Did You Have the Life You Wanted? A Novel

Anita Rappaport is dogged by the question: Did you have the life you wanted? Life begins for Anita in 1968 when she graduates from college, leaves her family home in Brooklyn, and moves to Greenwich Village, stepping into the revolutionary heyday of her times. Against the turbulent backdrop of racially charged school strikes, the Stonewall Inn and Attica uprisings, and the nascent feminist movement, Anita grapples with gang violence, job restrictions, gender stereotypes, as well as the corrosive nature of familial secrets and regrets, and, ultimately, her own evolution as a woman during and after this volatile era. As she ages, Anita asks herself and her friends the question: "Did you have the life you wanted?" prompting surprising and heartbreaking responses. Spanning the generations over a fifty-year period from 1968 to 2019, Did You Have the Life You Wanted? is a celebration of the '70s, the women who lived through it, and the legacy they left their daughters. Above all, this novel serves as an anthem to the restorative and life-affirming power of female friendship.