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Loose Change
The true story of three women who grew up during the 1960s, written by someone who was there—Sara Davidson. When she entered the University of California at Berkeley, she wanted to have fun, pledge a good sorority and eventually get married. Her new sorority sisters, Tasha and Susie, had similar goals. None of them knew they were entering college just as a tide of social change was building in America, a tide that would crest first at Berkeley and change these women and the world they knew, forever.Susie married a star of the radical student movement, whom she idolized until she realized that she wanted to be the one speaking at the microphone, a realization that led her into “women’s liberation.” Tasha, a “golden girl” with stunning looks, became swept up in the world of art and beautiful people. Sara was a reporter, a seeker of truth who traveled the country covering major sit-ins and be-ins, hippies, rock stars and groupies, communes, Woodstock and Altamont, draftcard burning, bra burning and the sexual revolution. Readers will re-experience the Sixties as it was, recorded right then, not as it’s been reevaluated or romanticized. And for those who didn’t live through the period, they’ll experience what it was like, uncensored and unvarnished. As Malcolm Cowley wrote of the “Sara Davidson is the liveliest historian of her generation.”
386 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1977
About the author
Sara Davidson
34 books35 followersSara was born in 1943 and grew up in California. She went to Berkeley in the Sixties, where the rite of passage was to "get stoned, get laid and get arrested."
After Berkeley she headed for New York to attend the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Her first job was with the Boston Globe, where she became a national correspondent, covering everything from the election campaigns of Bobby Kennedy and Richard Nixon to the Woodstock Festival and the student strike at Columbia.
Returning to New York, she worked as a free-lance journalist for magazines ranging from Harpers, Esquire and the New York Times to Rolling Stone. She was one of the group who developed the craft of literary journalism, combining the techniques of fiction with rigorous reporting to bring real events and people to life. Her work is collected in the textbook,The Literary Journalists, by Norman Sims.
Sara moved back to California where for 25 years, she alternated between writing for television and writing books. The books tend to fall in the gray zone between memoir and fiction. She uses the voice of the intimate journalist, drawing on material from her life and that of others and shaping it into a narrative that reads like fiction.
In television, she created two drama series, Jack and Mike, and Heart Beat, which ran on A.B.C. She was later co-executive producer of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, wrote hundreds of hours of drama episodes, movies and miniseries, and in 1994 was nominated for a Golden Globe.
In the year 2000, her life began to unravel. She was divorced, her children were leaving for college and she couldn't find work in television. Following her intuition, knowing nobody, she drove to Boulder, Colorado for three months to be a visiting writer at the University of Colorado. She never drove back, and is piecing together a different life which she writes about in Leap
Her current passions are: singing with friends, the "Shady Angels," learning piano, skiing and hiking in the Rockies.
After Berkeley she headed for New York to attend the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Her first job was with the Boston Globe, where she became a national correspondent, covering everything from the election campaigns of Bobby Kennedy and Richard Nixon to the Woodstock Festival and the student strike at Columbia.
Returning to New York, she worked as a free-lance journalist for magazines ranging from Harpers, Esquire and the New York Times to Rolling Stone. She was one of the group who developed the craft of literary journalism, combining the techniques of fiction with rigorous reporting to bring real events and people to life. Her work is collected in the textbook,The Literary Journalists, by Norman Sims.
Sara moved back to California where for 25 years, she alternated between writing for television and writing books. The books tend to fall in the gray zone between memoir and fiction. She uses the voice of the intimate journalist, drawing on material from her life and that of others and shaping it into a narrative that reads like fiction.
In television, she created two drama series, Jack and Mike, and Heart Beat, which ran on A.B.C. She was later co-executive producer of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, wrote hundreds of hours of drama episodes, movies and miniseries, and in 1994 was nominated for a Golden Globe.
