Counterculture Dreams - Sixties Series, #3 - E-book - ePub

The cultural revolution of the 1960s (1960-1975) brought in one of the greatest cultural shifts the world has known. Music, dress, moral ideas, social manners, political attitudes flipped over. The war generation hardly knew what motivated the post-war generation. Across Western Society a social fissure opened. Counterculture Dreams follows the lives of a group of young people in Sydney who navigate the changes, some grasping the changes, others resisting and even condemning them, and still others making disastrous choices.
The story centers on Danny Williams and his younger sister, Angela. Danny ends school, innocent of the traps in society that others, including Angela, see. He forms a relationship with clever Cathy Dunn who clings to her Catholic traditions. He begins university in 1963 with Cathy, though at a different university. Meeting counterculture leader, Ronnie Newell, whose audacity impresses him, disturbs his relationship with Cathy.
Unaware of the influences around Ronnie and his crowd he gradually drifts away from Cathy. He does not see where he is heading, despite Angela's warnings. All the while Angela plays a mysterious game with Danny's best friend, Max. But is it a game? Nobody is sure until Prime Minister Robert Menzies announces a national service scheme to meet the threat of communism taking over Southeast Asia, beginning with Vietnam.
Danny and Max are eligible for the call-up. Gerda van den Donker, introduced in TIMES OF DISTRESS and with a bigger role in IN THIS VALE OF TEARS reappears, as does Jannie de Kam. The SIXTIES SERIES will consist of eight connected but stand-alone stories. The cultural revolution of the 1960s (1960-1975) and the Second Vatican Council are the social, cultural, and political background. The author who lived through the turmoil of those times recreates its atmosphere.
The themes of neo-paganism and Gnosticism are threads through the stories. Book 1 TIMES OF DISTRESSBook 2 IN THIS VALE OF TEARSBook 3 COUNTERCULTURE DREAMSBook 4 THE DREAM BECOMES A NIGHTMARE 2025Book 5 THE CASTLE OF HEAVENLY BLISSBook 6 A SENSE OF LOSS due 2025