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The Fourteenth of September
If you loved Kristin Hannah's latest novel The Women, this one's for you.
An enthralling historical novel about women set during the peak of the Vietnam War and told through the rare perspective of a young woman, who traces her path to self-discovery and a “Coming of Conscience.”
On September 14, 1969, Private First Class Judy Talton celebrates her nineteenth birthday by secretly joining the campus anti-Vietnam War movement. In doing so, she jeopardizes both the army scholarship that will secure her future and her relationship with her military family. But Judy’s doubts have escalated with the travesties of the war. Who is she if she stays in the army? What is she if she leaves?
When the first date pulled in the Draft Lottery turns up as her birthday, she realizes that if she were a man, she’d have been Number One―off to Vietnam with an under-fire life expectancy of six seconds. The stakes become clear, propelling her toward a life-altering choice as fateful as that of any draftee.
Judy’s story speaks to the poignant clash of young adulthood, early feminism, and war, offering an ageless inquiry into the domestic politics of protest when the world stops making sense.
An enthralling historical novel about women set during the peak of the Vietnam War and told through the rare perspective of a young woman, who traces her path to self-discovery and a “Coming of Conscience.”
On September 14, 1969, Private First Class Judy Talton celebrates her nineteenth birthday by secretly joining the campus anti-Vietnam War movement. In doing so, she jeopardizes both the army scholarship that will secure her future and her relationship with her military family. But Judy’s doubts have escalated with the travesties of the war. Who is she if she stays in the army? What is she if she leaves?
When the first date pulled in the Draft Lottery turns up as her birthday, she realizes that if she were a man, she’d have been Number One―off to Vietnam with an under-fire life expectancy of six seconds. The stakes become clear, propelling her toward a life-altering choice as fateful as that of any draftee.
Judy’s story speaks to the poignant clash of young adulthood, early feminism, and war, offering an ageless inquiry into the domestic politics of protest when the world stops making sense.
358 pages, Paperback
First published September 18, 2018
67 people are currently reading
1586 people want to read
About the author
Rita Dragonette
1 book69 followersRita Dragonette is a writer who, after a career telling the stories of others as an award-winning public relations executive, has returned to her original creative path. The Fourteenth of September, her debut novel from She Writes Press, is based upon her personal experiences on campus during the Vietnam War. It has received the Beverly Hills Book Award for Women’s Fiction (2018), National Indie Excellence Awards for New Fiction (finalist 2019) and Best Cover Design (finalist 2019), American Book Fest Fiction Awards for Literary Fiction (finalist 2018) and Best Cover Design (finalist 2018) and the Hollywood Book Festival (honorable mention 2018, general fiction). She is currently at work on three other books: an homage to The Sun Also Rises about expats chasing their last dream in San Miguel de Allende, a World War II novel based upon her interest in the impact of war on and through women, and a memoir in essays. She lives and writes in Chicago, where she also hosts literary salons to showcase authors and their new books to avid readers.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 181 reviews
June 27, 2018
There will be some readers who will consider this book historical fiction. Other readers, like me, who lived through this tumultuous year, will consider this book as a reminder of what life was like. The country was divided like never before - there were many people who felt that the war was justified and that people who spoke against it were traitors to America. There were others who felt that the government was sending soldiers to be slaughtered in a totally useless war. In the Fourteenth of September, Rita Dragonette does a fantastic job of presenting both sides of the conflict.
Judy Talton is in college with a US Army scholarship. She's been sworn into the army and will do 2 years of college and then 2 years at Walter Reed to get her nursing degree and then additional years as an Army nurse. As she begins her second year of college, she is starting to question the war in Vietnam and secretly joins the anti-war movement on campus. Her involvement has to be kept secret from both sides or she could lose her scholarship and she doesn't want her new friends in the anti-war movement to know that she is a member of the Army.
This book covers the time period of September, 1969 - January, 1970 when the daily body count in Vietnam continued to increase, the first draft lottery took place and the divisiveness of the country continued to grow. I thought that it was very unique of the author to tell the story of these months from a female standpoint rather than the normal male point of view. It had much more depth and insight than we normally see in books about war. The author's portrayal of Judy was so well done that I felt like she was someone I knew. Her personal conflict was a vivid portrayal of life during this time.
I highly recommend this coming of age novel to anyone who either wants to learn about this era in American History or people who want to re-live it in their own minds. I definitely enjoyed it and Judy is a character who will live in my mind long after the last page. This is a MUST-READ for anyone who enjoys a great book.
Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
Judy Talton is in college with a US Army scholarship. She's been sworn into the army and will do 2 years of college and then 2 years at Walter Reed to get her nursing degree and then additional years as an Army nurse. As she begins her second year of college, she is starting to question the war in Vietnam and secretly joins the anti-war movement on campus. Her involvement has to be kept secret from both sides or she could lose her scholarship and she doesn't want her new friends in the anti-war movement to know that she is a member of the Army.
This book covers the time period of September, 1969 - January, 1970 when the daily body count in Vietnam continued to increase, the first draft lottery took place and the divisiveness of the country continued to grow. I thought that it was very unique of the author to tell the story of these months from a female standpoint rather than the normal male point of view. It had much more depth and insight than we normally see in books about war. The author's portrayal of Judy was so well done that I felt like she was someone I knew. Her personal conflict was a vivid portrayal of life during this time.
I highly recommend this coming of age novel to anyone who either wants to learn about this era in American History or people who want to re-live it in their own minds. I definitely enjoyed it and Judy is a character who will live in my mind long after the last page. This is a MUST-READ for anyone who enjoys a great book.
Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
July 4, 2019
The Fourteenth of September by Rita Dragonette is rooted in Dragonette's personal experience in 1969 and 1970 when daily body counts from Vietnam and the looming Draft Lottery was met by youth anti-war protests, culminating in the horror of the Kent State massacre.
The protagonist is a young woman on a WRAIN scholarship to become an army nurse, her meal ticket out of her dead-end town. But Judy decides she must understand the war and her values first by becoming involved with the campus Freaks in the anti-war movement.
For Boomers like me, the novel covers familiar territory, rife with personal associations, from the long hair and the rock music to the political and social events.
The approach is fresh--the story of a young woman grappling with her future, her attitude toward the Vietnam War, pushing herself to determine what she believes.
I got Judy's motivation.
In 1969 as a high school junior, I wrote anti-war poetry for the school paper but dated a boy in the Civil Air Patrol, the armed service in his future. He needed the structure and discipline CAP offered him, his home life dysfunctional.
In 1970 at a small college campus divided into Greeks, Freaks, and GDIs (God Damed Independents) I found myself friends with a Freak with long hair and long fringed coats, kids who smoked pot, clean-cut Vietnam Vets returned to finish their education, long-haired Vietnam Viets with jaded stories, Sorority girls, and everyone in between. I wanted to know all kinds of people, to be nonjudgmental, but stay true to my values.