In the year 2000, her life began to unravel. She was divorced, her children were leaving for college and she couldn't find work in television. Following her intuition, knowing nobody, she drove to Boulder, Colorado for three months to be a visiting writer at the University of Colorado. She never drove back, and is piecing together a different life which she writes about in Leap
Her current passions are: singing with friends, the "Shady Angels," learning piano, skiing and hiking in the Rockies.
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June 12, 2011
Berkley Days?
There have been a few towns that I still love. of course, there is my hometown of Paso Robles. CA, then after my divorce from my husband and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, I fell in love with Berkeley. Moving there right after my divorces, Berkeley meant a new life, freedom, and college, but not at U.C. Berkeley. Then my moving back to my hometown but living 20 miles away in Creston, was where I met my new husband. I have a great fondness for those days. And now, Tahlequah, OK. I have lived in a lot of places, but these are the ones that I still love, so, these are the ones I write about in my reviews.
The second reading of this book was a disappointment. The women in it were sorority girls, and they were somewhat superficial, or at least two of them were. They loved money and fame. Whatever happened to “tune in and drop out? Well, they were not hippies and were not in Berkeley for long, and it was just before the hippie movement had arrived. The only woman in this book that was into the Berkeley scene was Susie, who had a boyfriend who was an anti-war activist and gave speeches.
What bothered me most about this book was their dysfunctional relationships with men. Well, it was also the sex, which in this case I would call, pornography, or as one reviewer had said, “It was trashy.” And two of the women were off to NY and Boston. My mind began wandering when reading of their sordid life’s and their posh lifestyles. It is just that this was supposed to be a book about Berkeley, or so I thought. Like a bad marriage, I just wanted it to be over with.
The Berkeley in this book was not the Berkeley I knew. They never got into playing it poor or wearing tiedyed shirts and patched jeans. They wore expensive clothes and had their hair done at the best salons. At least, I wore my ex’s blue work shirt that I had embroidered with the women’s power symbol on the front of it, but that didn’t last long as the shirt wore out.
The only anti-war protest that If was in was when my husband was driving me to see a doctor whose office was on Telegraph Avenue, and we ended up in the middle of it. This was in 1969, and I hardly knew what a hippie was, but I knew about the war protests from watching some TV. I had been sheltered by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. When I saw the hippies walking down a different street other than Telegraph Avenue, I was in wonder, and I wanted out of the car to be with them, see what was going on. So, I began taking a bus to Berkeley often. I never saw another anti- war protest.
I didn’t find Susie’s Berkeley life interesting since it was all about her love affair with the anti-war protester. A few places were mentioned, like Larry Blake’s, which I believe is the restaurant where I had roast beef sandwiches with the meat sauce in it in place of other condiments. Towards the end of the book, one of the women lived on Channing Way, the same street where I had lived, and there was a mention of North Berkeley, a nicer part of town, where I lived near the end of my Berkeley days. I left in 1987 and headed back to my hometown.
My own Berkeley began with my streaking to the campus with a group of college guys. I was the only woman in the group. It also began with Patty Hearst’s kidnapping. I still have the fliers that were tacked to telephone poles that said, “We love you, Tanya.” I have no idea what to do with them now.
It was also about taking TM in the 80s but I never used the mantra. Getting into the New Age was also in the 80s, but now I can’t stand listening to it. And It was about dating, of course, and going to the beach with friends, going to college, sitting in cafes like The Med, Café Expresso, which we called Café Depresso, and then the Renaissance Café. La Boheme in the evenings. Then it was walking down Telegraph Avenue just to see what was going on and sitting on the steps of Sproul Plaza to listen to the students argue with the preacher, things I did when I used to take a bus to Berkeley. And then it was the African Congo and other drums that some blacks played near Sproul Plaza and at Lake Anza. Soothing.
I wasn’t much into drugs. I tried pot a few times, cocaine once, and a magic mushroom once. Now, the mushroom was great, but after trying it again and having nothing happen, well, I never bothered with it again. I had even been to a commune after meeting a man that lived in one, but after learning that he was with another woman, I thought better of it. Nothing like showing up at the wrong time for him, the right time for me.
