It has become chic to apply words like "turbulent" and "rebellious" to the late 1960's, and the Woodstock Music Festival has become iconic as a benchmark of the time.

Elizabeth Warren and Sheri Davenport return to that era with this complex coming-of-age story of two young women who meet as college roommates and go one to share many of the kinds of events that earmark the Sixties. It is a story of friendship, secrets and the struggle for identity no one truly escapes, although often it is far-too-long postponed.

Life is wearing Jess Martin down. The only thing remotely resembling love in her life is her affair with her married boss, and she has just flubbed a major account. Then, a young woman bearing a haunting resemblance to the woman who was Jess's best friend and constant gadfly appears on her doorstep and drags Jess into a part of the past she would just as soon not have to recall.

ON THE WAY TO WOODSTOCK is an emotionally rich journey through the heart and mind of a woman who has always sought safety in convention, even when she outwardly seemed to rebel. The authors have created characters as diverse and complicated as any who tuned in, turned on and dropped out. Their depiction of the friendship between Jess and Holly, two young women both searching for the same thing yet completely opposite in their method of pursuit, has a verity that will resonate with anyone who ever had a best friend they loved and hated and couldn't imagine living without until they had no choice.

Equally compelling is their portrait of Zoe, the illegitimate daughter Holly gave up for adoption who invades Jess's life demanding to know as much as she can about her real mother because she herself is pregnant. Her unremitting insistence on information forces Jess to take a hard look at the meaning of her life and the patterns that have dominated it, and in the process both women come to grips with who they are and how they fit into their worlds.

Those who lived through the late 1960's will no doubt experience a sense of deja vu, so clearly are the sights and sounds of those years presented. ON THE WAY TO WOODSTOCK isn't just for them, however. It is a first-rate look into the interwoven lives of three women from two generations that will enthrall anyone who has ever looked into his or her mirror and found a stranger looking back.

P>The intriguing story of Jess and Holly's friendship kept me reading the 400+ page book when it could have easily been 200. I wanted to read stories from the entire 30-year friendship rather than focusing so much detail on the early years. Granted a story about two life-long women friends has been done millions of times before, but that's what this is.

Also, the developing friendship between Zoe and Jess is contrived at best. I liked Zoe and understood her quest to find out about her mother. But if the generation gap is everything the authors say it is, is a middle-aged women really going to spill her guts to a 20something stranger just because she's her best-friend's daughter? I enjoyed reading it, just found it a little unbelievable.

And why did it take two people to write this novel? Is it a barely-fictionalized tale of their own friendship?

On the Way to Woodstock, by Elizabeth Warren and Sheri Davenport, is a bit of a wonder, as novels go. The tale of two friends, Jess Martin and Holly O'Neal, the novel begins when Jess is abruptly confronted by Zoe, Holly's daughter, who was given up for adoption at birth twenty-six years ago. Holly has been dead for several years, and Zoe, an angry, unapologetic young woman, is searching for clues into her birth mother's life. She tracks down the completely unprepared Jess and demands to be told about her mother. Together, Jess and Zoe begin going through the boxes of memorabilia that Holly left Jess upon her death. Through Holly's journals and Jess's memories, the story of a remarkable friendship is woven.
This is a very real relationship, laden with misunderstandings, secrets and most of all, an unshakeable love. The unsentimental picture the authors draw of the 60s and 70s reveals the sometimes ridiculous ideology of those times. Through the eyes of Jess and Holly, we experience drug experimentation, free love, abortion, women's rights, out-of-wedlock pregnancy, addiction, inter-race relationships, incest, rape and yes, there's more! Herein is perhaps the only flaw in this story: Is there anything these girls missed? But somehow the authors handle the abundance of issues with grace and credibility. Perhaps the most poignant of all these issues is Holly's lesbianism; despite the allegations of freedom and acceptance, Holly is afraid of her own sexuality. She is afraid even to tell Jess, and we see the damage wrought on their friendship as Holly struggles to keep her secret.
As we watch Hollly and Jess wrestle their lives, we also watch a friendship begin between the present-day Jess and Zoe. Zoe, who is idealistic and judgemental, is also big-hearted and honest and she reminds Jess heartbreakingly of her oldest and truest friend. Zoe's unflinching questions and demands make Jess reassess her own life. There is an urgency in this novel; we're given only one weekend with these characters. Zoe is desperate to learn and about her mother and faces some tough issues herself; Jess is in a crisis at work that involves her livelihood and her lover. The time frame makes for a gripping read.
Lyrical and graceful, On the Way to Woodstock is honest, funny, heartbreaking and so real. It's simply one of the best books I've read in a long time.