Vida

Originally published in 1979, this piece of revolutionary fiction is a bestselling author's classic paean to the 1960s. At the center of the novel stands Vida Asch, who has lived underground for almost a decade. Back in the 1960s she was a political star of the exuberant antiwar movement--a red-haired beauty photographed for the pages of Lifemagazine--charismatic, passionate, and totally sure she would prevail. Now, a decade later, Vida is on the run, her star-quality replaced by stubborn courage. As counterpoint to the underground 1970s, Marge Piercy tells the extraordinary tale of the optimistic era, the thousands of people who were members of Students Against the War, and of the handful who formed a fierce group called the Little Red Wagon. Piercy's characters make vivid and comprehensible the desperation, the courage, and the blind rage of a time when action could appear to some to be a more rational choice than the vote.

Marge Piercy is the author of 17 novels, including the bestselling Braided Lives, Gone to Soldiers, and Woman on the Edge of Time; numerous volumes of poetry; and a critically acclaimed memoir, Sleeping with Cats. She is the recipient of four honorary doctorates and has been a key player in many of the major progressive political battles of our time. She lives in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.