Carlton, Susan. Love & Haight.

Carlton, Susan.   Love & Haight.    Macmillan/ Henry Holt   176p  $16.99  978-0-8050-8097-1           hs          E-BN      Historical Fiction     

Chloe is 17 and pregnant, and she wants an abortion.  Set in 1972, this book samples life in San Francisco during the era of the budding women’s liberation movement.  It is an excellent historical novel filled with heartache, questions and love. 

Chloe, accompanied by her best friend MJ (Mary Jane), drives from Phoenix to San Francisco during the last week of 1971 knowing that San Francisco allows legal abortions if a few conditions are met.  They stay with Chloe’s free-spirited aunt while Chloe tries to meet the conditions for having a legal abortion.  Filled with a roller coaster of emotions and questions about what love is and what friendship means, Chloe’s life is much like the hilly streets of San Francisco.  Her aunt Kiki, MJ, MJ’s brother and Chloe’s mother all play a part in Chloe’s final decision, which is not made lightly.  Chloe is offered advice and questions from nearly every character in the book, each of whom is a fully realized and authentic personality.  References to the song lyrics, fashions and hip phrases of the 1970s in the free-love and drug-infused environment of the Haight all add to the authenticity of the novel.  From nude races and condom balloon animals, from a quirky rabbi to anti-abortion protesters, Chloe experiences a lifestyle different from her conservative values. Chloe’s questions about life and love will resonate with contemporary female readers and show that questions about love and life know no time boundaries. This is an excellent study of the lives of young women in the early 1970s.  

Haight Ashbury-Fiction, Hippies-Fiction, Counterculture-Fiction, Historical fiction                                     -- Lois McNicol