Karen Hollander lived through the sixties and remembers the time almost mnemonically. She is now in her sixties and “is reliable. I am an oldest child. Highly imperfect, by no stretch a goody-goody. But I was a reliable U.S. Supreme Court Clerk and then a reliable Legal Aid lawyer, representing with all the verve and cunning I could muster some of the most pathetically, tragically unreliable people on earth. I have been a reliable partner in America’s nineteenth largest law firm, a reliable author of four books, a reliable law professor, a reliable U.S. Justice Department official, a reliable law school dean. I’ve been a reliable parent” as well. As the book opens, she is being nominated for a place on the United States Supreme Court and turns down her nomination. Why? You’ll have to read the book to find out. She is also in great shape, still a size six. Her tragic flaw is that she has Type I Juvenile Onset Diabetes.

Karen and her school friends – Chuck and Alex – spent a great deal of their childhood playing out roles from James Bond books. They revisited various scenarios from the novels and played out their roles. This aspect of her life is very important to her. In fact, when she ends up giving the graduation speech at her alma mater, Harvard University, she tells the graduates that “we are all to some extent fictional characters of our own devising.”

During the sixties Karen, Chuck and Alex were radicals. They belonged to S.D.S. (Students for a Democratic Society), marched on Washington for Civil Rights and against the war in Vietnam. This book is a trip down memory lane for those of us who are of a certain age. Karen and her friends went a bit further than most, however, and she worries that her past will catch up with her at some point.

She is in the process of writing a book all about her past and she has notified those whose appearance in the book might be of concern. Her granddaughter, Waverly, with whom she is very close, is proofreading and editing the book and is surprised to learn all about her grandmother. She had no idea that her grandmother was involved in activities that this book is all about.

Karen sees herself as a reliable narrator so there is no issue here of her stretching the past, employing narrative that doesn’t exist, or making anything up. She has kept notes and files throughout her life – for more than half a century- “I’ve saved every diary and journal, every letter I’ve received, catechism worksheets, term papers, restaurant receipts, train schedules, ticket stubs, snapshots, playbills.” If she is not paranoid, or a legend in her own mind, then she is certainly preparing to give the world a snapshot of someone they will be seeing from a brand new angle.

Overall, the book held my interest but I found myself somewhat bored by Karen. She is an ‘every woman’ of the sixties, stretched to the max. Her character seems a bit unreal. How could someone so intensely radical become so much of a ‘citizen’ over night. There are also elements to some of the characters in the novel that just don’t ring true. They don’t stand up to their roles in ethical ways and the explanations for their actions are missing.

The book is definitely entertaining, a literary romp through the sixties with the privileged. The reader doesn’t spend time with the bourgeois but with the elite. This aspect of the book is not focused on but it is ever present. It is a page-turner and a fun book.