Advancing Paul Newman -- Part 2

Part 1

I am summarizing and discussing Eleanor Bergstein's 1973 novel Advancing Paul Newman, which still can be purchased through Amazon. The novel's length is 373 pages, of which 19 pages were covered in my Part 1.

Bergstein was born in 1938. In the novel's first two chapters, the story switches back and forth between the years 1959 and 1968 -- years when Bergstein was 21 and 30 years old.

The novel contrasts the two main characters -- Ila Rappaport and Karen "Kitsy" Frank -- who seem to be about the same age. Kitsy surely is based on Bergstein.

The novel's theme is stated explicitly at the end of its Chapter 1.

This is the story of two girls, each of whom suspected the other of a more passionate connection with life.

These two girls -- Bergstein calls them girls, and so will I -- will compare themselves with each other during the years 1959-1968, when they mature in age from 21 to 30.

The novel was published in 1973, when Bergstein was about 35 years old. Perhaps the novel continues into the 1970s, when Kitsy was in her early 30s.

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I am reading Bergstein's novel in order to find insights about Baby Houseman, who proceeded through the following ages:

Born in about 1946

17 years old in 1963

21 years old in 1967

22 years old in 1968

One of the first articles in this blog was titled Disconnected Women - Penny Johnson, Vivian Pressman and Marjorie Houseman. There I pointed out that in the movie Dirty Dancing those three characters might be based variously on Bergstein herself.

The movie's story takes place in 1963, when Bergstein was about 25 years old (Penny's age?)

Bergstein began writing the screenplay in about 1985, when she was about 47 years old (Vivian's and Marjorie's ages?).

Of course, the character Baby is based on Eleanor. The Bergstein family -- a doctor father, a housewife mother, and two daughters -- spent summer vacations in Catstills resorts when Eleanor was young. Eleanor was 17 years old in 1955 -- about eight years before the Dirty Dancing story.

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Consider three personas.

Eleanor Bergstein

Kitsy Frank

Baby Houseman

They are not identical, but they must share similarities -- in various experiences, concerns, attitudes and family relationships. I am developing my own insights about Baby.

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Front cover (click on the image to enlarge it)

Back cover (click on the image to enlarge it)

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I myself was born in November 1952. I was ten years old in August 1963, when the Dirty Dancing story takes place.

During the years 1959-1968, I lived in Seward, Nebraska, -- the town's population was about 2,500 -- where my father taught at Concordia College, a Lutheran college. During those years, I attended a Lutheran elementary school and a Lutheran high school that were closely associated with the college. My family lived across the street from the campus. I tell about those years of my life in another blog, Seward Concordia Neighborhood.

Although I was only ten years old in 1963, I was involved already with the Concordia high-school students and college students. I observed their clothing, music, activities and attitudes. They were quite religious, but all of American culture was much more religious in 1963 than it is now in 2019.

In 1968, my Dad was hired by the University of Oregon, and so my family moved to Eugene, Oregon. We moved during the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school, when I was 15 years old.

My resettling in Eugene, Oregon, in 1968 was a culture shock for me. Before then, my entire education had been in Lutheran schools. My sophomore class in Seward had about 25 students. My junior class in Eugene had about 250 students. On my first high-school day in Eugene, I was amazed to see my fellow students wearing jeans and tennis shoes -- gross violations of the dress code at Concordia High School.

I soon found myself arguing about religion -- in particular about abortion -- with other students.

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I was very interested in the 1968 Presidential election. I liked Senator Eugene McCarthy. He had grown up attending Catholic parochial schools and even prepared to become a monk. I loved his self-assurance, demeanor and wit.

During the primary elections, the Democrats' two main contenders were Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy. I favored McCarthy. After Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, Hubert Humphrey entered the race against McCarthy.

I watched much of the Democrat Party's Convention on television during August 26-29. The convention ended in a riot between Chicago's police and anti-war demonstrators. A few days later, I began attending my new high school, and my speech-class teacher got all the students in the class arguing about that riot and about the Vietnam War.

Some of my fellow high-school students took me to a coffeehouse in downtown Eugene, where people the customers were dressed like hippies and sang songs at the open-mic. I spent many evenings there. There was incense and marijuana smoke in the air.

I read about the Vietnam War and decided that I opposed the US involvement. I participated in demonstrations against the Vietnam War. I wrote a leaflet opposing the war, paid for 1,000 photocopies of my leaflet, and rode a bus by myself to Portland, Oregon, and distributed my leaflets at an American Legion convention in 1969.

That is my own experience during the years 1963-1968 as I am reading Bergstein's novel based on her own participation in McCarthy's election campaign in 1968.

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Continued in Part 3

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