Loss of Innocence

About Richard North Patterson

Richard North Patterson is the author of twenty bestselling novels, includingDegree of Guilt and Silent Witness. He has made appearances on "Good Morning America," "Hardball," and "The CBS Morning Show," and his articles on politics, literature, and law have been published in the London Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Jose Mercury News. He lives in Martha's Vineyard, Cabo San Lucas and San Francisco with his wife, Dr. Nancy Clair. More information can be found at www.richardnorthpattersonbooks.com

Author Q&A

Q. Where were you and what were you doing in 1968? How would you sum up how America changed during that pivotal year?

A. In 1968, I was a senior in college. The world outside an Ohio college town had been roiling for several years – the civil rights crusade, anti-War fervor, revolt on urban campuses. But 1968 was the year it all cracked open, a spectacle at once so shocking, horrifying, hopeful and enthralling that one could not turn away. The Tet offensive tore the lid off the official lying about Vietnam. Gene McCarthy came from nowhere to challenge Lyndon Johnson for the Democratic nomination. Bobby Kennedy jumped into the race, and Johnson dropped out. A white racist murdered Martin Luther King; American inner cities exploded in violence. A second shattering murder – the assassination of Robert Kennedy – felt like the death of hope. The Russians smashed Czechoslovakia's move toward autonomy and free expression. The Democratic convention turned to Hubert Humphrey amidst massive police violence against anti-establishment protesters. And then Richard Nixon rose like a phoenix from the ashes to grasp the presidency.

For me, as for others, that year was vivid and visceral, turning our expectations – indeed, our lives – upside down. Guys I knew died in Vietnam – for nothing, I realized. I worried about the draft. I fell in love, not knowing where I'd be next year, or the year after that. My friends and I got sick of being lied to: if the patriotic eyewash used to sell Vietnam was murderous blather, perhaps the broader received wisdom we'd grown up with was toxic, too. My parents and I regarded each other across a chasm of mutual incomprehension. The fault line that was 1968 had separated us from certainty.

But, in this maelstrom, one of the most remarkable developments was the women's movement, which burgeoned from a pioneering effort to a force propelling millions of young women toward a different life, with few examples to guide them. I've always wanted to write about this moment in our history and, as I reflected, I focused on this year as a tipping point for American women, and hence the women who came after. That is why I chose to write a coming of age novel focused on the change in the life of one young woman, against the backdrop of these tumultuous times. Hence Loss Of Innocence.


Q. What made you decide to transition from the legal thrillers that brought you such a early success to more character–driven dramas like Fall From Grace and Loss Of Innocence?

A. In my mind, there really was no such transition. Even the handful of books which took place in or around the courtroom were, to me,  narratives driven by a deep concern with character, and how dimensional humans react under the pressure of events.

Beyond that, I explored many other settings – political novels at the presidential level; geopolitical novels involving the Israeli-Palestinian dilemma, exploitation of  African oil, the threat of nuclear terrorism by non state actors; psychological novels;  expirations of issues like gun violence in America, the death penalty, PTSD and other challenging subjects . Whatever the subject, the novel was focused on the impact of characters who were as fully dimensional as I could make  them.

So, to me, Loss Of Innocence reflects my concerns with  society, family, and the inner lives of dimensional human beings, set in a vivid context – a year of explosive change. The most distinctive element is I chose to explore this – successfully, I hope – exclusively from the point of view of a 21-year-old young woman.


Q. As a male author, what is your method for ensuring authenticity in your female characters?

A. First, like many men and my generation, I benefited from the women's movement. Beginning at the end of college, the new freedom reclaimed by cutting – edge women had the not – so – paradoxical effect of freeing men. For the first time, most of the women in my life are simply friends, whom I could talk with about anything from politics to careers to sex the expectations within marriage – quit of the assumption that we were slipping into roles defined by someone else. And I suddenly realized that the experience was   an enormous relief – the  difference between Kabuki Theater and relationships which seemed a natural and organic to the individuals involved.

There's more, of course. I'm  the dad of two  daughters to whom I feel very close, and whom I've encouraged to realize their individual potential. I'm a novelist, of course, whose job it is to imagine lives outside my own. And I'm not afraid to ask for help – in this case, by interviewing a number of women who came of age in  that same era era, conversations which – because of the women's movement – were rich, candid, and encompassing, full of an ease and honesty and humor largely impossible for our parents. In some way or another, we had all been there, and there was much to say. Without them, the texture of this book would not be the same.


