Solidarity

Solidarity

by – Andre Wallace (Author)

The year 1967 was a time of great strife, conflict, division … and hope.

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Book Description:

The year 1967 was a time of great strife, conflict, division . . . and hope. In one rural Indiana town, five teenagers of different races and backgrounds are about to graduate high school and experience the world on their own.

This circle of close friends have enjoyed their childhoods together, but they are about to experience life-changing events when Lee, a young black man, is unwillingly drafted into the Army, leaving his love interest, Julie, the young white woman he’s grown attached to, and their three close white friends whom he considers his brother and sisters.

The couple shares a hidden romance, not daring to tell their parents, yet knowing that someday they’ll have no choice. While enduring the dramatic privations of the Vietnam War, Lee’s friends back home are all occupied with college and work, but soon they will also be affected by the underlying tides of the times involving the war protests in Chicago as well as working for a suspected crime boss, and an introspective outlook on who they are as individuals and what they truly mean to each other.

Their relationships will be tested in the conflicts to come, and their destinies will be written in stone that will last forever.

Reviews for the Book

Solidarity, written by Andre Wallace, follows the lives of a group of teenagers - Lee, Julie, Taylor, Samantha, and Addison. They are very close friends who attend high school in Indiana, graduating in 1967. Lee and Julie are in love, but they hesitate to disclose their relationship because he is African American, and she is white. Lee gets drafted into the Army and leaves for Vietnam right after graduation; Julie, Samantha, and Addison go college; Taylor, who already has a job, decides to keep working and seeking a management position.
The book gets narrated in the third person. It begins with a middle-aged Lee talking to his youngest son, Noah, who is eighteen and about to leave for college. Lee reminisces about his younger years as he talks to Noah during a road trip to pick up cases of a particular type of apple cider in the Napa Valley.
What I liked the most about this book was the author's writing style. Wallace writes with tenderness and pieces together the circumstances that shape the lives of this group of young people. The narrative cleverly juxtaposes Lee's experiences in Vietnam with his friends' exploits back in the US. I enjoyed the part in which Lee gets injured and loses two close Army buddies in a deadly ambush. I also appreciated how the author illuminates the sociopolitical atmosphere that permeated this historical period. Wallace offers enough to satisfy those who appreciate a good story, but he also provides readers a clear slice of history. For instance, while Lee struggles in Vietnamese jungles, his friends attend a protest against the war and the government at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. They end up detained by the Chicago police and spend the night in a jail cell.
Additionally, I liked how the book painted a rich picture of the difficulties Lee and Julie faced as an interracial couple. The theme gets woven into the story with subtlety, and I believe that this kind of tangential approach can be even more thought-provoking. It sure gave me something to chew over.
There was nothing I disliked about this book, and it seemed professionally edited. I gladly give it the highest rating: 4 out of 4 stars. It is a heartwarming story about friendship that I would recommend to young adults. I believe it will appeal especially to teenagers who are about to graduate from high school. Readers who are interested in America in the 1960s might also want to take a look at it.- Reviewed by MMM17; Onlinebookclub.org