The Sixties (2009)

While searching MacLeod's for more Georges Simenon, I noticed atop one of the store's many thigh-high bookstacks a copy of Jenny Diski's The Sixties (2009). Having just finished Myra Friedman's tour of that decade (via the life of Janis Joplin), I thought it time to consult what others have to say about these years, how the English experience might differ from notable American commentators like Joan Didion, who all but owns the decade with books like The White Album (1979) and Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968).

And so it was that I purchased The Sixties (along with two Simenons), digging into it on the bus ride back to Cedar Cottage. As this was my introduction to Diski, I had no expectations. The only thing I knew of her writing is that it is loved by her readers, very few of whom have ever had the time to tell me why -- apart from the usual kite tail of superlatives.

With the book's Introduction ingested, I climbed the hill from Knight Street, reflecting on the author's insights, the best of which are rooted in a World War that could still be smelled on the walls of Coventry Cathedral when I visited there in September 1980. More unexpectedly was Diski's penchant for the long line, which brought to mind another long liner, Doris Lessing, who was roughed up by the shorter line Didion in an essay that appears in The White Album. Interesting to read that Diski was taken in by Lessing at the age of 16 -- the year before many Brits and Americans agree is the beginning of a decade that ran from 1964-1973.

Here is the concluding paragraph of Diski's "Introduction":

We really didn't see it coming, the new world of rabid individualism and the sanctity of profit. But perhaps that is only to be expected. It's possible after all that we were simply young, and now we are simply old and looking back as every generation does nostalgically to our best of times. Perhaps the Sixties are an idea that has had its day and lingers along after its time. Except, of course, the music. (9)