The Fourteenth of September by Rita Dragonette

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About the Book:

On September 14, 1969, Private First Class Judy Talton celebrates her nineteenth birthday by secretly joining the campus anti-Vietnam War movement. In doing so, she jeopardizes both the army scholarship that will secure her future and her relationship with her military family. But Judy’s doubts have escalated with the travesties of the war. Who is she if she stays in the army? What is she if she leaves?

When the first date pulled in the Draft Lottery turns up as her birthday, she realizes that if she were a man, she’d have been Number One—off to Vietnam with an under-fire life expectancy of six seconds. The stakes become clear, propelling her toward a life-altering choice as fateful as that of any draftee.

The Fourteenth of September portrays a pivotal time at the peak of the Vietnam War through the rare perspective of a young woman, tracing her path of self-discovery and a “Coming of Conscience.” Judy’s story speaks to the poignant clash of young adulthood, early feminism, and war, offering an ageless inquiry into the domestic politics of protest when the world stops making sense.

A brief interview with the Author:

Rita, what do you love about this book? 

I love the fact that this is a woman’s story and point of view about the Vietnam War, which is an era we think about as being all about the men and their voices. As we note the many 50th anniversary milestones of the period, it’s time, as we sit back and are able to be less raw about the subject of the war, to realize that there are many angles and stories that are important that have yet to be told. The story of women is and should be at the top of that list. 

In my novel I wanted to present a female dilemma with the same emotional intensity as the key issue of the day for the men. For them it was: do I go and probably lose my life to fight in a war that I don’t believe in and my country no longer supports? Or, do I go to Canada, which is another kind of death, where I lose my history, my family, my country. I’d be alive, but everything else would be gone. 

In The Fourteenth of September, Private First Class Judy Talton, in college on a military scholarship, goes on a similar journey to her “Coming of Conscience,” as she weighs her concerns about the war and her role in it. 

Rita, introduce us to your most challenging character. 

By far the most difficult character to write, all the way through the penultimate version of the manuscript, was Judy’s mother. It was important that she reflected her military background and the overall generation gap in her determination to ensure that Judy stayed on her version of the straight and narrow path. It was what she had learned was lacking in her experience. She wanted Judy to have a better life. 

However, I continued to make her so mean and unyielding that she always ended up a one-dimensional villain. Perhaps I was letting in too much leftover anger from my own relationship with my mother, and it’s true the computer really “smoked” when I wrote those scenes. 

Eventually, I settled into what I hope is a vision whereby the objective reader can clearly see that although her mother’s methods may be a bit harsh, she clearly is trying to help Judy in the only way she knows how. And Judy, being a teenage girl, doesn’t see this at all. 

Share two things you learned while researching this story. 

The first were the rapid developments within the timeframe of the story. Though I had lived through the real-life incidents depicted in the novel, I had a researcher fact-check and was astounded at how quickly the historical events unfolded. This influenced the pacing of the novel. I originally wanted Judy to take far longer to “change” and more slowly evolve into what would become an imperative to make her very important decision. However, this being historical fiction, I had to make it happen within the very short time constraints of the real occurrences. The entire story takes place in only a few months. The time between Judy walking into the Tune Room and the Moratorium is only a month, the March on Washington only a month after that, the Lottery another month. The rhythm of the plot had to move from genuine historic incident to incident. 

The speed of events also dictated the structure of the story. Originally, I had been planning a narrative about the three key women—Judy, Vida and Marsha—showing different aspects of the women’s experience of the time and how they were drawn into the movement, etc. However, there just wasn’t “time” in the historical framework of the novel, so it became Judy’s story. 

The second thing I learned was about the women’s movement in these early days of feminism. Though I had a clear focus of what I’d experienced, through research I learned more about what happened outside my own campus. Though many of us had felt disenfranchised, I came across those who knew that women had actually been in charge of much of the antiwar movement and bristled at the old phrase that “men manned the battlements while women made the coffee.” I ended up acknowledging that although there were always strong and vocal female leaders, the tremendous sexism of that early-feminist era intimidated many others. And sometimes that intimidation—as in my own case—was self-imposed. 

What are you reading now? 

