Highly allusive in style and very entertaining to those of us who enjoy imaginative prose, Birds of America is a good coming-of-age story of young Peter Levi and also a portrait of America in the 1960's. For me, this was a keeper, since I could relate to its time period and I annotated it extensively (vocabulary items, themes and motifs, historical and literary references, philosophical comments, etc.) However, I would not recommend the book to those looking for a well-plotted and fast-moving narrative. The book is by Mary McCarthy, popular for the novel and the subsequent movie, The Group.

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