Kennedy Girl
Review by Kay McCracken
I enjoyed reliving American history of the tumultuous 60’s through the eyes and emotions of Annie Shea in Caitlin Hicks’ new novel Kennedy Girl. Annie is the compelling protagonist in Caitlin’s first best-selling novel A Theory of Expanded Love.
In this sequel novel Annie is getting ready to go off to college, although she and her Conservative Catholic father don’t see eye to eye on where she should go.
Annie begins to keep secrets from her family. She has a great singing role in the production of Hair. Her parents don’t really know what that’s about, or that Annie’s fallen in love with the charismatic Lucas, a talented black boy in the production.
This is a time when race relations are simmering dangerously, ready to explode. Annie is volunteering for Bobby Kennedy’s campaign to become president; she becomes a Kennedy Girl, one of the young women who support him for president, another secret Annie is keeping from her Republican parents.
There are many twists and turns in the narrative: hope for the future of social justice is shattered with the assassination of Bobby Kennedy; Lucas endures a vicious beating at the hands of the police just for having a white girl in his truck with him; one of Annie’s brothers goes AWOL from the army and she helps him get to the safety of Canada.
All these events and more are tied together in a fascinating story that will keep you wondering about the outcome until the very end.
–Kay McCracken is a poet, novelist, writer, book lover and organizer extraordinaire. She was one of the early founders of the writer’s festival Word on the Lake in Salmon Arm.