But Judy was grappling with more than me; I knew I would not be drafted, while I knew the boys were worried. I felt guilty. But I was 'safe.'
The post-war generation was not the first or the last to question the judgment and decisions of those in authority. Each generation must find their moral compass, and chose how to respond. Today's young heroes stand up for gun control and women's rights and inclusion.
I asked Dragonette questions about her motivation for writing the novel, if it was cathartic to have written the events in fiction, and how her story relates to the current youth-led protests.
I lived through many of the incidents of the time period and, probably because I was always the participant-observer writer, I knew that there were things that happened that absolutely had to be recorded and remembered. I waited years to see if they would be by other novelists, but no.
I had a friend (he's on my acknowledgments page) who sent me a letter after graduation telling me that there was a story to be told and I was the one to tell it. Well, if you tell someone like me--who is ridiculously responsible something like THAT---it's quite the monkey on your back.
I've always been very interested in the role of women in war. My mother was a nurse in WWII who did really amazing things (i.e. she was in Patton's Army doing meatball surgery on the front in a tent, helping to liberate Stalag 11 in Germany) and saw far more action than my father, but was undervalued because she was "only a nurse," versus my father whose life was on the line.
When I heard the stories they didn't make sense. I had two parents, both of whom were doing something equally patriotic, important, and dangerous, and it didn't seem logical to value their specific experiences differently.
When it came to the war of my generation I saw the same issues--[women told that] you can't possibly understand what we men are going through-- and I wanted to present a case to make it clear that we are in wars as a generation, a country---not as a gender.
I wanted to pose a female dilemma that was every bit as fraught and intense as the decision that had to be faced by the men of the time (1969-70).
There are two articles in the Featured Articles section of the Media tab in my web site that also talk about this at www.ritadragonette.com. Specifically, there is a highly-fictionalized version of an actual incident in the book where a vet is dissed in an anti-war meeting. I remember that, and how I felt that someone needed to stop it but it couldn't be me because I was a girl and no one would listen to me. It was the only time in my life I ever felt like a coward---and yes, writing about it--and the whole book--was cathartic--did help me understand it better as an adult and dissect the impulse. I never let myself feel that way again.
I think we write--which is arduous and why would we choose to do that?--because we have stories that must be told to bear witness, to instruct. When we write we share our personal experience and point of view on an issue we feel is significant and not yet explored.
It's not therapy (though I'm sure that helps), but it gives value to experience and feelings. I feel that we learn our history from facts and nonfiction but we understand it through narrative.
My story is based on some of the things that happened in my life and some of it was easier to write about than other parts. The mother scenes were excruciating. She wasn't exactly my mother, but any time you write about a parent real life comes through. I still cry over the fate of certain characters--one was real and another was made up whole-cloth.
I also don't feel this time in history has been sufficiently covered. Vietnam is the Voldemort of wars--we feel bad because we lost, there were atrocities, we treated our vets badly. So we don't teach or talk about it. But there are important lessons to be learned.
Thank God for the time frame (it's been 50 years), Ken Burns, and the availability of unclassified information. Now we can look at it dispassionately, more like WWII.
I'm glad that part of the legacy of Vietnam is that we've been extra cautious about getting involved in other conflicts (not totally, but we don't rush in to save the world) and so far there has never been a draft; we've learned that we owe vets the world, etc.
WRAIN [Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing] was like ROTC but I'm not sure the guys had to enlist before graduation; WRAIN members did. They were told it was an unbreakable commitment unless they got pregnant. Part of the absurdity is that you see it really wasn't. Later I found out more than a few guys got out of ROTC. I also learned that you could get out of WRAIN if you just told them you didn't want to be a nurse--they didn't want to be shafted for all that tuition without payback. Lots of Catch 22 stuff still goes on in the military but Judy took it seriously, her dilemma is dead serious--she believed more than they did. Just like the war. Just like young people do and should. What's the parallel? Guys were drafted and went because they were told they had too. Yet many bought their way out...
See my MS. magazine story (click here to read) about how the activists of my time were similar to the Parkland kids. It says it all. Social media beats the streets. Our issue was the war--there was death (no draft means no marches), and civil rights, early feminism. I love how [today's young adults] care about climate change (we could barely get Earth Day going in l970), LGBT, etc. As far as women's rights--it's an ongoing battle. We should go to war over men trying to control women's bodies--we are re-litigating issues settled long ago. It's the hamster wheel of history. We need to go forward not backward.
Progress is hard-won but fragile. If that's true, we are doomed to the hamster wheel of history and we're capable of more than that. We can STILL change the world.
Rita Dragonette
*****
The novel has won six awards including the National Indie Excellence Award for new fiction and book cover design.
Visit Dragonette's website to learn more about The Fourteenth of September. You will find excerpts, the song playlist, the trailer, an more.
I received a free book through a giveaway on the Facebook group American Historical Novels. My review is unbiased.
The protagonist is a young woman on a WRAIN scholarship to become an army nurse, her meal ticket out of her dead-end town. But Judy decides she must understand the war and her values first by becoming involved with the campus Freaks in the anti-war movement.
For Boomers like me, the novel covers familiar territory, rife with personal associations, from the long hair and the rock music to the political and social events.
The approach is fresh--the story of a young woman grappling with her future, her attitude toward the Vietnam War, pushing herself to determine what she believes.
I got Judy's motivation.
In 1969 as a high school junior, I wrote anti-war poetry for the school paper but dated a boy in the Civil Air Patrol, the armed service in his future. He needed the structure and discipline CAP offered him, his home life dysfunctional.
In 1970 at a small college campus divided into Greeks, Freaks, and GDIs (God Damed Independents) I found myself friends with a Freak with long hair and long fringed coats, kids who smoked pot, clean-cut Vietnam Vets returned to finish their education, long-haired Vietnam Viets with jaded stories, Sorority girls, and everyone in between. I wanted to know all kinds of people, to be nonjudgmental, but stay true to my values.
But Judy was grappling with more than me; I knew I would not be drafted, while I knew the boys were worried. I felt guilty. But I was 'safe.'
The post-war generation was not the first or the last to question the judgment and decisions of those in authority. Each generation must find their moral compass, and chose how to respond. Today's young heroes stand up for gun control and women's rights and inclusion.
I asked Dragonette questions about her motivation for writing the novel, if it was cathartic to have written the events in fiction, and how her story relates to the current youth-led protests.
I lived through many of the incidents of the time period and, probably because I was always the participant-observer writer, I knew that there were things that happened that absolutely had to be recorded and remembered. I waited years to see if they would be by other novelists, but no.