I glamorized communes. I learned from this book that they had them in Berkeley. If I had only known. I knew that they didn’t work out because people fought, some didn’t want to chip in and help with the chores, and then there were the jealousies of free love. Nothing is free. Men and women both burned out from all the multiple sex partners and both men and women became jealous of the other’s partners, even though it was suggested that each could sleep around.
I left Berkeley, moving back to my hometown, then to Creston where I met my new husband. I will always miss Berkeley, just as I miss Creston and the fun we had together in that small Cowtown. After Creston we moved around a lot, and now here we are in our old age, settled in Tahlequah, OK, another town I would miss if we moved away.
What did I want from this book? More about the hippies. I liked the idea of the hippies, back to nature, growing your own food, eating healthy, and caring for others. I believe, instead, that it became plagued with drugs.
There have been a few towns that I still love. of course, there is my hometown of Paso Robles. CA, then after my divorce from my husband and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, I fell in love with Berkeley. Moving there right after my divorces, Berkeley meant a new life, freedom, and college, but not at U.C. Berkeley. Then my moving back to my hometown but living 20 miles away in Creston, was where I met my new husband. I have a great fondness for those days. And now, Tahlequah, OK. I have lived in a lot of places, but these are the ones that I still love, so, these are the ones I write about in my reviews.
The second reading of this book was a disappointment. The women in it were sorority girls, and they were somewhat superficial, or at least two of them were. They loved money and fame. Whatever happened to “tune in and drop out? Well, they were not hippies and were not in Berkeley for long, and it was just before the hippie movement had arrived. The only woman in this book that was into the Berkeley scene was Susie, who had a boyfriend who was an anti-war activist and gave speeches.
What bothered me most about this book was their dysfunctional relationships with men. Well, it was also the sex, which in this case I would call, pornography, or as one reviewer had said, “It was trashy.” And two of the women were off to NY and Boston. My mind began wandering when reading of their sordid life’s and their posh lifestyles. It is just that this was supposed to be a book about Berkeley, or so I thought. Like a bad marriage, I just wanted it to be over with.
The Berkeley in this book was not the Berkeley I knew. They never got into playing it poor or wearing tiedyed shirts and patched jeans. They wore expensive clothes and had their hair done at the best salons. At least, I wore my ex’s blue work shirt that I had embroidered with the women’s power symbol on the front of it, but that didn’t last long as the shirt wore out.
The only anti-war protest that If was in was when my husband was driving me to see a doctor whose office was on Telegraph Avenue, and we ended up in the middle of it. This was in 1969, and I hardly knew what a hippie was, but I knew about the war protests from watching some TV. I had been sheltered by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. When I saw the hippies walking down a different street other than Telegraph Avenue, I was in wonder, and I wanted out of the car to be with them, see what was going on. So, I began taking a bus to Berkeley often. I never saw another anti- war protest.
I didn’t find Susie’s Berkeley life interesting since it was all about her love affair with the anti-war protester. A few places were mentioned, like Larry Blake’s, which I believe is the restaurant where I had roast beef sandwiches with the meat sauce in it in place of other condiments. Towards the end of the book, one of the women lived on Channing Way, the same street where I had lived, and there was a mention of North Berkeley, a nicer part of town, where I lived near the end of my Berkeley days. I left in 1987 and headed back to my hometown.
My own Berkeley began with my streaking to the campus with a group of college guys. I was the only woman in the group. It also began with Patty Hearst’s kidnapping. I still have the fliers that were tacked to telephone poles that said, “We love you, Tanya.” I have no idea what to do with them now.
