Packed with action and intrigue, A Time to Cast Away Stones teaches us something important about our world today. This new historical novel pulls us into the life of Janet Magill, a shy, straight-arrow Berkeley freshman with compelling reasons to join the antiwar movement. Janet's brother has been shipped off to Vietnam, and Aaron Becker, her childhood sweetheart, might well be next. When Janet's parents banish her from Berkeley to what they expect will be a safe, idyllic springtime in Paris, she runs headlong into the 1968 May Revolution.
Sound familiar? women's jackets In the past two years, many people all around the world can claim some or all of these issues as their own. Yet Janet and Aaron, like most people, would like nothing better than to ignore politics and get on with their lives.
A Time to Cast Away Stones provides a moving story while asking an essential question for our times: What motivates these people to engage in public protest? To join activist groups, make public statements at events or today, online, and to give their money and their time to political, economic, social or environmental causes?
Miller began this book many years ago, seeking to dispel stereotypes about 60s radicals all being unwashed hippies, druggies and commies. In August, 2011, she finally completed the manuscript to her own satisfaction.
"It was serendipity," Miller admits. "By September, when it was in the hands of Tory Hartmann from Sand Hill Review Press, we watched as Occupy Wall Street Movement heated up in New York City. My own daughter, with her doctoral degree, her manicured nails and trendy clothes, decided to march with them. 'They are right about the out-of-control income inequality,' she told me. 'And about how power has shifted in the U.S. It's the right thing to do.'"
Miller remembers when she first made the connection to the pro-democracy and economic revolutions spreading across globe, from Teheran to Cairo and from Madrid to Athens. Suddenly, the author realized that the tale of two young college students on the brink of personal and political revolution in 1968 was being replicated here and around the world. "It was my story," Miller says. "I was thrilled that I would put readers on the inside – give them insight into the minds of the protesters and into the workings of the groups, the pods, the small and large units that make a movement or even a revolution."
Parallels to the Middle East hit hard around the issue of sexual revolution. "It's true, we do not have much of a sexual revolution here anymore," Miller laughs. "Even in our polarized nation, couples on prime time show six-year-olds what is and is not acceptable. But think of how men and women are torn apart by these issues in Muslim nations. You have the kind of revolution that extends well beyond questions of sex. We are talking about power, liberty, education, economics, and women's rights—the full scope of society."
Pile on top of these issues the international struggle for civil rights —and for freedom in everything from how to dress to the role of the Internet, and Miller is convinced we can learn a lot about where we've been and where we're going from her book.
Midpoint in A Time to Cast Away Stones, in a mad realization about how far she has come, Janet Magill cries out, "All the trouble in the world seemed random before, but now I can see it's connected. Paris is on fire, Vietnam drags on, Moscow threatens the Czechs, and students everywhere reject their governments. So now we all swear and dress like slobs and throw off religion and morals and…and I lost my virginity last night…" She stops her rant suddenly, breathless, tears in her eyes, yet she is smiling. Truth be told, she is young and alive and having a damn good time. And so will the readers of Elise Frances Miller's timely offering.
A Time to Cast Away Stones, published by Sand Hill Review Press is available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books Inc. and local bookstores.
For more information, please call Tory Hartmann at 650-863-0698 or email Tory at info(at)sandhillreviewpress(dot)com.
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