I had a friend (he's on my acknowledgments page) who sent me a letter after graduation telling me that there was a story to be told and I was the one to tell it. Well, if you tell someone like me--who is ridiculously responsible something like THAT---it's quite the monkey on your back.
I've always been very interested in the role of women in war. My mother was a nurse in WWII who did really amazing things (i.e. she was in Patton's Army doing meatball surgery on the front in a tent, helping to liberate Stalag 11 in Germany) and saw far more action than my father, but was undervalued because she was "only a nurse," versus my father whose life was on the line.
When I heard the stories they didn't make sense. I had two parents, both of whom were doing something equally patriotic, important, and dangerous, and it didn't seem logical to value their specific experiences differently.
When it came to the war of my generation I saw the same issues--[women told that] you can't possibly understand what we men are going through-- and I wanted to present a case to make it clear that we are in wars as a generation, a country---not as a gender.
I wanted to pose a female dilemma that was every bit as fraught and intense as the decision that had to be faced by the men of the time (1969-70).
There are two articles in the Featured Articles section of the Media tab in my web site that also talk about this at www.ritadragonette.com. Specifically, there is a highly-fictionalized version of an actual incident in the book where a vet is dissed in an anti-war meeting. I remember that, and how I felt that someone needed to stop it but it couldn't be me because I was a girl and no one would listen to me. It was the only time in my life I ever felt like a coward---and yes, writing about it--and the whole book--was cathartic--did help me understand it better as an adult and dissect the impulse. I never let myself feel that way again.
I think we write--which is arduous and why would we choose to do that?--because we have stories that must be told to bear witness, to instruct. When we write we share our personal experience and point of view on an issue we feel is significant and not yet explored.
It's not therapy (though I'm sure that helps), but it gives value to experience and feelings. I feel that we learn our history from facts and nonfiction but we understand it through narrative.
My story is based on some of the things that happened in my life and some of it was easier to write about than other parts. The mother scenes were excruciating. She wasn't exactly my mother, but any time you write about a parent real life comes through. I still cry over the fate of certain characters--one was real and another was made up whole-cloth.
I also don't feel this time in history has been sufficiently covered. Vietnam is the Voldemort of wars--we feel bad because we lost, there were atrocities, we treated our vets badly. So we don't teach or talk about it. But there are important lessons to be learned.
Thank God for the time frame (it's been 50 years), Ken Burns, and the availability of unclassified information. Now we can look at it dispassionately, more like WWII.
I'm glad that part of the legacy of Vietnam is that we've been extra cautious about getting involved in other conflicts (not totally, but we don't rush in to save the world) and so far there has never been a draft; we've learned that we owe vets the world, etc.
WRAIN [Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing] was like ROTC but I'm not sure the guys had to enlist before graduation; WRAIN members did. They were told it was an unbreakable commitment unless they got pregnant. Part of the absurdity is that you see it really wasn't. Later I found out more than a few guys got out of ROTC. I also learned that you could get out of WRAIN if you just told them you didn't want to be a nurse--they didn't want to be shafted for all that tuition without payback. Lots of Catch 22 stuff still goes on in the military but Judy took it seriously, her dilemma is dead serious--she believed more than they did. Just like the war. Just like young people do and should. What's the parallel? Guys were drafted and went because they were told they had too. Yet many bought their way out...
See my MS. magazine story (click here to read) about how the activists of my time were similar to the Parkland kids. It says it all. Social media beats the streets. Our issue was the war--there was death (no draft means no marches), and civil rights, early feminism. I love how [today's young adults] care about climate change (we could barely get Earth Day going in l970), LGBT, etc. As far as women's rights--it's an ongoing battle. We should go to war over men trying to control women's bodies--we are re-litigating issues settled long ago. It's the hamster wheel of history. We need to go forward not backward.
Progress is hard-won but fragile. If that's true, we are doomed to the hamster wheel of history and we're capable of more than that. We can STILL change the world.
Rita Dragonette
*****
The novel has won six awards including the National Indie Excellence Award for new fiction and book cover design.
Visit Dragonette's website to learn more about The Fourteenth of September. You will find excerpts, the song playlist, the trailer, an more.
I received a free book through a giveaway on the Facebook group American Historical Novels. My review is unbiased.
September 15, 2020
"It's important we do the right thing in the right way and don't trample what we're trying to protect."
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 I can't help but think that if my history textbooks had looked a little more like The Fourteenth September, I would have been more apt to pay attention.
This was an entire experience.
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 I can't help but think that if my history textbooks had looked a little more like The Fourteenth September, I would have been more apt to pay attention.
This was an entire experience.
September 16, 2020
This historical fiction novel is written during one of the most tumultuous period in our history, and Rita Dragonette exemplified through this brilliant novel, a young woman’s perspective during this defining moment in our history. This novel seared my heart and soul. I learned a lot about what happened during that time and I commend the author for documenting a very personal account of her experiences. Fabulous book that really resonated with me.
February 23, 2022
This 2020 Readers’ Favorite Book Awards Finalist grabbed my attention from the first page. The author brings the Sixties vividly to life though a coming of age story that asks, "Would you have supported the Vietnam War or joined the anti-war movement?" This is the dilemma facing protagonist Judy, who's just celebrated her 19th birthday at a Midwest college. She and her friends are drawn so skillfully that we feel we know them and are fully engaged in their lives as they face tough moral choices.
Highly recommended for lovers of fine histfic stories, those wanting to learn more about the Vietnam War era, and anyone who seeks a story they just can't put down.
#thefourteenthofseptember #ritadragonette #vietnamerahistoricalfiction #antivietnamwarmovement #womeninthevietnamwarera
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Highly recommended for lovers of fine histfic stories, those wanting to learn more about the Vietnam War era, and anyone who seeks a story they just can't put down.
#thefourteenthofseptember #ritadragonette #vietnamerahistoricalfiction #antivietnamwarmovement #womeninthevietnamwarera
#bookstgramcommunity
July 5, 2018
This period in American history is one of the most tumultuous, troubling, and defining. I'm old enough to remember Kent State, the protests, the incredible divisions in the country. It still lingers and defines our country and many of us individually. This novel takes a unique and long-overdue take on the times—a woman's perspective. And it's more than historical fiction, more than a coming of age story. The Fourteenth of September sears its way into the heart and soul with the story of a young woman's awakening and a country's reawakening, both forced to examine their places in the larger world, how to move forward, and how to re-balance after enduring events that could undo them both. If you lived these times, you'll be pulled back into them. If you didn't, you'll quickly see how those days are like tattoos on our psyche and resonate still through the life of a young woman who discovers that what we live through in our early years never, ever leaves us.
