A Free, Unsullied Land

Henriette Greenberg is one of the most captivating and compelling characters I've encountered in years. A woman who wants to "invent culture from scratch," she dives into leftist causes, travels to Alabama to protest the conviction of the Scottsboro Boys, studies Apache culture in New Mexico, and struggles with her damaged sexuality through psychoanalysis and one-night stands that haunt her relationship with the man she truly loves. At one point in the novel, Henriette tells her lover, "You...