It was also about taking TM in the 80s but I never used the mantra. Getting into the New Age was also in the 80s, but now I can’t stand listening to it. And It was about dating, of course, and going to the beach with friends, going to college, sitting in cafes like The Med, Café Expresso, which we called Café Depresso, and then the Renaissance Café. La Boheme in the evenings. Then it was walking down Telegraph Avenue just to see what was going on and sitting on the steps of Sproul Plaza to listen to the students argue with the preacher, things I did when I used to take a bus to Berkeley. And then it was the African Congo and other drums that some blacks played near Sproul Plaza and at Lake Anza. Soothing.
I wasn’t much into drugs. I tried pot a few times, cocaine once, and a magic mushroom once. Now, the mushroom was great, but after trying it again and having nothing happen, well, I never bothered with it again. I had even been to a commune after meeting a man that lived in one, but after learning that he was with another woman, I thought better of it. Nothing like showing up at the wrong time for him, the right time for me.
I glamorized communes. I learned from this book that they had them in Berkeley. If I had only known. I knew that they didn’t work out because people fought, some didn’t want to chip in and help with the chores, and then there were the jealousies of free love. Nothing is free. Men and women both burned out from all the multiple sex partners and both men and women became jealous of the other’s partners, even though it was suggested that each could sleep around.
I left Berkeley, moving back to my hometown, then to Creston where I met my new husband. I will always miss Berkeley, just as I miss Creston and the fun we had together in that small Cowtown. After Creston we moved around a lot, and now here we are in our old age, settled in Tahlequah, OK, another town I would miss if we moved away.
What did I want from this book? More about the hippies. I liked the idea of the hippies, back to nature, growing your own food, eating healthy, and caring for others. I believe, instead, that it became plagued with drugs.
December 2, 2012
This is one of my all-time favorite books...I've read all of Sara Davidson's books and enjoyed them but this is tops, in my opinion. It really captures the the times, the confusion, the determination of our generation to make a change on the world and leave our mark.
December 8, 2021
'We started out as freshly minted coins but now we feel like loose change." So conclude Sara Davidson's three heroines after undergoing the sexual, cultural, and political revolution of the Sixties. A huge best-seller when published in 1977; a Book-of-the-Month-Club selection, and a three-part NBC mini-series that has gone down in TV history for all the wrong reasons (look it up) LOOSE CHANGE belongs on the same shelf as THE HEIDI CHRONICLES. BTW, Davidson came up with a great line to describe the Seventies: "Real estate is the marijuana of this decade." Thus concluded the revolution.
April 14, 2012
This revival of the original Sixties chronicle reads, to me, even better this time around. While Sara and I were both at Berkeley at nearly the same time, she was really THERE in the middle of things--she is a fine journalist and her visitations back with the roommates she shared and the lives they led that epitomized the feminist awakening, the political activism, the sexual revolution--all with such a sense of immediacy of real lives known and lived.
May 29, 2013
Published in 1977, this book has surely become a classic Sixties tell-all, featuring three women's journeys through their Berkley college years and beyond, taking the reader from about 1963 - 1973. Davidson is an ace journalist who was turned down by the New York Times after working as the New York correspondent for the Boston Globe, but she made the leap to inspired freelance writing and was paid well by Harpers and other magazines for her coverage of the counterculture. Davidson lets it all hang out. No stone is left unturned as we gaze deeply into the the issues which so affected Sara, Tasha and Susie: sexual mores, divorce, women's lib, revolutionary politics, relationships, careers, social mores, drugs, music and the arts. I have a great deal of respect for the raw honesty behind this book. All three struggled through conflicted relationships with the men they loved, seeking to find their own identities beyond coupledom, the prime issue I recall being front and center for so many women as the Sixties turned into the Seventies.
This was the second time I read Loose Change after first encountering it some thirty years ago. Although my college years started five years later than Davidson, I felt familiar with much of the territory she covers here, although I was not as politically active as these Berkley gals. Even though I lived through these times, some of the content has the power to shock me. Memories were stirred.... Those were wild and crazy times, colorfully brought to life in Loose Change, giving women's voices a real airing. I would like to read more of Sara Davidson (what's taken me so long?). And I thank her for having the bravado to write this book.
