I figured this memoir would be a search for forgiveness, or a quest to excuse the decisions of the past. I was wrong. From this smartly written excerpt, I learn it's simply a relinquishing of the realities, emotions, and times of the 60s. I instantly empathized with the narrator, putting myself in her place and trying to understand how she endured and procured what she went through. And in doing so, accepting the end results.