Split: A Counterculture Childhood

In this "disarmingly amiable reminiscence" (The Atlantic Monthly) that "may be the best argument for the left since Marx" (The New Yorker), poet and writer Lisa Michaels blends memoir with social commentary to tell a remarkable tale of growing up as a child of political activists during the early seventies. Michaels's upbringing was marked by communes, rallies, and road trips; as a young girl she traveled across the country with her mother and stepfather in a customized mail truck, complete with a wood stove, while her father spent two years in jail for his part in an antiwar protest. Raised in a rural California town, Michaels craved conformity, but eventually she came to share many of her parents' long-held values. By a writer of uncommon perception, SPLIT offers "a rare glimpse of a life that embodies a time" (Vogue).

This unforgettable story is a portrait of a family and a country divided, and a girl caught in the split.

• A Radical Upbringing: From anti-war rallies and life on the road in a mail truck to the day her father, a member of the Weathermen, went to prison.
• The Counterculture Seventies: A vivid, firsthand account of growing up inside the communes and social experiments of the 1970s, a world away from mainstream America.
• A Search for Belonging: The poignant and often humorous story of a girl who craves conformity while navigating a childhood shaped by her parents’ powerful ideals.
• Memoir as Social History: A lyrical blend of personal reflection and sharp social commentary that captures a pivotal and turbulent era in American history.

"The past is recaptured in all it's charm and embarrassment, by an author gifted with seeming total recall and a lucid candor and self-awareness . . . an especially rare, and very enjoyable, memior." - Phillip Lopate