«Sex and the Cyborg Goddess» by Alexis Rafael

Sex and the Cyborg Goddess is a novel about Ana Fried, who arrives at Yale brimming with self-confidence just as it’s going co-ed. It’s 1969 (-— the same year Hillary Clinton entered Yale Law). Straight outta Scarsdale, Ana has the beauty and brains to make it big. But Ana’s an idiot when in comes to men. Believing in sexual freedom, she keeps a modern-day pillow book about her Yale lovers until her professor torches her writing in front of the class. In an era of Black Panther rallies and anti-Vietnam protests, Ana joins forces with an African-American classmate named Diane to address the racism and sexism of society and Yale. But when sexual assault upstages Ana’s graduation, she hits the road in a beat-up Chevy, hoping to find Diane, who has since dropped out.
Down South, while documenting the blues, Ana meets a musician who’s the polar opposite of what would please her social-climbing mother. She makes beautiful music with Andy until he’s arrested for drugs. She flees to California, then Germany, New York, and India, struggling to break the glass ceiling as a filmmaker while fighting her addiction to loving the wrong men. Unable to keep a day job or a man, she escapes to India, hoping for spiritual transcendence. In her backpack is a camera to film the goddesses of India. She’s finally determined to break through as a filmmaker on her own.