What It Felt Like : Living in the American Century

Rating:
Summary: Great idea but not executed well
Review: A superficial look at a century of decades of American life, in which the author does not effectively manage to project beyond his own viewpoint. What was it like for a woman to vote for the first time? Don't look in this book to learn that, this major historical event is not even mentioned. Instead for the twenties we have a chapter about a silly drunken flapper; it was hard to imagine a woman like that ever drew a single breath of life. In fact, the one dimensional stereotyped portraits in nearly all the chapters was difficult for me to get past, as was the absence of hope and strength of character.

Rating:
Summary: Second Time Around
Review: Have you run across a book that's so good you can read it twice and enjoy it more the second time around than the first? I have. I just re-read my copy of Henry Allen's "What It Felt Like."

I picked up the book after reading Joyce Carol Oates' review of Allen's decathlon through the last century, calling him "a demented Norman Rockwell." (New York Review of Books, 12/00).

Allen's a brilliant writer who hears the song of our language and plays it back virtuoso-style. He even captures the nostalgic smells of the past. He easily makes us believe conversations between characters in the early 1900's. They are real people in real life. I could feel the despair of the Roaring 20s woman lamenting not having a chauffeur. The awakening of a goofy disco couple in polyester. And the fifties...all Eisenhower and Vitalis. Again and again, things I barely remembered from my own childhood decade popped off the pages at me, tying up a lot of loose ends, filling in blank spots in my memories.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes an offbeat view of nostalgia and well-researched, poetic writing. (And for Henry Allen fans, this is a little beauty. Dee-lightful!)

Rating:
Summary: Second Time Around
Review: Have you run across a book that's so good you can read it twice and enjoy it more the second time around than the first? I have. I just re-read my copy of Henry Allen's "What It Felt Like."

I picked up the book after reading Joyce Carol Oates' review of Allen's decathlon through the last century, calling him "a demented Norman Rockwell." (New York Review of Books, 12/00).

Allen's a brilliant writer who hears the song of our language and plays it back virtuoso-style. He even captures the nostalgic smells of the past. He easily makes us believe conversations between characters in the early 1900's. They are real people in real life. I could feel the despair of the Roaring 20s woman lamenting not having a chauffeur. The awakening of a goofy disco couple in polyester. And the fifties...all Eisenhower and Vitalis. Again and again, things I barely remembered from my own childhood decade popped off the pages at me, tying up a lot of loose ends, filling in blank spots in my memories.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes an offbeat view of nostalgia and well-researched, poetic writing. (And for Henry Allen fans, this is a little beauty. Dee-lightful!)

Rating:
Summary: The Way We Were
Review: Henry Allen has given his readers a whirlwind tour of the 20th Century in a little gem of a book. For convenience he divides the century into ten year periods even though he recognizes that "ages don't match decades." Its amazing how Allen is able to capture the nuances of each time frame in simple easy to read brilliantly effective language. Using a snippet of conversation here, a quick word picture there, or the mention of a major or minor event of the age somewhere else, he pulls the reader so smoothly into the narrative that one actually gets the impression that he or she has a sense of what it actually felt like to be living in America back then. Try it for yourself. Pick out your own personal frame of reference and read through the text. You'll be surprised and delighted at how many memories can be evoked with so few words.

What a masterful book! This book would be a great gift for your children, your grandchildren, or yourself. I'm pretty sure my copy will be worn and dog-eared before long. I imagine I'll buy another copy as a gift for myself.

Rating:
Summary: Great idea but not executed well
Review: I heard this book discussed on National Public Radio and decided right away I had to buy it. Reading it, I came away disappointed. The book has a depth of material appropriate for radio discussion -- which, in book form, is appropriate for the dentist's waiting room or the bathroom. The chapters on the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s are mostly rehashes of stock commentary our society is already awash in. The chapters on earlier decades were more interesting, providing information about times that aren't so well documented by the modern media, but even they were pretty thin. Read this book next time you're waiting for an airplane, when you want to keep your mind busy but not so engrossed that you miss your boarding call.

Rating:
Summary: Delightful Little Snipets
Review: I was pretty shocked when I opened my box from Amazon and found such a tiny book that promised to tell what what life was like in all decades of this past century. However, once I started reading, I could not stop. When I compared what he wrote about the early years of the 1900's to the fifties, when I could first remember things, Allen's descriptions fit to a T, just what my mother and grandmother had told me. And when I got to the section where I was alive, I felt right at home. He is right on target with the words, phrases and ideas of the way we were. If you are expecting a detailed history of the last century, this is not the book for you. But what this little book does, is capture the essence of each decade concisely and cleverly. And then if you are really interested you can go on and seek out other books on the history of that particular era. I am going to keep mine and one day let grandchildren read it.

Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece
Review: Most books can be compared to other books; this one stands alone. I have never read anything like it. The author has a clear,lyric but unobtrusive prose style and the ability to cast himself back in time to capture the flavor of American life decade by decade since 1900. It's like looking at a collection of old Life magazines in the attic, only better. Really makes you feel you were there. Buy it and you will not regret it.

Rating:
Summary: Only for those who lived the American century.
Review: This book may remind some forgotten memories to those who actually lived the American century, and make the reader nostalgic. However, newcomers to the USA or people who did not actually live the American century, or people who do not have a grandmother to explain these things may find this book meaningless, weird and useless. It does not explain how it felt like living the past century. It only cues your memory it you have a memory of these things. Otherwise, you won't know what the author is talking about.

Rating:
Summary: It Felt Good: Reading What It Felt Like...
Review: This is a concise history of the American Cultures exhibited in the 20th century. The author uses ten chapters, one for each decade. He displayed his liberal point of view and considered mostly the extreme radical happenings to paint his cultural pictures. It's not that his illustrations did not occur but lots of other moderate life styles were also progressing. He fails to even mention these. I have lived through most of the twentiety century and I did not see "myself" portrayed in any of these chapters. Maybe I did not "live" with his crowd. The author, a feature writer and editor for the Washington Post, uses a telegraphic type of prose which sometimes becomes annoying. Generally speaking, I did not enjoy the book. It was not what I expected.

Rating:
Summary: What what felt like- for whom?
Review: What it Felt Like- Living in the American Century is an odd book, not only because of its size, but also because it serves no discernable purpose. Written by Henry Allen "the Pulitzer Prize- winning author" (so described on the cover) the book is composed of brief vignettes which are contrived to give the reader a sense "of the richness and importance of our past". What the book really does is to introduce to the reader a series of short vignettes filled with stereotypes and loaded with jargon appropriate to the respective ages; to what end is uncertain. Detractors of this book will be quick to point out that this is largely the white middle-class version of American History. Except for a brief segue into the "black conciousness" movements of the sixties this book's look at history is most notable for its myopia. While recounting the jazz age, the dirty thirties, and the eras of the two World Wars the book offers only the kind of feel- good placebos that are usually relegated to the annals of Reader's Digest magazine. Still, at 158 pages the reader shouldn't expect much- grand pronouncements on the inner sleeve aside- and it does resurrect some interesting pop culture references. Henry Allen's book will probably be most warmly received by greeting card store customers, the same people who buy those little pocket size books on The Irish, Puppies, Flowers and the like. Its the kind of book that you buy for your Grandmother before you go to visit her, in the hope that it will stir some fond (and interesting) memories that she can share with you to pass the time. At a price of $30.00 What it felt Like-Living in the American Century proves that even nostalgia doesn't come cheap anymore. Here's a memory that they forgot to include: Remember when books were affordable?