Do You Believe in Magic [Hardcover]

Annie Gottlieb (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Gottlieb talked to a diverse group of Sixties "survivors" and recorded their thoughts about the era and how it affected the course of their lives. She adds her own thoughts on where they were then as it relates to where they are nowas baby-boomers enter middle-ageand in so doing makes a successful attempt at putting that decade into historical perspective. In her words, her "book is . . . about . . . the ways we went too far . . . the friends we made and lost . . . remembrances of the Vietnam War and the anti-war movement . . . of drug and spiritual quests, of new forms of love and work. It's high time to tell our stories, and to say, if we can what their moral is." A nice companion volume is David Wallechinsky's Midterm Report: the class of `65 ( LJ 7/86). Libraries will want this. If you can afford Wallechinsky, too, all the better. Nostalgia Book Club alternate..Rosellen Brewer, Monterey Cty. Lib., Seaside, Cal.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 418 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (March 12, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081291225X
• ISBN-13: 978-0812912258
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,834,523 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best ride into the Sixties this side of [the] windowpane, May 24, 1999

By 

Kurt H. Selvig (Portland, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Do You Believe in Magic (Hardcover)

Ms. Gottleib's retrospective of the Sixties is approached in a manner that makes the reader feel as though they are an intimate part of the research stage of the book. Interview after interview with household names of the time, as well as with those of lesser notoriety, provide honest insight into a time of turmoil on almost every level of existence in the US.

If you were there and don't remember, READ IT! If you weren't there and wish you had been, READ IT! If you're just looking for an intelligent, insightful, well-researched book, READ IT! I would LOVE to have lunch with the author. . .

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The 60s in hindsight., August 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Do You Believe in Magic (Hardcover)

Ms Gottlieb has an objective but sympathetic view of Boomers and the period known as "the 60s". She presents Boomers warts and all, but still is able to make us feel good about ourselves and our youth.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A well-written eye-opener, October 27, 2006

By 

Cathleen M. Walker "geminiwalker" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Do You Believe in Magic (Hardcover)

I expected this book to be fun, I did not expect it to be so poignant and yes, painful. It's a roller coaster ride of memories of where the Baby Boom came from, how it manifested, where it went, and how it dissipated - the most painful chapters of all. It is a well-written eye-opener for those who weren't there, and a nostalgic journey for those who were. It would be too easy to forget - things have changed so much, and not in the idealistic ways hoped for. It's easy to see why. All our major leaders/heroes were assassinated, all our best and brightest were distracted by sex, drugs, rock and roll and the master manipulation of TV. Still, we had vision and we had hope - and Annie Gottlieb captures the basics of what might have been. She even implies it may not be too late. If only that were true.