Kissing the Sky
Patton’s novel hits all the high notes for naïve 20-year-old Suzie and her best friend, Livvy, as they head to Woodstock together in August 1969. Patton explores the giddy insecurities of first love, the protests against the Vietnam War, the young men drafted to fight, and those who refused to participate. It spotlights blatant government hypocrisy that denies Suzie adult choices, while teaching her male counterparts to kill. It tells of the enduring power of friendship, discovering the beauty within, and finding freedom to accept who we are.
From the moment the girls leave their car on the gridlocked highway to trek the last 10 miles to Bethel, Patton’s novel whisked me back to my teenaged self. I fell down an enticing rabbit-hole in which the American make-love-not-war movement mirrored what was experienced elsewhere in the world. Patton convinces with both narrative and spot-on dialogue, as readers wander a world of hip-hugger bell bottoms, peasant shirts and halters, long-haired hippie boys, flower power, and peace signs. With Livvy’s boyfriend a disappointing no-show, the girls squeeze into a tiny space on the grass beside Leon and Johnny, a couple of 20-something cousins, one a draft dodger headed to Canada directly from the festival.
There’s no doubt the Woodstock festival is the novel’s mega-power backdrop, but music isn’t the star. Baez, Hendrix, Creedence, Jefferson, and Joplin all amplify the emotional euphoria and the small but meaningful moments Patton captures on the page – scarce food and water, on-off rain and storms, foot-stomping fields of mud, people stacked like sardines. Strangers sharing love and friendship and meagre provisions. Thematically the reminder is that humans need one another, that love for the people around us should unite, not divide. Patton’s outspoken reminiscence will be gobbled up by anyone interested in (or who participated in) the counter-culture movement.
“ ‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky”. Magical!
