Comes the Electric Circus

Book excerpt: Comes the Electric Circus is a novel that reflects the tumultuous changes from the traditional 1950's to the mind-blowing 60's. The story of the romance between two young Manhattanites, at a time when New York became the world's capitol of finance and the arts, captures the evolution of their love in the midst of the radical developments in the social and intellectual shifts that re-shaped America. Working in the lively television and magazine communication business, the couple witnesses conventional conservative values spin out of control with the advent of the sexual revolution, the Beats, the Boomers, cool jazz, new journalism, the rise of television and the continued escalation of the Cold War and Space Race. How does the young couple survive the mayhem and maintain their closeness? Alice Casey is one of the "Today Show Girls" who brighten up life in Manhattan. Jim Mahoney is a would-be writer learning the fast-paced magazine business. Their love story flourishes in the bright settings of Manhattan: cocktails at the Plaza, concerts at Carnegie Hall, ballet at City Center, weekends in the Hamptons visits to the Newport music Festivals and Tanglewood. On their journey, they listen to cool jazz, argue with the Beats, come across the New York Intellectuals, discover new journalism and the New Theater. They were there at the creation of the of the forces that would fully emerge in the tumultuous 1960's.