If I Knew You Were Going to be This Beautiful I Never Would Have Let You Go by Judy Chicurel

If I Knew You Were Going to be This Beautiful I Never Would Have Let You Go

Judy Chicurel

Katie and her friends are a lost generation stumbling along, dependent on alcohol and drugs. The Vietnam war is the elephant in the room, its dark shadow covering not just the young men, damaged in body and mind, but the girls too. Expectations are low in this close-knit community and people rarely exceed them. But there's a really authentic warmth to their story - it gets under your skin and you desperately want something better for the future.

Extract
'Jesus, what if she had the baby in the cab?' Nanny said. 'You think that could have happened? I saw a movie once, the woman was stuck in traffic, right and her water broke -'
This isn't a fucking movie,' Liz said, racing a blue Volkswagen bug to get into the exit lane. 'Things like that don't happen in real life. She's probably still in labor, won't have the baby for hours.'
But Ginger's baby had already been born, so quickly it was like he was sliding down the water chute at Coney Island, out and about in less than an hour after she arrived at the hospital. 'That's the way it always is with your kind, the nurse told her, before she scooped the baby up and took him away.
Parallels
  • Cowboys are my Weakness by Pam Houston
  • The Panopticon by Jenny Fagan
  • Photograph of the Great Depression taken by Dorthea Lange