This was the second time I read Loose Change after first encountering it some thirty years ago. Although my college years started five years later than Davidson, I felt familiar with much of the territory she covers here, although I was not as politically active as these Berkley gals. Even though I lived through these times, some of the content has the power to shock me. Memories were stirred.... Those were wild and crazy times, colorfully brought to life in Loose Change, giving women's voices a real airing. I would like to read more of Sara Davidson (what's taken me so long?). And I thank her for having the bravado to write this book.
April 13, 2016
So many opportunities to discuss important events of the 60s, but the author focused on sexual relationships and judgments on them. The author and her other two subjects led such varied lives that touched on the time period, but trivial matters are conveyed. Tasha created several sculptures? Great. Tell us about those. Davidson chose not to. Sara was in the performer's tent at Woodstock? Sounds like she would have many stories. Not one of them is in the book. Sara was able to choose her stories and location working for the Boston Globe after one article? How did that happen? We will never know. We are informed of sexual partners and how their sex was. Perhaps that shows her interests. Disappointing.
November 3, 2008
This book changed my life when I was 14. It was about three women and the way their lives were led during the 60's. What the lesson was for me was that women can be whoever they wanted to be. That sometimes things happen and we learn from those events. I think Sara is a good writer who has a unique voice.
April 14, 2017
I always felt very curious about the 60's. It always seemed so majestic and magical to me. I wanted to live it myself. Now that i've read this book and I understand a lot better what it was actually like, i dont like it so much. Were the 60's powerful and revolutionary and probably a one of a kind decade? Hell yeah. But people were not only passionate and driven, they also felt confused and lonely. And don't even get me started on all the damn drugs and sleeping with hundreds of people. I don't judge others based on that kind of stuff, but the girls in this novel crearly did it because they just wanted to love and be loved respected. I think that's what all of us really want at the end.
All though I see myself in Sara, specially because I'm a journalism major and her professional journey really interested me, Susie was in my opinion, by far the most fascinating women out of the three. Tasha was cool at the beggining but halfway through the book I was sort of done with her.
All though I see myself in Sara, specially because I'm a journalism major and her professional journey really interested me, Susie was in my opinion, by far the most fascinating women out of the three. Tasha was cool at the beggining but halfway through the book I was sort of done with her.
January 1, 2015
Read it repeatedly as a young woman, although it was about the generation just ahead of mine. It was one of the few places I could see women, who were not in the entertainment industry, making their way through life without immediately coupling up.
December 18, 2007
Still one of my all time favorites --
May 18, 2022
Nicely done group biography of three women following their distinctive, but related paths from Berkeley into the larger worlds of the 1960s. A minor classic in the Sixties literature.
June 5, 2026
samma ärliga, självkritiska berättarröst som Plath i the Bell Jar, och nästan likt Bradshaw i Sex and the City.
aldrig läst så bra skildringar av kvinnor.
aldrig läst så bra skildringar av kvinnor.
October 19, 2018
Down memory lane
The times have certainly changed, seems like yesterday! A very good book and true to the hippie era and the feminist awakening!
The times have certainly changed, seems like yesterday! A very good book and true to the hippie era and the feminist awakening!
March 22, 2012
This book follows the lives and friendships of three young women from their first meeting with each other in 1962 at the University of California at Berkley through the events that "radicalized" them all after college. They all were living during the tumultuous decade known as the "Swinging Sixties" in the "birthplace" of many radical movements - Berkley. Susie is a young woman just becoming involved with the Free Speech Movement in Berkley and finds herself navigating through the early struggle for women's rights. Tasha enters the trendy art and society scene in New York. Sara, an idealistic journalist, travels the country reporting on the stories of the time.
