Some Months in 1968
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"The bombs in Vietnam explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America." — Martin Luther King, Jr. During the course of his career, poet-writer Baron Wormser has investigated the hearts of many matters. In Some Months in 1968, he portrays the Brownsons, a family of five living in suburban Baltimore, who experience one of the most tumultuous moments in American history. Using elements of flash-fiction, biography, poetry, history and essay, he reaches into the immediacy of daily breakfasts and the minds of Lyndon Baines Johnson and Ho Chi Minh, into the consumer culture of the United States and the stirrings of political and spiritual conscience, into music and raw violence. As a novel, Some Months in 1968, offers a vision of a society riven by conflicts. The relevance of those months, as this remarkable novel makes plain, remains. "More than anyone I’ve read in recent years, Baron Wormser has the ability to see into the depths of the American soul with its greed, its violence, and the racial oppression that its founding depended upon. In his new novel, Some Months in 1968, this acute insight is set within the turbulence of an American family trying to navigate a year of violence and a son’s attempts to claim himself as a conscientious objector. Mixing their dialogue with short powerful descriptions of Ho Chi Minh and Lyndon B. Johnson, Wormser challenges the conventions of the novel to produce an inventive intersection of history, politics, family and a young man’s quest for God and conscience in an America where both feel increasingly absent. By the end, Wormser’s keen view of history almost feels prophetic, as inside of those months, our present time looms uncomfortably large" — Karen Osborn, author of Centerville The chapters in Some Months in 1968 fit together like the lines in a poem. Imagine a story about the ins and outs of a suburban white family in that crisis year, one that’s equally about coming-of-age angst and yearnings and about confronting or avoiding the issues of inequality, racism, the war, and the draft. Imagine that the writer also gets you with depth and sympathy into the opposing minds and worldviews of Lyndon Johnson and Ho Chi Minh. Oh, and there’s a dad seeking a church, a mom seeking to understand history, and kids exploring sex, drugs, and/or rock’n’roll. All in one package, a few months of life, and an addictive read. — Dick Cluster, author of Obligations of the Bone and History of Havana |
