FUGITIVE SPRING: Coming of Age in the...

FUGITIVE SPRING: Coming of Age in the ‘50s and ‘60s by Deborah Digges (Vintage: $11; 221 pp.). Award-winning poet Deborah Digges writes about coping with the abrupt shift that occurred in role models for American women. Born into a well-to-do Missouri family, Digges regarded herself as a failure for much of her adolescence. She couldn’t compete with the stars of the Home Ec class, who were assuredly preparing themselves for marriage; nor was she able to meet father’s demand to follow him in the medical profession. But the advent of the ‘60s counterculture challenged her values, forcing Digges--and many other women of the Baby-Boom generation--to forge a new, more independent identity.