Friday, July 20, 2012

The Duke Don't Dance

by Richard G. Sharp Main Course **** of ***** I thoroughly enjoyed The Duke Don’t Dance. There is a tremendous amount of thought, philosophy, and understanding of Silent Generation reflected in this extremely well written book. The book follows the lives of a group of friends from their young adulthood into their retirement years. The friends are from very different backgrounds and have very different political and social views, yet their friendships endure through the last part of the sixties and seventies, their myriad jobs, some that bring fortune, some that are based in illegal, immoral and profiteering businesses. The relationships that they share are complex, realistic, humorous and very real. The families and children that they build and destroy bring to light the disparate relationships that The Silent Generation had with their outspoken and idealistic offspring. I couldn’t help but compare this book with the movie The Big Chill, a particular favorite of mine, especially in the attitudes of the group toward sex, casual drug use, and music. As much as I loved the Big Chill, though, it did not have the depth and scope that The Duke Don’t Dance has. This generation is neither mine nor my parents, yet it is a generation that brought incredible change to American society and I absolutely enjoyed immersing myself in it.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for the very positive review. It is gratifying to find that the novel can reach across the generations. That is appreciated at least as much, if not more, than the response of my "Silent" cohorts. We were a little noisier than generally appreciated, even if part of the noise came from our stumbles!

    Cheers,
    Richard Sharp

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