I’ve been reading a lot of local authors as I’ve become more involved in the literary community while bringing my own novel to market. I’ve offset the frenzy of final editing and book-launch details by immersing myself in wonderful books written by writers of staggering talent: Swarm Theory, by Christine Maul Rice, Once in Lourdes by Sharon Solwitz, and The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. Next up is Paulette Livers’ Cementville, another female point of view on Vietnam. 

What’s coming up next? 

I have three projects in various stages of development: 1) a homage to The Sun Also Rises about expats in their ’50s and ’60s who have come to San Miguel de Allende with their last dream; 2) “Master Race,” a novel about women (German and American) in World War II and how their war experiences shape themselves and their children and grandchildren; and 3) “Violating the Prime Directive,” a memoir in essays.

Those sound exciting. Thank you, Rita.

About the Author:

Rita Dragonette is a writer who, after spending nearly thirty years telling the stories of others as an award-winning public relations executive, has returned to her original creative path. The Fourteenth of September, her debut novel, is based upon personal experiences on campus during the Vietnam War, and she is currently at work on three other books: an homage to The Sun Also Rises about expats chasing their last dream in San Miguel de Allende, a World War II novel based upon her interest in the impact of war on and through women, and a memoir in essays. She lives and writes in Chicago, where she also hosts literary salons to showcase authors and their new books to avid readers.

My review:

The Fourteenth of September is a glimpse into the life of a co-ed during the tumultuous draft lotteries of 1969-1970. At Central Illinois University, Private First Class Judy Talton has a lot to consider as she walks in her mother’s footsteps. An army nurse who served in World War II, Judy’s mother pushes her oldest daughter into the one avenue that would get Judy out of their narrow lower middle class lifestyle and into the bigger and better world. Their timing is terrible, as Judy, scheduled for nurse’s training through Walter Reed Hospital, will most certainly be sent to Vietnam once her education is finished.

Judy jumps out of her shell at age nineteen during her sophomore year to force open her own eyes and heart about the student protest movement. Can students—can she—really change the world? Is that what life is all about?

Rita Dragonette, a Chicago author and former public relations executive, uses her experience of being on campus during the turbulent years when the lotteries were being held, as the structure for her debut novel.

Written in three consecutive parts, the novel traverses a transformative period in which Judy meets a dynamic campus leader, David, and his cadre of dedicated fellow rebels seeking to make their voices heard. Vida becomes her closest friend. They want to stop what they view as a senseless war, to stop the killing using any means, even violence, and join the outcry from campuses across the States.

Once Judy makes her fateful decision on her birthday, September 14, to immerse herself in counter-culture, she can no longer go back to her former naïve self. “She was starting to feel there was an incredible groundswell everywhere she looked,” Dragonette writes, “and in everything she listened to about love and understanding and a common agreement that there was no longer any need for war. The army was wrong and Vida was right. She felt the world had started to turn a corner, and was convinced she didn’t want to be left out of it.”

As the story progresses, Judy tries to stay out of any limelight that will betray any or all of the fronts she’s fighting: her friend Pete in the ROTC who reminds her that she made a vow to serve her country; her new friends who are practicing what they believe with a fervor she partially fears; and her mother who cannot accept Judy’s need to see both sides of the story.

“This is a different war,” Judy tries to get through to her mother.

In Part II, student groups from CIU join thousands of others who travel to Washington DC in an attempt demand President Nixon hear their opinion. By Part III, the second semester opens upon reality. Until now, the students have been protesting for something they’ve heard, or read about, or watched on television. When the lottery starts, the war hits home, especially when Judy sees her male counterpart with the same birthday, Wil, receive the lowest draft number, meaning a certain call to report for service. Wil chooses to accept his fate, prompting Judy to continue to reexamine her own choices. When betrayed, Judy has more decisions to make which shows the extent to which she’s willing to go to end the violence, the killing, in her own place and time.

The story is beautifully written with compassionate and thoughtful narrative and engaging characters who play out all the angst of the era set on a Midwestern college campus when America was at its most vulnerable. Dragonette show us what we can be, both in our best and in our worst. The story contains liberal drug use, sexual situations, and language that parents may want to discuss with their early high-school-aged children prior to reading.