A Certain Time

"Kasten looks back at her involvement in the women's movement from the late 1960s into the 1980s. ... There is a poignant honesty to her unstinting self-criticism and acknowledgments of her frailties. ... A well-crafted, contemplative chronicle of a woman's journey through psychological, political, sexual, and social turmoil." -Kirkus Reviews

A Certain Time, sequel to Kate Kasten's first memoir Reasonable People, follows the pseudonymous Anne Lang as she gradually immerses herself in the feminist movement of the '70s and early '80s. More than a reflection of this extraordinary era, Anne's (Kasten's) intimate story, written in the third person, reveals the triumphs and mortifications attending a journey of unyielding certainties:

• Interrupted while nattering on about herself in a group of her peers, ("Who cares?") she finally learns to hold back occasionally and just listen.
• She takes on a (dead) (universally revered) existentialist for his sexist language, and actually gets the critique published.
• She writes a feminist comedy act and takes it on the road (Dutch Reformed Christians enjoy it. Drunken college boys boo her off the stage).

In this era, virtually any occupation apart from homemaking, secretarial work, nursing and teaching didn't exist for women. It is hard to imagine now, and for that the feminist movement's intense cultural and political struggle is responsible.
Kasten enters into that struggle with actions that surprise even herself.