When a society is wounded, it hemorrhages artists. In the early 1960's, young people searching for a more open way of life were drawn to Woodstock, New York. Musicians, painters, architects, writers, arrived from all over the country every week.
Patrick is an army brat, well-traveled, self-educated, an intense reader, interested in everything. He hitch hikes into Woodstock and finds a job house painting with a crew of creative mavericks. He has been told by his father to look up an old friend who lives in town.
Willow and her friend, Amber, are exploring on summer break from Stanford University. Willow and Patrick meet in the "Depresso," the cafe where Bob Dylan often hangs out. Willow's father is a music professor who has friendly arguments with her about Dylan; she claims that he has written an American masterpiece, Desolation Row. As the summer goes on, Patrick and Willow become close. Patrick's connection in town, Heidi Merrill, turns out to be keeping an old secret with his father.
The novel is beautifully written. In telling the story of first love, it also presents the best picture yet of that exciting, sad, and tender time in the United States. Patrick's discoveries about art and science, about truth, are universal. If you like "The Great Gatsby," you will enjoy "Every Story is a Love Story," one of the rare short novels that belongs on the same shelf.