The Land of Sunshine and Hell: A Memoir of a 60s Unwed Mother

In 1964 the Vietnam War was heating up, drafting young men into battle. It was an era in which sex was not discussed at home or at school and children were left in the dark to fend for themselves. This was a period of high morality, anti-war protests and music that reflected the coming rebellion.

Maxene is finishing her last year in high school. Her boyfriend, Romolo, is a first-generation Italian-American who is a first-year pre-med student at Columbia University. Maxene discovers she is pregnant. There is no such thing as legal abortion. This begins a difficult journey to hide the truth, and be sent away to give the child up for adoption.

They marry four years later, after Romolo has been drafted into the Army and sent to Germany, where rebellious young men while away their evenings in a marijuana-induced haze. They try and move forward, never acknowledging the pain of giving up their child.