It’s the season of siren songs and loosened bonds―as well as war, campaign slogans, and assassination. When the Raysons leave DC for the Berkeley counterculture, each embraces the moment in a hippie paradise that’s fast becoming a cultural ground zero. Tom, a restless lawyer, pursues a romance with a sexy colleague, while Marian joins a peace party that’s running a Black Panther for president. … for president. But for young Alice, as her family and school fade away in a tear gas fog, the 1960s counterculture brings ambiguous freedom, as Telegraph Avenue beckons. Guided by a child’s eye view in a tumultuous era, Alice could become another casualty―or she could come through to her new family, her developing life. But first, she must find her way in a world where the street signs hang backward and there’s a bootleg candy called Orange Sunshine.
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*What I like about the story is the third-person point of view. The story is told from the third person narrative (he, she, they.) The focus is on the different members of the Raysons’ family. The parents are Tom and Marian. Their children are Curt and Alice. Other characters are included, but this story is about the Raysons. Reading a third-person narrative, I was able to take a seat and watch the story unfold. In this way of telling the story, Playground Zero doesn’t tell or teach me to have an opinion other than the one in my mind. I can read the story and let it unfold, then create my own feeling and judgement.
*I like reading a story that’s out of my normal type read. This broadens my mind at the least. Whether I will end up enjoying the book is another thing.
*The Raysons’ family is an example of parents and children who are not connecting. Each person is focused on something other than each other. Each of them want to connect with something or someone whether it’s another person or an event that will fill what’s absent from their lives. In other words, each of the family members are searching for something that will bring meaning, stability, and intimacy. At times, the kids are looking to a parent for direction and guidance. They are looking for a stable and secure home, because the outside world is a scary place. Instead, the kids get zero help in the home. Is it possible that’s why the title is Playground Zero?
Connection and intimacy are themes and conflicts running through the story.
*When Alice and Curt start school in Berkeley, California, school integration has begun. This is new for them. It’s not new to have relationships with people of the African American race. It is new for African American and white children to be in the classroom together. Alice wants to be a friend no matter the person’s race. However, her good intentions are not matched with other students who are comfortable and accepting. This is an additional conflict in her life. She has a hard time finding a connection whether it’s at home, in school, or in the neighborhood.
Curt is a physical person. He’s athletic. It helps that boys regardless of race play sports together.
*The way the two races of kids treat one another was interesting. I saw a curiosity, but an unwillingness and inability to know how to integrate with one another. This is another conflict in the story.
*One of the things I had trouble with in the book is Alice is ten (and she’s twelve at the end) when the story begins. The story follows the family for a year. Her person seems older-a teenager and not a kid of ten. I had a difficult time believing that Alice is ten. If she’d been thirteen when the story began, then I’d state this story had a believable quality.
*I enjoyed the east coast versus west coast differences. The family began in Washington D.C. and relocated across the country to Berkeley, California.
*I laughed at the adults in the story who complain about people who judge others when they too judge.
*Tom and Marian have strong ideas of what they want their kids to experience. However, being strong stable parents is not one of those ideas.
*I experienced through Alice’s eyes the demonstrations, riots, and the chaos that transpired.
*The story doesn’t focus much on Curt. I wanted to hear more about his life.
*Lastly, there is a closure for the family. A big change comes and the kids are thrust to a new place. Alice has experienced big changes in the year at Berkeley, California. Her person grew in age one year, but in experience probably 30 years. Of course, I’d like to know the rest of her story!
*Final thoughts:
This is not a story that is a “feel good” story. It is a book that is revealing about people. There were moments when I was infuriated at the parents. I had moments of deep sadness for Alice. It is a book I’ll not forget. This is the last point and the main reason that led me to give this book an excellent rating: it is memorable!
Source: I received a complementary ARC paperback copy from the publisher, I was not required to write a positive review.
Captivating story!
Relyea pens a remarkable “coming of age” story in Playground Zero: A Novel. I haven’t read anything from this author before, and I really enjoyed this story. The characters were raw and complex, and even though the main character was 12 (Alice), there were a lot of layers to both her and the story. This author is not just a writer but a great storyteller. An enjoyable journey. An enjoyable journey. Magnificent story, kept this reader turning the pages. The reader is taken back to the 60’s (1960’s), which is an interesting era in itself, and brings that era to life. The intensity and free flowing stories within 60’s Berkley. Relyea is a very strong writer, and the story is told in an intriguing way that makes this a definite attention grabber. It’s a great story to follow and try to figure out what will happen next. This author’s characters develop and interacts well with the other characters. I look forward to reading many more stories by this author. This book is a definite recommendation by Amy’s Bookshelf Reviews.
