This book pales in comparison to other, superior chronicles of the '60's such as Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem or White Album. Do not bother with Sara Davidson's tripe.


In 1978 it inspired me, in 1999 it was bittersweet.   July 9, 1999
 12 out of 15 found this review helpful

I saw the miniseries on TV in 1978 in a college dorm with my girlfriends. It so inspired us, that as we tearfully said our good-byes at graduation, "Loose Change" became our anthem to describe what we expected as our futures unfolded. In 1999, I saw an article about Sara Davidson in People magazine, and I remembered how much the story had meant to me twenty years before--so it was time to get the book. The book jogged memories of the issues and choices I faced in the '70s, and also reminded me how much those '60s trailblazers did for their younger boomer-counterparts. I think it's time for the author to do a follow-up on these women today. In the meantime, I'm sending this book to my old college girlfriends.


Enjoyed it Even More the Second Time   September 10, 2001
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

Sara Davidson's "Loose Change" is a brilliantly-written account of the Sixties as experienced by three young women coming of age. I bought this book when it first came out in 1977 and loved it. Recently, I came across "Loose Change" in a used book store and just couldn't put it down.
The Sixties were a time of great social upheaval, and I remember many of the major events. I went though college in the late 60s and early 70s. Even though my background is somewhat different -- Blue collar, conservative, Catholic, male, short-haired, Pittsburgh, and definitely never inhaled -- it was interesting to see the female, radical point of view. Like many others in that period, Sara, Susie, and Tasha search for life's meaning in a turbulent time in which the old values they grew up with have withered away.
You are there in the historical events and movements of that period -- the Antiwar movement, major student protests at Berkeley and Columbia, the bloodbath at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention, the music of Woodstock, rural communes, free sex, and the terror of the Altamont Concert.
This book seems to get better over time because there is a greater contrast between today's world and the 1960s. The Antiwar, Womens' Liberation, and Civil Rights Movements changed the country and the world for the better, and drugs have changed things for the worst. And the sexual revolution.... well, you be the judge.
I like Ms. Davidson's rich writing style, as she places the reader right there, feeling and experiencing life with Sara, Susie, and Tasha, "warts and all." She's gutsy enough to talk about sexuality, a formerly taboo subject. Sara, Susie, and Tasha follow their sexual drives and suffer many bad love affairs, for which both the men and women share the blame.
I've also enjoyed a few of Sara Davidson's other articles and her biography of Rock Hudson. "Loose Change" is now historical, and it's so alive you can hear the music and the protest marches. This book is definitely worth five stars and I would recommend it to almost everyone, even my own daughter.


Best book about the real '60's   June 4, 1999
 9 out of 11 found this review helpful

Forget ludicrous media concoctions about the '60's - this is the real mccoy, a narrative following the lives of FOUR (yes, count 'em) Jewish girls from a University of California-Berkeley sorority in 1960 into the mid-70's. One marries a student radical and moves through the western counterculture scene, one travels to New York to embrace the art world, a third becomes a psychologist, and the fourth becomes the journalist who wrote the book. Along the way there's lots of liberal guilt, failed marriages and wild affairs, radical failures and personal triumphs.

Davidson still writes occasional articles for the New York Times and is I believe an executive producer for the TV show 'Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman'. Her latest work is 'Cowboy' about an affair with a young(ish) hunk.

I guess you COULD say there's a certain degree of self-absorption here - but from MY experience of '60's folks that's right on the money. The author might be described as a TAD on the promiscuous side as well - how times have changed! But for the upper-middle class rad-lib set in those times... Right On, sister!


Familiar if you are a baby boomer   September 10, 1999
 9 out of 13 found this review helpful

When I first read this book some 10 years ago, I quickly identified with the characters, even though I am Jewish girl from NYC. Ten years later, I often think about the characters and wonder how they turned out. I ffound the book to be true to "us" and how "we" really felt as we went through the 60's, Vietnam, drugs and free love. You had to be there. The author captures the moment. Why not write a follow up to Loose Change? You could call it Dollar Bills.