Marge Piercy 
Braided Lives 

Marge Piercy carries her portrait of the American experience back into the 1950s — that closed, repressive time in which forces for the upheavals of the 60s ticked away underground. Spanning 20 years, Braided Lives tells the powerful, unsentimental story of two young women coming of age. It features Jill (the fiercely independent poet) and her cousin and closest friend Donna (beautiful and alluring) as they reach the understanding that to control their lives they must fight. Braided Lives is an enduring portrait of the past and its impact on the tenuous present.