Sarah Relyea’s Playground Zero is a story told through multiple points of view in third person narrative. The various perspectives of Relyea manage to maintain a non-biased and reliable narration of the characters’ circumstances. These multiple points of view were vital when it came to telling the story of the Rayson family who move from Washington D.C to Berkeley, California during the politically turbulent year of 1968. The reader is able to develop sympathy and understanding for each character as they read their stories in a more intimate format.
As the family transitions to their new hometown each character is seen trying to find their grounding in Berkeley, where hippie counterculture is extremely prevalent, along with drugs, free-love, and increasing tension with police and other government officials. The mother Marian strives to fit in with various activist groups, but despite her passion is plagued by her unfaithful husband Tom. Tom, a stone-like figure to his children and a demeaning one to his wife, has begun seeing another woman. Curt makes new friends quick enough, but is elusive and often rambunctious. At the center of this familial story we have Alice, a twelve year old girl looking for love and belonging in all of the wrong places. Set against the backdrop of the increasing conflict on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, the delicate balance the family has maintained for so many years is thrown by the wayside as each character embraces and explores their new identity.
I was particularly engaged by Alice’s journey into this new territory, especially regarding race relations and tension in Berkeley at this time. As the narrative cornerstone, Alice’s story serves to engage the reader and implores them to explore the situations one would experience at such a strange time in a new place. The beauty of the format of this novel is that one is given many characters to meet and sympathize with, instead of being limited to a singular perspective. Regardless of which story is the most interesting to the reader, this much is clear: this novel will serve as a unique perspective to the youthful challenges and conflicts many faced at a time when the United States was in total upheaval.
It’s a great story which takes place in 1968. It delves into the climate of political unrest and social tearing away from the norm in Berkeley.
https://touchedbyink.blogspot.com/2020/04/playground-zero.html?m=1
1960s Berkeley springs to life as a major “character” in this engrossing, compassionate, beautifully written tale of a young girl facing choices that would be confounding even for a much older kid. We see how unprotected 12 year-old Alice is — how the adults around her are so self-centered and absorbed in their own lives that Alice is left to experience the Telegraph Avenue scene, drugs, and difficulties at school by herself. And when she experiences a violent incident, she must metabolize it without the concern or support of others. The novel is a little long, but there are rewards on every page. I particularly liked the spot-on depiction of an experimental high school with no curriculum and “teachers” who sleep with students. Relyea creates vivid characters and memorable scenes, and we meditate on what it means to have freedom for which one isn’t ready. Highly recommended.
This novel is both wonderful and difficult. Wonderful because it takes on the often-told story of family conflict and the often-told story of the 60s in San Francisco and Berkley, and give it a very different spin. Painful because it addresses parental neglect, sexual assault, the challenges of growing up, and the difficulties of making relationships work at all ages. We see those things through the eyes of several different characters, but most powerfully through the eyes of a young girl, Alice Rayson. Each of her parents, her older brother, and some of their friends get a say, too, but it is Alice who really moves us through the story. Instead of seeing sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll from the perspective of the young adults who made the youth movement happen, we see it through the eyes of a child. And through that child we confront the realities of growing up in a chaotic time with few rules and erratic enforcement.
There is no possibility of romanticizing the 60s in this book. We see the grit, the pain, and the conflicts up close and we are left with hope.
Ever wonder what Berkeley was like in the late 60s? I was there, and this book depicts it very well. I related to the young female protagonist trying to make sense of it all, while her parents were too wrapped up in themselves to understand the danger and opportunity of the moment.
Sarah Relyea has penned a coming of age story set in one of the United States coming of age periods during the late 1960s. The Raysons family are all children of their time, and the third person alternating point-of-view lets us see the world they live in through their eyes and experience their day-to-day–Tom Rayson is not a likable man.
The book follows the family as they cross the country from the East Coast to the West Coast to establish new lives in Berkley, CA, during the bussing and integration of black students. Sarah Relyea has a great atmosphere for her story; there are many times she painted the events happening with her words.
In today’s climate, reading books of this nature might shed some light on social dynamics between races — although there are times I felt a little like there was an unconscious bias for the great work the Raysons were doing regardless of what they did. And Tom is thoroughly unlikeable.