Odyssey

Description

Odyssey:1970 is the story of a young man's life on the road during one of the pivotal years in modern American history. The sequel to Crossroads: 1969, it picks up with the story of John Cassell, a twenty-two year old college graduate, just returned from Europe and North Africa. Miraculously freed from the Vietnam War by a high draft lottery number in December of 1969, he decides to devote the year 1970 to exploring his own country… to enjoy being young… to revel in the life of the Counterculture before the War Machine comes for him in 1971. The long, uncertain hitchhike between Albuquerque, New Mexico and Berkeley, California becomes as familiar as the way to work. The freaks, gunrunners, revolutionaries and fugitives who haunt its many miles become family. His year of exploration is shortly transformed into a deadly game of cat and mouse with a rogue Albuquerque cop, Robert Dugan, a man maimed in mind, body and spirit by his Vietnam War service. Based in part upon a true story, Odyssey is a saga of the counterculture as witnessed by one of its more obscure members, of social revolution, of the impact of a seemingly eternal, unjust war on an entire generation. It's a story of coming of age, the value of friendship, interdependence, as well as some of the consequences that accompany ‘doing your own thing’. This is the generation that changed America… in the year that changed many in the generation. Supplementing the story line throughout the book are well-researched historical narratives, including eyewitness accounts, putting the experiences of Cassell, his friends, and enemies in their larger context. <BR>

First Sentence

For a town of just over thirty-five thousand people, one telephone exchange and with tumbleweeds frequently blowing across its main north-south thoroughfare, Santa Fe, New Mexico boasted some pretty impressive distinctions.

Subjects