Loss of Innocence by Richard North Patterson
Hadn't read this author in a while and was looking for an audiobook so grabbed this one. The story is framed as the reminiscences of an older woman to a younger one, looking back at the summer of 1968 when Whitney Dane had finished university and was planning her wedding, to take place at the end of the summer. Whitney is a daughter of privilege, and she spends the summer at her parents' summer home on Martha's Vineyard. Her fiance has been given a job in her father's investment firm and comes back and forth, staying in the guest house on weekends. Her parents have bought the couple an apartment in New York City in the same building they started their own married life. Whitney feels that her life is planned to be a replica of her parents, and isn't entirely sure that is what she wants.
Lots is going on in the world, the assassination of Robert Kennedy, the Vietnam war and the draft, civil unrest, particularly from black Americans, and even internationally with the Russian smothering of rebellion in Czechoslovakia. Whitney is also worried about her older sister, "the pretty one", and whether her life is really what it is what she claims. She is befriended by a local young man, a man with his own baggage, but who listens to her and values her intellect, encouraging her to think of new possibilities. As Whitney observes those around her and struggles to figure out what she really wants, she learns more about those close to her than she wants to know. A very engaging novel.
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