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The Garden of What Was and Was Not

Published
Jan 2008
Main Genre
Literary Literary
Pages
250

About This Book

Imagine your dreams are shattered when the words, "Our beloved President John F. Kennedy is dead," come crackling over a PA system in your boyhood classroom. And imagine nearly forty years later, you feel your Manhattan building wobble beneath your feet as a jet slams into the World Trade Center, just a few short blocks away.

The whole world changes with such singular, immortal events.

In his fictional autobiography, Peter McCarthy looks back through the decades that have brought us to the twenty-first century. He takes us on a cultural journey beginning with the turbulent '60s, when he was a high-school dropout, on his own by age seventeen and embellishing his resume to land a job. Living a seemingly serpentine life, McCarthy picked his way through a series of cultural reinventions: the emergence of Rock and Roll, the Vietnam catastrophe, the effervescent rebellion of the Civil Rights movement, the disillusionment of Watergate, the dawn of the Internet, and ultimately the disbelief of September 11.

Through the lens of his relationships, peace activism, and employment, Peter realizes that being distanced from the past is just an illusion, that there's a true continuum running through his—and everyone's—life.

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Paperback

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Jan 2008 iUniverse ISBN 0595439454
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Paperback
Apr 2015 Createspace ISBN 1511869054
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Trade Paperback
Apr 2015 Createspace ISBN 1511869054
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Hardcover

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Hardcover
Jan 2008 iUniverse ISBN 0595683770
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eBook

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eBook
Dec 2007 iUniverse ISBN 0595882668
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Dec 2007 iUniverse ISBN B006W6QY60
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Apr 2015 ISBN B00WNFRDAU
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Audio

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Audible
Mar 2025 -- Not Selected ISBN B0F2JWJQZ8
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