I did enjoy this book very much and thought that it was very well-written. I grew up in the sixties in England; and although there was quite a radical culture that developed in parts of England during the sixties; I never really moved in those circles during college life myself, so never became "radicalized" the way others may have been during the sixties. I give this book an A!
I did enjoy this book very much and thought that it was very well-written. I grew up in the sixties in England; and although there was quite a radical culture that developed in parts of England during the sixties; I never really moved in those circles during college life myself, so never became "radicalized" the way others may have been during the sixties. I give this book an A!
May 20, 2016
I read this book when I was in my late teens and it changed my perception of so many issues, from being politically aware through the changing place of women in society, right down to listening to the music of the time and gaining a real appreciation of those artists. The book is just a masterclass on how to tell the story of a generation through the eyes of the three main protagonists.
Each woman, Sara, Susie and Tasha are all deftly described, as they grow you grow with them, Ms Davidson makes you experience everything , but without falling into many of the tired cliches associated with books about the Sixties.
I have read and re-read this book so many times through my life, it never fails to entertain, to inform and to genuinely make you feel...I think more than anything else, this book makes you examine not only the emotions of the characters, but also your own.
A wonderful book which I cannot recommend highly enough.
Each woman, Sara, Susie and Tasha are all deftly described, as they grow you grow with them, Ms Davidson makes you experience everything , but without falling into many of the tired cliches associated with books about the Sixties.
I have read and re-read this book so many times through my life, it never fails to entertain, to inform and to genuinely make you feel...I think more than anything else, this book makes you examine not only the emotions of the characters, but also your own.
A wonderful book which I cannot recommend highly enough.
May 5, 2009
Shallow, rambling book about the empty, wasted lives of four spoiled, superficial, self-absorbed skanks who are taking way too long to grow up and grow a brain. There may be an off-chance one of them may have taken her nose out of her own navel long enough to learn the importance of relationship, but I'm not sure. If ever I thought that being the center of the universe might be fun, this book disabused me of that notion and shows that narcissism is merely boring. I hope they all got a little more discerning before the age of AIDS arrived. I don't know if any of them ever matured enough to grow a moral compass or value system, but within the amoral void between their ears, they have nothing that makes them the least bit deep, noteworthy, or interesting. The really sad part is that they reproduced.
June 20, 2015
If you came of age in the Sixties, the book gives you a compelling look back into that amazing era. Berkeley, which seemed a Mecca to me, protests first for Civil Rights and next for peace in VietNam, riots and demonstrations, teargas and water hoses, love, drugs, bell-bottom pants--all the memories rushed back when I read Davidson's book. We wanted to change the world, and look what has happened to it. Thank goodness I had my two little children to look after; otherwise, I would have joined a commune in California, and who knows where I would be today.
July 1, 2019
I first read Loose Change when it was published in the 70s when I was in college. I’ve reread it many times and it remains one of my favorite books. Sara is a great writer and I have always been able to identify with her characters. They all have such interesting lives and often fill me with joy, curiosity and laughter. I’ve read most of Sara’s books and can’t seem to put them down. She draws me right into her story.
February 20, 2015
"You're so vain" could be the alternate title of this nonfiction narrative of three self-absorbed, navel gazing, narcissistic aesthetes. The author does indeed give a good feel of the times. But, by the long anticipated end to the footslog, I had come to truly despise the characters.
January 1, 2020
By far one of my favorite books. It’s captivating throughout. I feel like I am going back in time reliving all the highs and lows of the 60’s. Highly recommend, especially for anyone who enjoys this era.
October 12, 2007
I really enjoyed this book, and have reread it as well. Interesting look at the sixties from a young woman who came of age during that time.
August 18, 2015
Not my favorite of the classic feminist tomes. Privileged white women who came of age in the 1960s leave their husbands. Some find other men, some don't. So?
December 25, 2019
One of my all time very favorite books I've ever read.
June 8, 2026
Davison did such an incredible job taking us through the lives of, Susie, Tasha and Sara (herself). I feel like they are now my friends too. I’ve read their deepest secrets, desires, fantasies and questions.