July 12, 2021
At the opposite end of the plethora of WWII novels is the scarcity of books about the Vietnam war. Amazingly, here in the US, we just skim right over that war as though it’s the black sheep stepchild we’d rather forget, pushed in a corner, brushed under the rug, out of sight, out of mind. And then along comes books like The Fourteenth of September to remind us exactly why we never should forget that period in US history and why it changed an entire generation of American lives forever.
On September 14, 1969, Private First Class Judy Talton celebrates her nineteenth birthday by secretly joining the campus anti-Vietnam War movement. When her birthday is pulled from the draft lotto a few weeks later, she realizes that if she were a male, she would have been one of the first ones shipped out to Vietnam with very low survival expectancy. This realization propels her toward action that will alter her life forever.
This book is a stark, realistic look at the late 60s/early 70s, the anti-war movement, the emerging feminist movement and the anger that was sweeping across university campuses throughout the US. It is extremely well researched and very tightly written. What appears as hyperbole is actually just the facts of that time. It’s harsh and thorough and a must read, especially for Americans. It asks the question, will anyone remember? I do! I will never forget and my entire life has been based on what I learned from this war, from the atrocities committed by the US government during the entire era (50s-70s) and the horrors that linger long after the governments say the war is over.
On September 14, 1969, Private First Class Judy Talton celebrates her nineteenth birthday by secretly joining the campus anti-Vietnam War movement. When her birthday is pulled from the draft lotto a few weeks later, she realizes that if she were a male, she would have been one of the first ones shipped out to Vietnam with very low survival expectancy. This realization propels her toward action that will alter her life forever.
This book is a stark, realistic look at the late 60s/early 70s, the anti-war movement, the emerging feminist movement and the anger that was sweeping across university campuses throughout the US. It is extremely well researched and very tightly written. What appears as hyperbole is actually just the facts of that time. It’s harsh and thorough and a must read, especially for Americans. It asks the question, will anyone remember? I do! I will never forget and my entire life has been based on what I learned from this war, from the atrocities committed by the US government during the entire era (50s-70s) and the horrors that linger long after the governments say the war is over.
September 6, 2020
The Fourteenth of September is the story of a young college student, Judy, and her experience on the campus of a Midwestern college during the Fall of 1969. At a time when the Vietnam War was sending American soldiers home in body bags at exponential rates. In a country filled with rebellion as a result of the war, Judy enters the chaos and anger on the campus with an ROTC nursing scholarship. She has a strained relationship with her mother and while she was prepared to serve in the war, now she is questioning everything. She doesn't want to see her friends die in the war.
It was real and raw and I'm honestly thankful it was before my time. My mom would have been Judy's age during this time period and I found myself wondering what she would have done in the same situations and it made it all to real for me. While it may be considered a historical fiction novel, it didn't feel fictional at all.
It was real and raw and I'm honestly thankful it was before my time. My mom would have been Judy's age during this time period and I found myself wondering what she would have done in the same situations and it made it all to real for me. While it may be considered a historical fiction novel, it didn't feel fictional at all.
May 9, 2019
How well I remember the moment my husband and I looked at each other with the sinking realization that the younger generation viewed the Vietnam War and its particular horrors only through the lens of history, as happens with all wars whose immediacy fades with time. This accessible novel lifts some of that soft focus with a believable unlikely heroine, nineteen-year-old Judy Talton, whose Army nurse mother has railroaded her into joining the Army as the supposedly only means of financing college. Judy is able to keep her head down in her studies for a while, but is increasingly drawn into the campus protests at her Illinois college. The question of whether one can be enlisted service member and still be against the war is a moral question that would stymie many adults; for teenage Judy straddling the two worlds, keeping each secret from the other, it becomes a crisis of conflicting morality, a jolting journey of who to trust and what to believe, and a forced reframing of what she had envisioned as her future. The many references to the popular music of the day will give the story a familiar feel even to those who didn’t live it, and Judy’s poignantly awkward encounters with rites of passage like casual drug use and first sex leave the reader aching for her. The book ambles a bit through the middle but picks up steam fast in the last third as events hurtle through the Washington protest march and Kent State, and the story delivers a shocker (for this reader) in the final chapters. The book is billed as a “coming of conscience” story so the end isn’t really in doubt, though a very open end it is. Many Judys (and Johnnys) will identify with it, as will anyone who has ever changed course for moral reasons … or wanted to.
June 12, 2021
According to family lore, one of my older brothers had the wrong date on his birth certificate. The nuns wrote down the next date instead and refused to believe my mother when she pointed it out. Whether that story is true or not, I have long been intrigued by the idea that someone's chances of dying in Vietnam might have been determined by a clerical error.
I kept remembering that as I listened to this novel. It doesn't deal with such a mistake, but it does examine how the draft lottery was an arbitrary gamble that the government played with people's lives. The book focuses on Judy Talton, a college sophomore in 1969 whose mother pressured her into enlisting in the army in exchange for college tuition and a nursing degree. But after her first year in the program, Judy begins to have qualms about the Vietnam War, so she embarks on a careful plan to determine exactly what she believes. Since only one other student on campus knows about her military commitment, she decides to "go undercover" and join a group of freaks (AKA hippies) who oppose the war and are increasingly vocal about it.
Judy quest to resolve her crisis of conscience is complicated by conflicts among various student groups, an attraction to one of the freak leaders, a friendship with a young man who shares the same birth date as hers (causing her to identify with his anxiety over the lottery), a trip to Washington to participate in the largest protest the government had ever seen (at least until then), the mounting tensions over the pending first draft lottery, the explosive news of the Kent State shootings, and the constant fear that either the army or her new friends will discover the double life she is leading.
I enjoyed the book. I'm 8-10 years younger than that generation, so I wasn't very aware of the explosive events of 1969 at the time, and it was enlightening to live it through Judy's perspective. There were times I felt that I wanted more descriptions of setting; the books was inside Judy's head a lot of the time, and I could have done with more concrete details.
One more serious complaint I had was that I listened to the audiobook and didn't like the narrator. She wasn't as accomplished as I'm used to hearing. I post that merely as a caution, however, to other audiobook listeners. I didn't factor that into my rating of the novel itself.
I kept remembering that as I listened to this novel. It doesn't deal with such a mistake, but it does examine how the draft lottery was an arbitrary gamble that the government played with people's lives. The book focuses on Judy Talton, a college sophomore in 1969 whose mother pressured her into enlisting in the army in exchange for college tuition and a nursing degree. But after her first year in the program, Judy begins to have qualms about the Vietnam War, so she embarks on a careful plan to determine exactly what she believes. Since only one other student on campus knows about her military commitment, she decides to "go undercover" and join a group of freaks (AKA hippies) who oppose the war and are increasingly vocal about it.
