The Sixties, By Jenny Diski

Reviewed,Arifa Akbar
Thursday 15 July 2010 19:00 EDT
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What do they say about remembering the Sixties? Well, Jenny Diski proves them wrong. She was there, clad in Biba minidress, cultivating her altered mind states and she can recall every last disappointment.

The '60s have been seen through a pink, nostalgic haze for long enough, she argues. Was it "free love" or a different kind of sexual tyranny (in which natural desires were suppressed for the greater good of the commune)? Was it political radicalism? If so, how did it lead to the dead end of Thatcherism and the Me Generation?

Diski's cold shower on an overly romanticised decade in which the only thing that is "certain is that the music then was better" is both Eeyorish and refreshing. Prepare to have your memories shattered.

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