Catching the Sixties if you can
Today I'm delighted to welcome author Marc Feinstein to my blog with his new book, Catch Us If You Can. The novel is set in the 60s and advertized as:
A small town, a family, a
tragedy and the saving power of Rock & Roll…
It's an intriguing mix, so, my 60s having been experienced a world away in England, I asked the author why he'd set his story then.
Why The Sixties
“In the late summer of 1965, The Dave Clark Five, a British rock
and roll group riding high on the wave of Beatlemania sweeping America,
released their eleventh charted single, Catch
Us If You Can. The song, remaining
on the charts for a respectable nine weeks, peaking at number four, would one
day soon replace Sweet Georgia Brown
as the musical accompaniment for the opening warm-up drills for the Oldbrook
Owls.”
This was one of the earlier versions of the start to my novel, Catch Us If You Can. It didn’t make the cut, but it did depict
basically all I had—and I mean that is all
I had at the time as an idea for the entire novel. Sure, I had already known the title, and that
I would be writing about a basketball team.
I had already cleverly thought of the title being pregnant with meaning:
literal use of the song and its lyrical significance to a basketball team;
metaphorical Us being dreams; a
storyline that included some degree of juvenile delinquency. And I also knew that the 1960’s were fertile
ground for story-telling. These were my times after all.
As you're living it as a teen, you don't
necessarily have any perspective to know any different way of growing up, any other
life experience with which to contrast your times. If you weren't a
devotee of the daily news (written or television), you probably missed a lot or
failed to then recognize it as a time that would stand out in history. But
with historical perspective, it is axiomatic that, to paraphrase Dylan: The
times, they were a changing. In a big
way. The turmoil of the era was manifest,
from the civil rights movement, to the Vietnam War and anti-war protest
movement, to the cultural shift led by this nexus of Youth and the
interrogation of the America that existed—Rock and Roll, the Hippies, the
Sexual Revolution, the Feminist movement, the increased exposure and access to
recreational drugs, the favorable economy and the growth and flourishing of
suburbia, increased access to college for the masses. All this was experienced
by the largest demographic in American history--the Baby Boomers. Fertile
ground for story-telling, indeed.
ABOUT THE BOOK
A small town, a family, a
tragedy and the saving power of Rock & Roll…
It
is 1967. Gene Gennaro is sailing through his freshman year in Oldbrook, blown
along by the steady prevailing innocent winds of the time—sports, girls and
Rock & Roll. On the Ides of March, a
tragedy thrusts him into a new world forever rocked by that fateful day.
The
next three frenetic years of high school are a lifeline for Gene as unbreakable
as the fidelity of his friendships with five basketball teammates; most of all
Reuben, his best friend since before kindergarten, whose lifeline at times
turns into the rope for a tug-of-war between fate and will, testing their
classically loyal friendship.
CATCH US IF YOU CAN is
a coming-of-age tale of small town but urban youth growing up in the late
1960's trying to untangle the answer to life’s tragedies as well as answer
Bruce Springsteen’s haunting question: Is a dream a
lie if it don’t come true or is it something worse?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born
in the Bronx and raised in Ridgefield, New Jersey, Marc Feinstein is a child of
the 60's unbound with stories to tell.
Feinstein is a graduate from the University of Pennsylvania where he received his Bachelor's in Economics. He went on to law school at the Mc George School of Law at University of the Pacific and then began long career in law as a Litigation Attorney and Mediator.
He spent over 30 years of his life in Orange County, California with his wife and two children and now retired resides in Maui with his wife.
He is an avid basketball enthusiast --from playing it, to coaching it, to the study of its history and evolution as a game.
Feinstein is having the time of his life writing and creating stories that connect and resonate with a broad audience and hopes to one day crossover his books to film.
Feinstein is a graduate from the University of Pennsylvania where he received his Bachelor's in Economics. He went on to law school at the Mc George School of Law at University of the Pacific and then began long career in law as a Litigation Attorney and Mediator.
He spent over 30 years of his life in Orange County, California with his wife and two children and now retired resides in Maui with his wife.
He is an avid basketball enthusiast --from playing it, to coaching it, to the study of its history and evolution as a game.
Feinstein is having the time of his life writing and creating stories that connect and resonate with a broad audience and hopes to one day crossover his books to film.
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