Judy quest to resolve her crisis of conscience is complicated by conflicts among various student groups, an attraction to one of the freak leaders, a friendship with a young man who shares the same birth date as hers (causing her to identify with his anxiety over the lottery), a trip to Washington to participate in the largest protest the government had ever seen (at least until then), the mounting tensions over the pending first draft lottery, the explosive news of the Kent State shootings, and the constant fear that either the army or her new friends will discover the double life she is leading.
I enjoyed the book. I'm 8-10 years younger than that generation, so I wasn't very aware of the explosive events of 1969 at the time, and it was enlightening to live it through Judy's perspective. There were times I felt that I wanted more descriptions of setting; the books was inside Judy's head a lot of the time, and I could have done with more concrete details.
One more serious complaint I had was that I listened to the audiobook and didn't like the narrator. She wasn't as accomplished as I'm used to hearing. I post that merely as a caution, however, to other audiobook listeners. I didn't factor that into my rating of the novel itself.
September 4, 2018
I think of my days at college during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s like a powerful dream – shrouded in marijuana smoke, vivid fragments of action and emotion, but elusive when I try to piece them together in any detail. I’ve heard soldiers describe combat that way, my parents talked of World War II that way, we speak of 9-11 that way – times that we would never want to live through again, but would never give up because they represent life at its fullest, however harrowing.
Thanks to Rita Dragonette and her debut novel, The Fourteenth of September, I can live through my days of awakening again, this time with crystal clear definition. The author’s gift of microscopic memory and talent for dialog cut through the fog, bringing my recollections of those halcyon days into relief. Living vicariously through her heroin, Judy Talton, I was comfortably transported back to my university (the same one upon which this novel is based) to re-live the issues, exhilaration and heartache of those days. I was there with Judy in my tattered jeans and rose-colored glasses, on those streets with the anti-war protesters, in the classrooms debating the war that had taken away my high school sweetheart. By virtue of the author’s vivid descriptions of campus loves and lives, and her ability to take you by the arm and walk you into the conversations that are the backbone of this narrative, the 50 years that have intervened disappear. Dragonette uses all of the senses to engage us in the story. She has developed characters that I can see in detail and could have easily known. I can smell the mac ’n’ cheese and taste the rubbery hamburgers in the student halls she describes. Her artful use of the musical track of our lives in the late ‘60s leads us through the narrative just as powerfully as the songs of the era led us into protest.
The “Coming of Conscience” that Dragonette’s main character experiences in this historical account of a young woman’s dilemma during the Vietnam War is emblematic of the painful changes so many of us were facing back then, and wrenches us back to the first time we had to carry the weight of life or death decisions. We are reminded as we’ve grown older, that those decisions were the foundation of our character. With The Fourteenth of September we can dig into the archives of our conscious growth and see from whence we came. Luckily, we have this author’s rich recall and gift for recreating gab to thank for a beautifully melancholic look back.
Thanks to Rita Dragonette and her debut novel, The Fourteenth of September, I can live through my days of awakening again, this time with crystal clear definition. The author’s gift of microscopic memory and talent for dialog cut through the fog, bringing my recollections of those halcyon days into relief. Living vicariously through her heroin, Judy Talton, I was comfortably transported back to my university (the same one upon which this novel is based) to re-live the issues, exhilaration and heartache of those days. I was there with Judy in my tattered jeans and rose-colored glasses, on those streets with the anti-war protesters, in the classrooms debating the war that had taken away my high school sweetheart. By virtue of the author’s vivid descriptions of campus loves and lives, and her ability to take you by the arm and walk you into the conversations that are the backbone of this narrative, the 50 years that have intervened disappear. Dragonette uses all of the senses to engage us in the story. She has developed characters that I can see in detail and could have easily known. I can smell the mac ’n’ cheese and taste the rubbery hamburgers in the student halls she describes. Her artful use of the musical track of our lives in the late ‘60s leads us through the narrative just as powerfully as the songs of the era led us into protest.
The “Coming of Conscience” that Dragonette’s main character experiences in this historical account of a young woman’s dilemma during the Vietnam War is emblematic of the painful changes so many of us were facing back then, and wrenches us back to the first time we had to carry the weight of life or death decisions. We are reminded as we’ve grown older, that those decisions were the foundation of our character. With The Fourteenth of September we can dig into the archives of our conscious growth and see from whence we came. Luckily, we have this author’s rich recall and gift for recreating gab to thank for a beautifully melancholic look back.
October 3, 2018
Having experienced, along with the author, the turbulent times this story covers, I was looking forward to this read with great anticipation. I was not disappointed, and find that this tale accurately portrays the era and the conflicts and emotions we experienced as young college students. It was a time of rapid societal and cultural change when teenagers and young adults seemingly faced major life decisions on a daily basis, even on a relatively quiet Midwestern university campus like the fictional “CIU”. The draft, parental alienation, sexual liberation, drug use, and the counter culture all came into play, with “The War”, of course, forming the backdrop for all of it. This novel should be read by anyone interested in getting the feel of daily life and the burgeoning anti-war movement on a college campus in the late ‘60s and early “70’s. Thanks, Rita for telling the story and getting the details right.
November 20, 2018
I honestly have not read much Vietnam era fiction. I’ve always been drawn to WWII historical fiction and older. I simply thought maybe it was because of my grandparents and so I had a draw and connection to that time. My dad was still just a little too young for Vietnam, so I never really had a tie to that time other than to look at my parents’ silly old pictures.
So when I was given The Fourteenth of September, I was intrigued. Being from NE Ohio, what happened at Kent State University was taught in all of my history classes. There are memorials every year, articles, new stories. The photos are familiar to even me. I’ve been to the monument in DC. But outside of those classes and field trips, Forrest Gump, and some more pop culture of that era, I truthfully and embarrassingly knew very little about Vietnam and what young men and women were going through.
It was a tumultuous time at the very least and Dragonette put you there in the smoky dorms and at the demonstrations. You felt like you were with Judy, you were being motivated by David, were inspired by Vida’s passion. This is a story that will hit home for a generation that is still here with us to read about it. It isn’t like WWII, where it’s been so long and so far removed. This is still in the recent past for some and the current climate of today’s word can do none other than spark familiarity with a time where a generation was fighting their damndest for a change.
For me, The Fourteenth of September was eye opening, educational, and riveting.
Thank you to JKS Communications for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
So when I was given The Fourteenth of September, I was intrigued. Being from NE Ohio, what happened at Kent State University was taught in all of my history classes. There are memorials every year, articles, new stories. The photos are familiar to even me. I’ve been to the monument in DC. But outside of those classes and field trips, Forrest Gump, and some more pop culture of that era, I truthfully and embarrassingly knew very little about Vietnam and what young men and women were going through.
