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1974

By: Francine Prose
Narrated by: Francine Prose
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Publisher's summary

“In this remarkable memoir, the qualities that have long distinguished Francine Prose’s fiction and criticism—uncompromising intelligence, a gratifying aversion to sentiment, the citrus bite of irony—give rigor and, finally, an unexpected poignancy to an emotional, artistic, and political coming-of-age tale set in the 1970s—the decade, as she memorably puts it, when American youth realized that the changes that seemed possible in the ’60s weren’t going to happen. A fascinating and ultimately wrenching book.”—Daniel Mendelsohn, author of The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million

The first memoir from critically acclaimed, bestselling author Francine Prose, about the close relationship she developed with activist Anthony Russo, one of the men who leaked the Pentagon Papers—and the year when our country changed.

During her twenties, Francine Prose lived in San Francisco, where she began an intense and strange relationship with Tony Russo, who had been indicted and tried for working with Daniel Ellsberg to leak the Pentagon papers. The narrative is framed around the nights she spent with Russo driving manically around San Francisco, listening to his stories—and the disturbing and dramatic end of that relationship in New York.

What happens to them mirrors the events and preoccupations of that historical moment: the Vietnam war, drugs, women's liberation, the Patty Hearst kidnapping. At once heartfelt and ironic, funny and sad, personal and political, 1974 provides an insightful look at how Francine Prose became a writer and artist during a time when the country, too, was shaping its identity.

©2024 Francine Prose (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers
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What listeners say about 1974

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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Droning about unremarkable events

The performance was indeed, bad. But I would have rated the book more highly if it had a more interesting story to tell. The reviewer I read implied a more eventful tale, better told.

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Kept waiting for it to improve

What a boring book about the author's short friendship with a semi famous person, who is not of interest to many people in our current time. If you are a person curious about the era of the Vietnam Nam war period you may find this of slight interest. There is nothing to give away as the book has no plot twist or other usual elements of memoir writing. The book is about the psychological decline Tony Russo post Pentagon Papers/Vietnam Nam war... the author was enraptured by is fame regarding his part in the Pentagon Papers.
I kept waiting for the book to improve or pick up. It never does. Further, the author reads it herself, she is very monotone. BORING!

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