Davison’s writing indulged me into such intimacy and empowerment. I’ve clung to this book because it is real, it’s raw. She shares a look into three women’s minds and all that they aren’t supposed to say aloud. Societal roles and expectations, femininity, sex, love, respect, relationships, passion, war, peace, exploration, wonder and longing- nothing goes untouched. These women speak.
I beg every woman to read this book! I think that men could learn from it too. It may make men uncomfortable at times, but that also means it’s the perfect place for a woman to feel seen and understood. Nonetheless, books are for everyone. <3
I came upon this book on the bottom shelf in a thrift store and figured I’d give it a try. Now I’ve bought a couple copies off of eBay to send to my friends, because it feels too important not to share yet so personal that we each need our own copy to love and connect to. This opened my eyes to how absolutely beautiful it is, how a book makes its way around to touch so many lives.
It is easy to say that this the most amazing book I’ve ever read. I absolutely adore it and it has such a special place in my heart.
Davison’s writing indulged me into such intimacy and empowerment. I’ve clung to this book because it is real, it’s raw. She shares a look into three women’s minds and all that they aren’t supposed to say aloud. Societal roles and expectations, femininity, sex, love, respect, relationships, passion, war, peace, exploration, wonder and longing- nothing goes untouched. These women speak.
I beg every woman to read this book! I think that men could learn from it too. It may make men uncomfortable at times, but that also means it’s the perfect place for a woman to feel seen and understood. Nonetheless, books are for everyone. <3
I came upon this book on the bottom shelf in a thrift store and figured I’d give it a try. Now I’ve bought a couple copies off of eBay to send to my friends, because it feels too important not to share yet so personal that we each need our own copy to love and connect to. This opened my eyes to how absolutely beautiful it is, how a book makes its way around to touch so many lives.
It is easy to say that this the most amazing book I’ve ever read. I absolutely adore it and it has such a special place in my heart.
December 1, 2019
One of my all-time favorites, and it had a large influence on me, growing up. I romanticized the sixties and the hippie era that I just missed by a decade or two, so this book let me live through that time vicariously, and I could easily identify with the author and her friends. I didn't have any of the same experiences really (or not yet, at least), but in terms of their feelings and experiences of self-discovery in a chaotic time, I really felt a kinship with these women.
And to me, reading about other times (or other cultures, for that matter) through the lens of people living their day-to-day lives is best way to understand an era. So if you want to experience the sixties as three different women did, this book can give you just that.
Note however that they are not really diverse in terms of class, culture or ethnicity, so it is very limited in that regard. There's also very little about lgbtia history and experiences, so you'll have to find all those other voices elsewhere. But for the viewpoints written about, at least, it paints a vivid picture of the time.
Note: I can't recall how many times I have read this, probably at least ten. But I first read it around 1978 or 79, and last read it a few years ago. And am soon to read it again!
And to me, reading about other times (or other cultures, for that matter) through the lens of people living their day-to-day lives is best way to understand an era. So if you want to experience the sixties as three different women did, this book can give you just that.
Note however that they are not really diverse in terms of class, culture or ethnicity, so it is very limited in that regard. There's also very little about lgbtia history and experiences, so you'll have to find all those other voices elsewhere. But for the viewpoints written about, at least, it paints a vivid picture of the time.
Note: I can't recall how many times I have read this, probably at least ten. But I first read it around 1978 or 79, and last read it a few years ago. And am soon to read it again!
March 30, 2024
Loose Change by Sara Davidson is a decade-long true story of three women who entered the University of California-Berkley in the fall of 1961. I first read this book in 1978 and thought it was a history of the hippie movement. Instead, the hippie movement is only one chapter in a social history of the U.S. in the 60s and 70s.