It was a tumultuous time at the very least and Dragonette put you there in the smoky dorms and at the demonstrations. You felt like you were with Judy, you were being motivated by David, were inspired by Vida’s passion. This is a story that will hit home for a generation that is still here with us to read about it. It isn’t like WWII, where it’s been so long and so far removed. This is still in the recent past for some and the current climate of today’s word can do none other than spark familiarity with a time where a generation was fighting their damndest for a change.
For me, The Fourteenth of September was eye opening, educational, and riveting.
Thank you to JKS Communications for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
November 6, 2019
Rita Dragonette’s debut novel, The Fourteenth of September, is an intriguing look into what was going on in America’s colleges during the Vietnam War, as shown through the eyes of Private Judy Talton, a young woman who accepts a scholarship through the ROTC but then later begins to doubt her decision. This is a rich, well-told story of what the lottery-style draft meant to the young men who were chosen, but also to the young women on campus, especially those like Judy, who found themselves agonizingly caught in the middle. Dragonette’s dialogue sparkles and her descriptions of the sex, drugs and rock and roll of that era are vivid, crisp and evocative. Dragonette has a very accomplished style and knows how to transport her readers with a perfectly paced story. Loved being in this world and didn’t want it to end!
August 10, 2018
This author is a great talent and has integrity. This book is a compelling, original book and a great read. Worth reading!
September 9, 2020
Rita Dragonette, the author of “The Fourteenth of September” writes a memorable, thought-provoking, captivating and intriguing novel. The genres for this novel are fiction and historical fiction. The timeline for this story takes place during the Vietnam War. The author describes her dramatic characters as complex and complicated. I appreciate the author’s vivid descriptions of the college life and events in this story. The adversities and frustrations during this turbulent time brought protests and many conflicting protests.
Judy Talton is 19 years old on September 14, 1969. In order to be able to afford college, Judy has been saving money for years and is encouraged by her military mother to apply for an ROTC scholarship to become a nurse. Judy does make it to college but becomes obsessed with a group of protesters against the Vietnam War. By joining the activities of this group, Judy not only could lose her scholarship but could be considered AWOL.
There will be a lottery drawn, and young men will be drafted into the army that gets the lowest numbers on their birthday. Judy realizes the date drawn is her birthday, which is number one, and if she were a man, she would be the first to go to Vietnam. Question of conscience, the meaning of war, the right to choose, and women vs. men’s rights are discussed in this story.
I remember many of the songs that the author mentions of that time, and I do remember how conflicted young men felt, as did their families and significant others. I remember the college protests and the National Guard getting involved. What a tragic time in history. I would highly recommend this significant and thought-provoking story.
Judy Talton is 19 years old on September 14, 1969. In order to be able to afford college, Judy has been saving money for years and is encouraged by her military mother to apply for an ROTC scholarship to become a nurse. Judy does make it to college but becomes obsessed with a group of protesters against the Vietnam War. By joining the activities of this group, Judy not only could lose her scholarship but could be considered AWOL.
There will be a lottery drawn, and young men will be drafted into the army that gets the lowest numbers on their birthday. Judy realizes the date drawn is her birthday, which is number one, and if she were a man, she would be the first to go to Vietnam. Question of conscience, the meaning of war, the right to choose, and women vs. men’s rights are discussed in this story.
I remember many of the songs that the author mentions of that time, and I do remember how conflicted young men felt, as did their families and significant others. I remember the college protests and the National Guard getting involved. What a tragic time in history. I would highly recommend this significant and thought-provoking story.
September 14, 2020
Fourteenth of September is a touching and suspenseful story about 19-year-old Judy Talton
It's the fall of 1969, Judy's mother who is an army nurse forces her to join the army during one of the most tumultuous challenging years of the Vietnam war.
She has saved her money for years to go to college and it was because of her mother's encouragement that she applied for the ROTC scholarship to become a nurse. Now she has to make personal choices between her army scholarship and anti-Vietnam war protest.
Young men will be drafted into the army when the lottery is drawn and the ones with the lowest numbers on their birthday will be chosen. Judy’s birthday is on the first and she thinks if she were a man, she would be the first to be sent to Vietnam. Being pulled into different directions by her family and her integrity during this hectic time, she doesn’t know what she is going to lose!
I appreciate the author's effort to describe vivid descriptions of the events and Judy’s college life. Judy’s mature way of thinking was captivating, and I really liked the author's creativity to create complex and developed characters.
Many thanks, @suzyapprovedbooktours and Rita Dragonett for this gifted copy.
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It's the fall of 1969, Judy's mother who is an army nurse forces her to join the army during one of the most tumultuous challenging years of the Vietnam war.
She has saved her money for years to go to college and it was because of her mother's encouragement that she applied for the ROTC scholarship to become a nurse. Now she has to make personal choices between her army scholarship and anti-Vietnam war protest.
Young men will be drafted into the army when the lottery is drawn and the ones with the lowest numbers on their birthday will be chosen. Judy’s birthday is on the first and she thinks if she were a man, she would be the first to be sent to Vietnam. Being pulled into different directions by her family and her integrity during this hectic time, she doesn’t know what she is going to lose!
I appreciate the author's effort to describe vivid descriptions of the events and Judy’s college life. Judy’s mature way of thinking was captivating, and I really liked the author's creativity to create complex and developed characters.
Many thanks, @suzyapprovedbooktours and Rita Dragonett for this gifted copy.
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Amazon
October 4, 2018
This exceptional debut novel is a time travel of sorts, back to the late sixties, 1969 to be exact, and captures the multi dimensional turbulence of the times. Even if you didn't live through those times, as I did, it will take you back to the VietNam War and the horror of the Massacre of Four students at Kent State University.
This book will introduce you to several characters whose daily lives were impacted by these events, as well as their entrance into an era of free love, easy access to hallucinogens, where "getting high" was their norm and dreams of a Revolution, resistance to the establishment at the very least.
But mostly, this novel takes you through Judy Talton's life as a young teenager, attending college on a military scholarship to study nursing and her ongoing struggle with her conscience (as well as her mother) about this decision. Through that tumultuous time, she became very conflicted and passionate about anti-war activities, and bringing our boys home from VietNam alive.
It was an emotional ride for me, and even if you didn't live during that period, you are going to love this book, and won't want it to end. Judy Talton is a memorable character that you won't soon be able to forget.
This book will introduce you to several characters whose daily lives were impacted by these events, as well as their entrance into an era of free love, easy access to hallucinogens, where "getting high" was their norm and dreams of a Revolution, resistance to the establishment at the very least.
But mostly, this novel takes you through Judy Talton's life as a young teenager, attending college on a military scholarship to study nursing and her ongoing struggle with her conscience (as well as her mother) about this decision. Through that tumultuous time, she became very conflicted and passionate about anti-war activities, and bringing our boys home from VietNam alive.
