and also admired it, and we've since given copies to a friend and one of my sisters. Highly recommended.