50's books

[AlexGrama]

Hi guys. The title can be misleading. I want some recommendations of some books in which the action is happening in the 40's or 50's in USA (but it can be in Europe or so). I want to get a hold of those times.

I am planning to go back and stay there. Better times.


Thank you.

[JSWolf]

The book 11/22/63 by Stephen King does start out in the present, goes to the 50's and into the 60's. It's a very engrossing book. I know it's larger, but you'll not really notice that.

[AlexGrama]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The book 11/22/63 by Stephen King does start out in the present, goes to the 50's and into the 60's. It's a very engrossing book. I know it's larger, but you'll not really notice that.

Thank you. I should have mentioned from the start that I already read it. It gave me this crave for more.

[Graham]

Umm...

Truman Capote's "Breakfast At Tiffanys"?

[BenG]

There are a ton of WWII novels set in the 40s. You may like The Winds of War and War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk which are more than battlefield stories.
On the home front there's Red Sky At Morning by Richard Bradford(excellent), On the Road by Jack Kerouac, Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, Nemesis by Philip Roth, and The Golden Age by Gore Vidal. The Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson has scenes set in the 40s.

For the 50s, there's Wicked City by Ace Atkins, LA Confidential by James Ellroy,

[AlexGrama]

Thank you.

[curtw]

Originally Posted by AlexGrama

Hi guys. The title can be misleading. I want some recommendations of some books in which the action is happening in the 40's or 50's in USA (but it can be in Europe or so). I want to get a hold of those times.

I am planning to go back and stay there. Better times.


Thank you.

I'd advise that you read Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man (1952) before concluding that anything in the USA was "better" then...

[Mike L]

Originally Posted by AlexGrama

I am planning to go back and stay there. Better times.

I hate to disappoint you, but they weren't. I know. I've been there. In fact, I spent 15 years there. Don't go. Just read about them instead.

Mike

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AlexGrama

Hi guys. The title can be misleading. I want some recommendations of some books in which the action is happening in the 40's or 50's in USA (but it can be in Europe or so). I want to get a hold of those times.

I am planning to go back and stay there. Better times.


Thank you.

Another book that we hard to put down and takes place mostly during WWII is Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.

This is an exceptional books and it's non-fiction.

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane's bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant's name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he'd been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by AlexGrama

Hi guys. The title can be misleading. I want some recommendations of some books in which the action is happening in the 40's or 50's in USA (but it can be in Europe or so). I want to get a hold of those times.

I am planning to go back and stay there. Better times.

Thank you.

I think everyone has that misconception about 'earlier times' being better in some way. I could think that the 70's were better than the 2nd decade of the 21st century but that doesn't make it so. We had unemployment, gas shortages, the war in Vietnam, threat of Nuclear War with Russia, and serial killers like Gacy, Bundy & Speck. Some things were simpler but a lot of things were harder too. And in the 50's we had some of the same things as in the 70's. They even had a killer by the name of Ed Gein in the news back then. Not to mention the discovery of the Holocaust once Germany had surrendered in 1945.

[AlexGrama]

I should have emphasized the "simpler times" part...

[bar49]

You might find that the book Red Chaser: A noir thriller of the 1950s, the Cold War and the Brooklyn Dodgers by Jon Spoelstra meets your criteria.
The Kindle Edition is only $0.99.
It was an enjoyable read and led me to further investigate some of the events and people mentioned in the story like The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn.

[mediax]

The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy was a cracking read that I think hits the period you're looking at.

[GA Russell]

I recommend Gidget by Frederick Kohner. No kidding.

http://www.amazon.com/Gidget-Frederi...eywords=Gidget

[BenG]

Which brings to mind the 1959 novel, Pioneer, Go Home by Richard Powell which was the basis for the Elvis movie Follow that Dream.