Perhaps experimentation is the title of the years from 1961-1976, but in the 61-62 university school year sex was most in their thoughts, but sex remained in their thoughts throughout the years of the book.. This time was the beginning of the sexual revolution.
With an interest in sex always, they delved into politics including student freedom, socialism, campus protests, and the war in Vietnam. From politics their interests spread to back to the land, careers, relationships and marriage, freedom of the mind including meditation, yoga, encounter groups and Ram Dass.
I recommend this book for an insight into the many issues of this time period.
Perhaps experimentation is the title of the years from 1961-1976, but in the 61-62 university school year sex was most in their thoughts, but sex remained in their thoughts throughout the years of the book.. This time was the beginning of the sexual revolution.
With an interest in sex always, they delved into politics including student freedom, socialism, campus protests, and the war in Vietnam. From politics their interests spread to back to the land, careers, relationships and marriage, freedom of the mind including meditation, yoga, encounter groups and Ram Dass.
I recommend this book for an insight into the many issues of this time period.
September 24, 2020
Once upon a time in 1960, there were three young women who
went to Berkeley. Tasha was an artist; Susie was a radical-in-
training; and Sara was a journalist. In this chronicle of their
lives (spanning 1959 to 1973), the reader is given an up-close-
and-personal view of the upheavals of the 1960s and early
1970s. The book touches upon many events, both pivotal
and sundry: from the advent of diet sodas and 7-digit phone
numbers, to the Pill and the sexual revolution, to the Berkeley
Free Speech Movement, feminism, and Vietnam, to mysticism,
hallucinogens, Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, and Gurdjieff.
In addition to the sociopolitical changes of the era, Davidson's
memoir astutely and sensitively chronicles the impact of
the 1960s on the 3 women's lives, relationships, and
self-understandings.
went to Berkeley. Tasha was an artist; Susie was a radical-in-
training; and Sara was a journalist. In this chronicle of their
lives (spanning 1959 to 1973), the reader is given an up-close-
and-personal view of the upheavals of the 1960s and early
1970s. The book touches upon many events, both pivotal
and sundry: from the advent of diet sodas and 7-digit phone
numbers, to the Pill and the sexual revolution, to the Berkeley
Free Speech Movement, feminism, and Vietnam, to mysticism,
hallucinogens, Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, and Gurdjieff.
In addition to the sociopolitical changes of the era, Davidson's
memoir astutely and sensitively chronicles the impact of
the 1960s on the 3 women's lives, relationships, and
self-understandings.
March 13, 2019
I first read Davidson's book around 30 years ago. I enjoyed it then and enjoyed reading it again. It was interesting to again read about the energetic idealism of the 60s youth but their myopic view of the world, like the one that was between San Francisco and New York City. However, many of the things they were working so hard for have worked their way into today's society, the abolishment of the draft, women's liberation, and voting rights for eighteen year olds to name a few. It is good history for particularly today's generation to read and gain an understanding of wheresome of their freedoms came from.
July 21, 2020
I found this on the freebie cart at the library and picked it up because the sixties have always fascinated me. I was a little worried that this would be a dry sociological dig into the mores of the world in that era, but it turned out to be a fascinating look into the lives of three very different women who came of age in a turbulent time. Davidson's writing is very engaging and honest, and she writes no-holds barred about what they did for love back then. It'd be interesting if she'd write a follow-up to share what the three of them are now doing with their lives.
October 5, 2023
Sara Davidson and her friends Trisha and Susie started at Berkely in the early 1960s. The book follows them into the early 1970s as they take different paths but cope with similar disappointments: sexual problems, insecurity, jerk male partners and the realization that no, they didn't pull off a revolution and transform society.
This is way more effective than many looks at the decade because it's focusing on three specific women and their paths rather than the big picture, though Davidson gets in a lot of that too. A sharp, well-done book.
This is way more effective than many looks at the decade because it's focusing on three specific women and their paths rather than the big picture, though Davidson gets in a lot of that too. A sharp, well-done book.
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