All the Ghosts Dance Free - by Terry Baldwin (Paperback)

About the Book

A poetic memoir that explores the legacy of alcoholism and teen suicide in one woman's life--and her efforts to create an authentic existence in the face of that legacy.

Book Synopsis

A sweeping exploration of beginnings and endings, loss and letting go, All the Ghosts Dance Free takes readers on a journey through author Terry Cameron Baldwin's life: from her childhood in a privileged but unstable enclave on the coast of Southern California, through her adolescence in Palm Springs and coming of age in San Francisco at the height of the sixties psychedelic revolution, and ultimately to her life as an ex-pat in Mexico. Struggling to deal with the death of her parents, as well as questions about her own mortality, Baldwin embarks upon a pilgrimage to a small town in Morocco--where, she finds, all of the ghosts dance free.

Review Quotes

"A striking, sensitive record of voyages and acceptance."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Terry Cameron Baldwin has written the definitive memoir on coming of age in 1960s Southern California. It's all here: growing up in an Eden on the beach, beautiful, rich parents, divorce, suicide, drugs, alcoholism, the Haight, private jets, cigarette boats, Volkswagen buses, furious arguments, and the constant lure of the road and the next big thing. 'The free, fresh wind in her hair, life without care . . .' drew Baldwin around the world. From the mountains of Mexico to the souks of Morocco, from laissez-faire Christianity to a Muslim ex-husband, she rings the changes of an impulsive, insatiable curiosity. This woman writes prose poetry."
--Stephen M. Joseph, author of Children in Fear and Meditations, and co-author of the Tony-nominated Broadway musical, The Me Nobody Knows

"This is a wonderful read from a gifted writer. Baldwin paints vivid portraits of her characters and the world around them with a masterful use of language and syntax. It's a captivating look not only at the colorful personalities that populate the author's world but also the values, views, and quirks that distinguish them. In short, a fascinating glimpse at an extraordinary life of compelling relationships."
--Richard Daniel, book editor for the Beverly Hills Post

"'If you remember the sixties, you weren't there, ' goes the joke. Terry Cameron Baldwin proves this canard radiantly wrong. We haven't heard nearly enough from women about that era, a time when Baldwin says she was the freest she's ever been. With a photographic memory, she introduces a cast of characters that glint in the imagination long after you close the book. And she evokes all the idealism, adventurousness, and self-denial of a generation too easily mocked and misunderstood. Muriel Rukeyser asked us what would happen if one woman told the truth about her life--the world would split open, she answered. Baldwin remembers how people in her world dressed and dreamed. She brings her ghosts back to life with exquisite prose as diamond sharp as the ring she donned in 1965."
--Lauren Coodley, author of Upton Sinclair California Socialist, Celebrity Intellectual, California: a Multicultural Documentary History, and Napa: the Transformation of an American Town

"All the Ghosts Dance Free tells the fascinating story of a woman striding confidently through a swiftly fluctuating world and how she and the world shape each other."
--San Francisco Book Review