It was an emotional ride for me, and even if you didn't live during that period, you are going to love this book, and won't want it to end. Judy Talton is a memorable character that you won't soon be able to forget.
October 22, 2018
Past as Prologue
The federal government has identified a malignant force that must be stopped before it spreads its dark shadow over the world. A game of lots, based on date of birth, is used to determine which young men will be impressed into military service to combat it. In this game, those born on The Fourteenth of September are randomly selected as the first to arrive on the battlefield, where survival averages six minutes once the enemy is actively engaged. In this novel, that battlefield is located in French Indonesia, more commonly known by most Americans as Vietnam.
When the game of chance known as the Selective Service Lottery was first enacted on December 1, 1969, Private Judy Talton had already committed to a life-altering gamble all her own. The daughter of a suburban military family without means to support her academic ambitions, she finds herself torn between the need for an education sponsored by the ROTC and the desire to follow her conscience, by joining those resisting what she increasing comes to recognize as a calamitous, unsustainable and unjust war.
Much has been written and said about the war in Vietnam. The intervening years, stained with their own moral failings and needless conflicts, have tended to push the lessons of Vietnam further and further into the shadows; making this novel all the more prescient and necessary for readers today.
As we follow Judy’s transition from intellectual bystander to reluctant participant to active organizer, we’re reminded of a heartbreaking reality; the protests against the Vietnam War were grass roots citizens uprisings, fomented and sustained by teenagers and young adults. We’re also reminded that these young people - often led by women - altered the course of public opinion - and for a brief, shining moment, national politics too. Judy’s story anticipates the peaceful organized youth protests of today, focusing on issues like gun control, ethnic isolation and sexual harassment; how difficult they can be to organize - and how hard they can be to maintain.
Embedded in Judy’s story is the reminder that all of our actions (and inactions) have consequences; that good causes are often championed by flawed people and that there is an inherent nobility in allowing conscience to override the immediacy of self-concern. Hers is the story about the risks that attach themselves to active resistance, including ruptured relationships with friends and family – and the vital importance resistance movement’s play in society as a whole. It is a story about the unrealized resourcefulness we often find when pressed into tough situations and the bravery and courage required to voluntarily place ourselves in threatening circumstances for the sake of social justice.
Judy Talton’s story is about much more than a moment in American history. It is about the importance of carving out a personal history that fairly measures social equity against personal gain, in search of an even balance between the two. This is a great book to animate debate over how that balance has been missed in the past; how it might be achieved today and what can be done to insure future iterations of the cruel game of chance that destroyed an entire generation of American youth in the late sixties and early seventies doesn’t re-occur.
Highly recommended for all readers; especially young adults and those charged with instructing them.
I received an Advanced Review Copy of this book
The federal government has identified a malignant force that must be stopped before it spreads its dark shadow over the world. A game of lots, based on date of birth, is used to determine which young men will be impressed into military service to combat it. In this game, those born on The Fourteenth of September are randomly selected as the first to arrive on the battlefield, where survival averages six minutes once the enemy is actively engaged. In this novel, that battlefield is located in French Indonesia, more commonly known by most Americans as Vietnam.
When the game of chance known as the Selective Service Lottery was first enacted on December 1, 1969, Private Judy Talton had already committed to a life-altering gamble all her own. The daughter of a suburban military family without means to support her academic ambitions, she finds herself torn between the need for an education sponsored by the ROTC and the desire to follow her conscience, by joining those resisting what she increasing comes to recognize as a calamitous, unsustainable and unjust war.
Much has been written and said about the war in Vietnam. The intervening years, stained with their own moral failings and needless conflicts, have tended to push the lessons of Vietnam further and further into the shadows; making this novel all the more prescient and necessary for readers today.
As we follow Judy’s transition from intellectual bystander to reluctant participant to active organizer, we’re reminded of a heartbreaking reality; the protests against the Vietnam War were grass roots citizens uprisings, fomented and sustained by teenagers and young adults. We’re also reminded that these young people - often led by women - altered the course of public opinion - and for a brief, shining moment, national politics too. Judy’s story anticipates the peaceful organized youth protests of today, focusing on issues like gun control, ethnic isolation and sexual harassment; how difficult they can be to organize - and how hard they can be to maintain.
Embedded in Judy’s story is the reminder that all of our actions (and inactions) have consequences; that good causes are often championed by flawed people and that there is an inherent nobility in allowing conscience to override the immediacy of self-concern. Hers is the story about the risks that attach themselves to active resistance, including ruptured relationships with friends and family – and the vital importance resistance movement’s play in society as a whole. It is a story about the unrealized resourcefulness we often find when pressed into tough situations and the bravery and courage required to voluntarily place ourselves in threatening circumstances for the sake of social justice.
Judy Talton’s story is about much more than a moment in American history. It is about the importance of carving out a personal history that fairly measures social equity against personal gain, in search of an even balance between the two. This is a great book to animate debate over how that balance has been missed in the past; how it might be achieved today and what can be done to insure future iterations of the cruel game of chance that destroyed an entire generation of American youth in the late sixties and early seventies doesn’t re-occur.
Highly recommended for all readers; especially young adults and those charged with instructing them.
I received an Advanced Review Copy of this book
January 10, 2020
The Fourteenth of September—Rita Dragonette
History refuses to stay buried, especially where the Vietnam War is concerned. In The Fourteenth of September, set in 1969-1970 at an Illinois university during the midst of the “draft lotteries” and anti-war student protests, we not only experience the heavy political contrails of a divided nation but also a young college student trying to become more self-aware, both as an army scholarship student and as a neophyte feminist. Morally ambiguous, nothing is ever one thing or one belief for her. Beautifully written and structured, this novel interweaves family conflict, friendship and betrayal, as well as romantic pairings some of which are doomed to fail. Gimlet-eyed, well-observed emotional portrait of a tumultuous time. Highly recommend!
History refuses to stay buried, especially where the Vietnam War is concerned. In The Fourteenth of September, set in 1969-1970 at an Illinois university during the midst of the “draft lotteries” and anti-war student protests, we not only experience the heavy political contrails of a divided nation but also a young college student trying to become more self-aware, both as an army scholarship student and as a neophyte feminist. Morally ambiguous, nothing is ever one thing or one belief for her. Beautifully written and structured, this novel interweaves family conflict, friendship and betrayal, as well as romantic pairings some of which are doomed to fail. Gimlet-eyed, well-observed emotional portrait of a tumultuous time. Highly recommend!
May 8, 2020
I got this book from Book Trib and I'm so seriously thrilled that I did!
