Read of the Month: “Kissing the Sky” by Lisa Patton

Kissing the Sky (Lake Union Publishing 2026) by Lisa Patton is an engaging historical coming-of-age novel about finding and asserting one’s true self. Set during turbulent times, much of the story takes place at Woodstock—both the original 1969 famous music festival and the 50-year anniversary celebration. In her author’s notes, Patton admits she was too young to attend Woodstock, but acknowledges she is “a child of the sixties and seventies.” Regardless of whether she was there or not, Patton captures not just the basic historical facts but she also conveys the many moods and sheer raw energies of the original Woodstock. One can almost feel the mud under bare feet, hear the reverberating notes of music, smell the drifts of marijuana, and see exuberant youths dancing in the rain. Music festival aside, the emotional core of the novel is about family, friendship, and young love because what’s a coming-of-age story without the stirrings of first love?

Suzannah, the protagonist and the voice in the story, is a twenty-year-old college student during the summer of Woodstock in 1969. She seems more naïve and younger than twenty due to a restrictive home environment and her attendance at a rigid, conservative religion-based college. She yearns to break free of her dominating father, who forbids her to listen to rock and roll under the threat of hell (and being disowned) or to dress in the mini-skirts and bell bottom jeans that other girls are donning. Though she is immensely talented as a singer, she is forbidden to play any music except for their church.

The father’s domination reaches further than dress style or music as his control over her and her brother borders on pathological. A retired colonel with a history of combat duty and a strict moral code imposed by his conservative church, he is driven by many forces to the detriment of his children. Indeed, the father’s wrathful condemnation of his son and daughter threatens his marriage and has already compelled his son, Ron, to enlist in the military and to be deployed to Vietnam. The father believes serving in Vietnam will make Ron “a real man,” but the war Ron experiences is killing his gentle, pacific spirit and might well kill him physically.

The two siblings are close. Both Ron and Suzannah are musically talented and once dreamed of being a brother/sister folk rock duo. But their father has destroyed that dream and seems determined to further destroy his children’s talents in the name of his misguided concepts of religion.

Another pivotal character, Livy, is Suzannah’s one-time best friend and a girl who has long had a major crush on Ron. Three years before Woodstock, Suzannah and Livy’s friendship broke up, but one day in the summer of 1969, she reenters Suzannah’s life. At times, Livy appears more the antagonist than protagonist—yet, she is “complicated” and her true personality is only slowly revealed. Though vain about her beauty and often lacking in common sense, she is also determined to push or pull Suzannah from the cloister of her narrow, unhappy life. Livy has a few tricks up her sleeve and powerful motivation, but it might take Suzannah more than just some rock and roll and a trip to Woodstock to see Livy for the person she really is. Within the backstory of their earlier relationship and its break-up, author Patton conveys the extreme closeness of teen girl bonds as well as the risks of betrayal and envy that often torpedo such intense relationships.

Notwithstanding the costs to Suzannah, she escapes her father’s wrath to go with Livy to Woodstock. After a long drive from Tennessee, they arrive in New York only to be forced to abandon Livy’s car due to a traffic shutdown. Upon leaving the auto, Suzannah meets Leon, and soon the two of them are inseparable. With the first stirring of love and desire, Suzannah counts their moments together as precious amidst the music, the mud, the drugs, and the sheer wondrous energy of Woodstock. Complications naturally arise, yet Suzannah cannot bear the thought that when the festival ends, so will the relationship. Yet something as powerful as her first love is poised to shake up her world even more.

The story is enhanced by Patton’s graceful language and control of the plot and pacing, and by close attention to the Woodstock music. It’s hard for a written novel to have a soundtrack, yet the references, descriptions, and occasional quotes of lyrics (especially from Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young) provide something close to a soundtrack in writing. There’s also song which was written especially for the book by Patton, Michael McDonald, and his wife Amy Holland. The song, “If Not For You” is available at YouTube among other online music sources.

The frame of the book sets up the dual timeline in a smooth, workable way. Suzannah takes her granddaughter to the 50th anniversary celebration of Woodstock, and then in flashback scenes tells the granddaughter and the readers what happened there—and what happened to her, Livy, Leon, and Ron. Of course, Suzannah holds some things back from the granddaughter, but not from the readers.

There is much angst in the story—as there was in the sixties—with the anti-war sentiment, the horrors of the Vietnam war, the fate of Ron, and the cultural clashes. But these aspects are handled with a respectful, deft hand and serve to enrich and authenticate the story. Though readers will have a strong, realistic sense of the historical setting, they will not lose sight of the humanity of Suzannah, her friend, her first love, and her brother. This is an appealing, captivating, even charming, well-done novel by an author who once more proves her talent at capturing the nuances of a time and place as well as the hearts of her characters.

If you are the Woodstock generation, dive in and relive that era. And if you are not of that time, dive in and experience what it might have been like to be twenty and at Woodstock.

Lisa Patton

A Tennessee native and University of Alabama communications graduate, Lisa Patton is the bestselling author of Whistlin’ Dixie in A Nor’easter and Yankee Doodle Dixie, both featured on the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) Bestseller List. “Southern As a Second Language” is the third book in what Library Journal calls, “The beloved Dixie series.” Lisa’s fourth novel, Rush, was a summer 2018 Okra Pick from SIBA, as well as a SIBA bestseller. She lives in Nashville with her husband.