In Washington, D.C., life inside the Goldstein home is as
tumultuous as the swiftly changing times. In 1979, the Cold War is
waning and the age of protest has come and gone, leaving a once
radical family to face a new set of challenges.
Dennis, whose government job often takes him to Moscow, struggles
both to succeed in a career he doesn’t quite believe in and to live
up to his father’s leftist legacy. Sharon, a caterer for the
Washington elite, joins a cultlike group in search of the
fulfillment she once felt. Happy-go-lucky Benjamin is heading off
to college, there to experience an awakening of social conscience,
and sixteen-year-old Vanessa finds a cure for alienation in D.C.’s
hardcore music scene. As each of them follows separate trajectories
of personal protest and compromise along the edge of a new decade,
radical traditions long dormant in their family awaken once again,
with shocking, far-reaching results.
A poignant story of husbands and wives, parents
and children, activists and spies, Something Red is a masterly
novel that unfurls with suspense, humor, and insight.