The story, which focuses on Judy, a woman in college during the time of the Vietnam war and the draft lottery, delves into a period of recent history which I know almost nothing about. In addition to giving me a deeper knowledge of this period, Ms. Dragonette also gives a very human story as Judy and her friends all wrestle with what's happening in the world and how they are going to respond to it. They felt like people you could/would meet on a college campus and I appreciated that, in addition to be distinct and memorable, all them were incredibly flawed. The whole thing just felt so real.
It makes me want to read more recent history fiction and makes me wonder what stories writers will tell about the times we're experiencing now.
I'm also excited to pass this book on to a fellow book club member!
The story, which focuses on Judy, a woman in college during the time of the Vietnam war and the draft lottery, delves into a period of recent history which I know almost nothing about. In addition to giving me a deeper knowledge of this period, Ms. Dragonette also gives a very human story as Judy and her friends all wrestle with what's happening in the world and how they are going to respond to it. They felt like people you could/would meet on a college campus and I appreciated that, in addition to be distinct and memorable, all them were incredibly flawed. The whole thing just felt so real.
It makes me want to read more recent history fiction and makes me wonder what stories writers will tell about the times we're experiencing now.
I'm also excited to pass this book on to a fellow book club member!
August 6, 2018
“Set in the months before and after the 1969 draft lottery, Rita Dragonette’s The Fourteenth of September tells the powerful story of Judy Talton, a young woman who must decide whether to risk her military nursing scholarship to protest the Vietnam War, which she has become convinced is morally wrong. Dragonette brilliantly depicts how the urgency of political commitment complicates the self-absorption of adolescence, the intense bonds of family, friendship and love—often with devastating consequences. This is not only a novel for those of us who look back and marvel at the profound decisions we were called upon to make when we were so young, but for a whole new generation facing the crucial questions of a turbulent, changing world that will define them.”
November 4, 2019
I had high hopes for this novel, as I lived through the tumultuous times described here. In fact, once I started the book, I realized that I was a sophomore in college in Boston at the same time as the main character, Judy, was a sophomore in college in Illinois!. The school year of 1969-1970 was a unique moment in our history, encompassing as it did the draft lottery, major protests, and the killings at Kent State, The author did an excellent job at evoking the times - from the music to the ways people dressed to the widespread experimentation with drugs to the divergent attitudes on campus. Unfortunately, it seemed that nothing much happened until about halfway through the book.
Thank you very much to NetGalley and She Writes Press for a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you very much to NetGalley and She Writes Press for a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
September 6, 2020
The Fourteenth of September by Rita Dragonette is an incredible work of historical fiction set in the time of the Vietnam War. The author does an incredible job of portraying the chaos that was America at this time.
Judy Talton is attending college on a Army scholarship, yet she secretly participates in the anti-war movement on campus. At this time as a 19 year old, she is literally living two different lives. This unique perspective becomes even more complicated as the draft lottery is installed at her school. The first date called was her birthday and if she had been a man she would of been called to war.
The character of Judy is a unique perspective as most written works of this time period are from a man's perspective. The story is well written, emotional and captivating.
A MUST read!
Judy Talton is attending college on a Army scholarship, yet she secretly participates in the anti-war movement on campus. At this time as a 19 year old, she is literally living two different lives. This unique perspective becomes even more complicated as the draft lottery is installed at her school. The first date called was her birthday and if she had been a man she would of been called to war.
The character of Judy is a unique perspective as most written works of this time period are from a man's perspective. The story is well written, emotional and captivating.
A MUST read!
April 4, 2019
Recommend "The Fourteenth of September" by Rita Dragonette
For anyone who lived through the late 60's in college under the shadow of the Viet Nam draft.
Great read. Depicts a time period in our country of great tumult and angst. Well-developed characters, right out of Woodstock. Anyone who experienced the Vietnam Nam years will love this book. A page-turner.
For anyone who lived through the late 60's in college under the shadow of the Viet Nam draft.
Great read. Depicts a time period in our country of great tumult and angst. Well-developed characters, right out of Woodstock. Anyone who experienced the Vietnam Nam years will love this book. A page-turner.
August 22, 2018
This debut novel deftly captures a generation on the cusp of an uncertain future. The characters choices are difficult, their solutions complex. At times charming and funny, at others intense and heartbreaking, Dragonette depicts a complicated chapter in our history with precision and depth, and renders it with compassion, understanding, and grace.
August 13, 2018
“Rita Dragonette has crafted a compelling first novel about the Vietnam War era, when successive presidents and administrations continually covered up the true military situation in Vietnam, and numerous military advisers to three presidents were overly optimistic about the US capabilities of winning that war. There is a morbid similarity to those events in today’s world. Ms. Dragonette paints a picture of the unrest in the student body across many universities, and their gradual realization that the American public was not being told the truth about Vietnam and that they were going to be asked through the draft to join in the slaughter, risking their lives at a time when nearly 40,000 Americans had already been killed. It is a coming-of-age story of students, their loves and fears, and the polarization of thinking that it is even wider in the US today.
This is a wonderful read for those who can remember the Vietnam era, and perhaps younger people that can identify with the student unrest, that led eventually to a capitulation of the Government to their demands.”
This is a wonderful read for those who can remember the Vietnam era, and perhaps younger people that can identify with the student unrest, that led eventually to a capitulation of the Government to their demands.”
August 6, 2018
Rita Dragonette’s novel, The Fourteenth of September, reveals what I have known for a long while—that she is a writer of great talent and integrity who infuses this debut work with an energy and vision that lifts it far beyond the ordinary coming of age story. This is an important book, not to be missed.
July 9, 2018
A primer on the Vietnam War revolving around an intimate group of college students, Dragonette's story is heavy on characterization and light on dramatization. I appreciate that this author traded in the research dump found in a lot of historical fiction for compact emotional scenes, choice setting depictions and literary/lyrical nods to this important era. With THE FOURTEENTH OF SEPTEMBER, I received a perfect and engrossing overview of events I've always been curious about but never took the time to explore for the right info. Bravo on a solid debut!
March 19, 2019
I eagerly devoured The Fourteenth of September, by gifted author, Rita Dragonette. Talk about a vivid flash from the past! Having lived near UC Berkeley during the Vietnam era, this book was right up my alley. Set on a college campus during the late ’60s, the novel’s protagonist (Judy Talton, lovingly developed by the author) comes into her own. For me, it was her coming of consciousness that was the most compelling – it blossomed amidst the uncertainty, chaos and political polarization of the era: sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll; the rise of feminism; activism; the awareness of privilege; the frightening life decisions that infused college life at that time, leaving purpose and outrage in its wake…All messages echoing in our current political drama. SO well done!
(I confess I find myself wondering about the protagonist today… What cause is she championing now, 50 years later? Perhaps there’s a sequel up Dragonette’s sleeve?)
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