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Categories: Science fiction Fantasy Mystery Romance Business Classic Sports Young adult Humor Memoirs See all categories... |
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Categories: Science fiction Fantasy Mystery Romance Business Classic Sports Young adult Humor Memoirs See all categories... |
The year is 1952, at the height of McCarthyism. In Boulder, the University of Colorado president is dismissing faculty and staff for "subversive" associations and opinions. In Hanover, New Mexico, the "Salt of the Earth" strike sees mine owners accusing the strikers of communist sympathies and of obstructing the war effort in Korea. Sympathetic University of Colorado students and faculty support the strikers, and some strikers, through the agency of their local, the Mine, Mill, and Smelter union, come to Boulder to protest the dismissals of faculty and staff. Meanwhile, ironically, the United States is accusing the Soviet Union and the Warsaw-Pact countries of antidemocratic behavior. Dark Matters looks at the political parallels through the eyes of Ben (in the present tense) and Marty (in memory), each pulled by family tradition, friendship, passion, and current events. The novel ends with a postscript in Prague, 1969, as the Dubcek government is suppressed by the Soviets and their allies. Sociologists say that similar groups and governments define themselves by exaggerating their differences; McCarthyism and Communism, for all the vitriol between them, had much in common, as this novel shows through two passionate love stories.