2008-03-20 Eloquent about the 1970s

For one like me, who had his formative years in the austere, but innocent postwar years and became an adult in the permissive, but optimistic 1960s, the 1970s stands for economic backlash and a more pessimistic view of the future. However, I must admit that Howard Saunes manage to catch my interest with his colourful description of the decade's most prominent personalities within the cultural field - in the visual arts, literature, film and pop music - many of them icons today. Sounes' biographies, most of them about English and American artists, are all very readable and seem to be well researched. (Even if I am not a great fun of pop music, the tragic fate of many of the pop musicians cannot but make an impression and strengthen my belief that the most important thing in life is not worldly success, but to keep oneself intact as a human being.) My only and minor objection is that I miss a more detailed description of the social and political setting of the decade. After all the artists were children of their time.