Q. As a longtime resident of Martha's Vineyard, what have you seen change  and what have you seen stay the same on that iconic American island?

A. The island remains a haven for intellectuals, artists,  and a range of interesting people who, while generally quite privilege, bring with them a variety of viewpoints and experiences. And in its natural beauty, it remains one of the loveliest spots on earth.

But some things have changed, and not for the better. Economics continue to make life harder for full-time Islanders to buy homes and live a life here. The social life seems more divided between year-round residents and the generally more affluent summer people. And, like other places, we are touched by the influence of the newly wealthy, many from the financial services industry, who build homes which are unnecessarily large, environmentally insensitive and,  all in all, monuments to ego divorced from their physical and social context.  To me, this is a melancholy development that reflects a larger coarseness in our society.


Q. Among other things, you dedicate this book to the memory of Ted Kennedy. Were/are you close to the Kennedys? Are any characters in this book based in part on any of them?

A. In the last decade or so of his life, Ted Kennedy became a good friend, and I remain very close to his wife Vicki. As I remarked in the afterward, wholly aside from his remarkable contributions to our civic life, I could not have asked for a more generous spirit or considerate friend than Ted Kennedy– as to which I could cite numerous examples.  And Vicki is among the most inspiring leaders I know, who continues her own discerning and compelling advocacy on a host of issues from health care to protecting Americans against violence to promoting a more expansive sense of our obligations to each other.

But none of the fictional characters in Loss Of Innocence are in any way based on the Kennedys or any other public figure. Instead, the very real figure of Robert Kennedy appears at two points in the novel, as recalled by one of the young characters, Benjamin Blaine, whose life was profoundly influenced by RFK. To portray this remarkable  and complicated historic figure, I not only did extensive reading, but relied on my friend Jeff Greenfield, a close advisor and speechwriter for RFK throughout his final campaign. I'm reasonably confident that, overall, I got Robert Kennedy right.


Q. There are some links between the characters in Loss Of Innocence and the characters in your previous novel Fall From Grace. Will you continue to develop these families and the Martha's Vineyard setting in your future work?

A. Definitely. Loss Of Innocence is the second novel in a trilogy – a prequel to Fall From Grace. The sequel to Fall From Grace, Eden In Winter, It will appear in 2014, and concludes the story of the characters in the prior novel, very much in suspension at its end.


Q. Well Whitney is the clear protagonist, is there an antagonist or "villain" in Loss Of Innocence?

A. There is no one antagonist, although the narrative reveals imperfections , or much worse, in a number of the characters surrounding Whitney – which, in turn, influences not only her perception of her life but the course it takes. This includes virtually everyone around her – her patrician mother; her domineering father; her beautiful but damaged sister; her best friend Clarice; her fiancé Peter and, of course, Benjamin Blaine, whose entry in her life helps catalyze feelings of independence, emotional freedom and sexual curiosity. Several of these characters do things which shake Whitney to the core. So that the narrative, rather than focused on any one or two characters around her, represents what I hope is a very involving narrative in which complex and interesting characters influence each other, Whitney most of all.

Praise

“Loss of Innocence, second of a projected trilogy, is the compelling account of a family’s collapse amid multiple betrayals in the bloody year 1968. The book moves at high velocity, is grandly plotted with a crescendo of an ending. This is Richard North Patterson at the top of his game.” —Ward Just, author of An Unfinished Season and Rodin’s Debutante
 
“Like male novelists of the Nineteenth century, Richard North Patterson actually looks at the world through a woman's eyes. He tells us the story of a girl born into a derived identity, and her path toward who she is and what she wants. In one life of the 1960s, he symbolizes a movement that keeps changing all our lives.” —Gloria Steinem, author of Revolution from Within

“Wealthy, WASPY and protected, Whitney Dane lives a life of privilege under the seemingly benevolent patriarchy of her powerful father.  At the family summer home on Martha's Vineyard, political violence and anti-war protests seem far away. But in the course of the season, cracks open in her closest relationships, exposing rot and darkness within and linking Whitney to the larger issues of race, class and corruption that roil the country. Richard North Patterson has created a richly textured romance, deftly set amid the seismic social shifts of 1968.” —Geraldine Brooks, author of Caleb’s Crossing

