具体描述
Patti Davis, the actress daughter of Ronald
and Nancy Reagan, has written a surpris-
ing, moving, and candidly autobiographical
novel about growing up in the public eye
during the other Vietnam War--the war
at home.
The heroine of Home Front, Beth Can-
field, is a typically American young woman
who wants to love her parents, learn to love a
man, and build a life for herself in peace and
privacy--without political interference. But
politics was her lather s life. At dinnertime
when Beth was a little girl and her father
would ask her opinion of something polit-
ical, she would avoid the issue by dramat-
ically falling off her chair.
But once Rober! Canfield is elected gov
ernor of California, there s no more falling
off her chair for Beth. As she comes of age
amid the tumult of the Vietnam era, politics
begins to divide her from her genial but ideological father, and from her mother
Harriet Canfield, a .strong-willed woman
fiercely loyal to her husband s dream: the
presidency. Beth becomes not only an
estranged daughter, but a political liability.
Beth also finds herself falling in love with
her friend Greg, who joins the Marines
gung-ho for combat in Vietnam He brings
the growing conflict over the war directly
into Beth s bedroom. Soon, the pressure on
Beth becomes almost intolerable--pressure
that could ruin her future, her love for Greg,
and her father s run for the presidency.
When Greg returns wartorn from Viet-
nam, Beth must confront the choices of a
lifetime: between her famous parents and
her fragile selfhood, and between who she is
and who she needs to be.
PATTI DAVIS, the daugh er of Ronald and
Nancy Reagan, grew up in Los Angeles,
attended Northwestern University, and now
lives in Southern California, where she
works as a stage and television actress. She is
writing a new novel.
MAUREEN STRANGE FOSTER Js tile author of
two highly praised novels, Beginners and
Sparks. She lives in Los Angeles.
