A Time of Myths by Chris Blamires **

DISCLOSURE I have a congenital bias for novels with obviously happy endings SPOILER ALERT this was not one of those.

A Time of Myths by Chris Blamires takes place at Woodstock and in London and Greece seventeen years later. Six young people meet at Woodstock and, in the language of the book, "set off half a degree out" from where they should be. When we meet them again in 1986, "the difference to where you should be" is enormous. But more then just six lives are lost. The world is also "also half a degree out" and the mythical promise of Woodstock, showcased as a series of near/potential disasters that are averted by love and good well, is also lost. By 1986, the world is, if not evil, at least brutal and heartless.

So little of this world makes any sense that there's a sadistic need to savor the moment when someone actually gets what's coming to them.

So many myths back then - so useful. You'll find we've killed them with progress, spring cleaning away the magic.

Beyond the glum world view of predetermination of the road to perdition, as a reader, I felt that the style was cryptic and the plot difficult to follow. It seemed to me that the narrative jumped around around in point-of-view and setting.

I was certainly not the ideal reader for this novel which attempts to address some of the most basic questions of life.

I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway on August 26, 2013. I received the book September 10, 2013.