"At a time when the '60s are often vilified, Richard North Patterson revisits that era in this terrific new novel and reminds us that it was a time of moral awakening. Set in 1968, Loss of Innocence tells the story of a young woman's discovery of the true meaning of freedom. Moving into new territory with this coming-of-age novel, Patterson is a great storyteller." —Carol Gilligan, author of Kyra and In Other Voices

“Loss of Innocence is a stunning tour de force by one of my favorite novelists. This coming-of-age story electrifies with the authenticity of the Sixties—the sex, politics, language, mores and music. And Martha's Vineyard, with its heartbreaking beauty, is the ideal setting for an engrossing drama of a so-called perfect family riven by its secrets. Richard North Patterson, always brilliant, is better than ever.” —Linda Fairstein, author of The Deadhouse
 
“Loss of Innocence is an extraordinary novel—profound, emotionally involving and totally addictive. This may be Richard North Patterson's best work: surprising and different, yet with the same ability to penetrate the minds of others—especially women, which is a rare gift.” —Stephen Fry, The Fry Chronicles
 
“A snapshot of America at a pivotal moment in history, and a beautifully written coming-of-age novel.” —Lady Antonia Fraser, author of The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Must You Go?
 
"A title that is dripping with summer diversions, youthful passion and ideals, class tensions, and familial disruptions makes for wonderful reading whatever the season." —Library Journal (starred)

“Set in the summer and fall of a pivotal year in American history, 1968 . . . Patterson’s latest offers up an appealing family drama set against the backdrop of a radically tumultuous and influential time.” —Kristine Huntley, Booklist

“Patterson's family drama thrives on the expected . . . Patterson writes a family saga of class and money, power and pretense, love and loyalty. Think The Thorn Birds or Rich Man, Poor Man among the Martha’s Vineyard moneyed set.”—Kirkus Reviews

About the Book

Richard North Patterson’s LOSS OF INNOCENCE is a vivid chronicle of an unforgettable moment in American history, deftly paralleling the news headlines with the seismic changes that befall a well-off American family during the summer of 1968. Its themes of love, class struggle, familial obligation, and generational clash are as relevant today as they were a generation ago.

1. While Whitney is the clear protagonist or “heroine” of the novel, is any one character the antagonist or “villain”? What is the main source of the obstacles Whitney must overcome?

2. It is uncommon for a male author to write a novel with a female protagonist. How does Richard North Patterson succeed in doing this?

3. While Charles Dane married into the wealth of Anne’s family, he has also earned his status and prestige through his own intelligence and tenacity as a financier. Discuss how his relationship to wealth throughout his life affects his actions and expressed views in the novel.

4. Where and on whom would you ultimately place the blame for the failure of Whitney and Peter’s relationship? Could their marriage have ever worked?

5. Consider the political conflicts present in LOSS OF INNOCENCE: The justification of the Vietnam War, the growing influence of minority voters, the changing roles of women in the home and workplace, and others. Which of these are still relevant today and to what extent? Are any of them still present but in a modified form?

6. At the beginning and end of the novel, we see a grown-up Whitney reflecting on how her life turned out. Do you think the grown-up rebellious youth of 1968 like Whitney can relate to the rebellious youth of today, or do they have as much trouble understanding the current twenty-something generation as their parents had understanding them?

7. Discuss Peter’s recollection of his father and Whitney’s subsequent musing over whether Peter should have chosen a career that allowed him to work with children. To what extent do Peter’s later actions overshadow the compassionate, selfless side he reveals in this scene?

8. Ben is the only major male character who does not succumb to the temptations of adultery. What is it about his personal constitution and the circumstances of his life that enables him to do this?

9. Most of the major characters in LOSS OF INNOCENCE have hidden lives that they keep hidden from the outside world in one way or another—Whitney dreams of a more independent life, Janine conceals her struggles with substance abuse and eating disorders from her family, Charles has affairs, etc. Based on the events in the novel, does it seem like it is ever a good thing to live this way, or should one always be completely frank and open with family?

10. Discuss the values of Anne Dane and the lives she envisions for her daughters. Is she a sympathetic character? Do her temperament and priorities help or harm her family?

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