Book Review: Once Upon a Decade: Tales of the Fifties by Clark Zlotchew

For today’s Book Review Tuesday post, we are going back in time… Once Upon a Decade: Tales of the Fifties is a collection of stories by Clark Zlotchew that take the reader on a journey back into the 1950s.

I met Clark on GoodReads; after trading a few messages about book reviews I had posted and quotations we both liked, he invited me to review his book. My review copy was generously provided by Clark, free of charge.

Once Upon a Decade opens with a Foreward setting the stage for the stories to come. Zlotchew takes the time to remind (or inform) readers of the state of the world in the 1950s – a time before computers and AIDS, when record players, typewriters, racism and hats were de rigeur and ladies were expected to act like ladies (and gentlemen like gentlemen). I found this set-up to be a great introduction to the stories that followed, particularly since the attitudes and language that are found in most of them are typical of the times and might otherwise seem forced or even offensive.

My previous experience of the ‘50s was pretty much limited to a few movies and Happy Days reruns, a show I followed with a quasi-religious passion when I was a kid. I so wanted to date The Fonz, and I was a little bit crushed when I realized that I’d always be a Joanie – even though I really wanted to be a Pinky Tuscadero.

Zlotchew’s 1950s are not Richie Cunningham’s 1950s. While there are some moments that are evocative of the gang hanging out at Arnold’s, they are few and far between. This world is much darker, and a lot more grown up – even when the subject matter uis high school, as in “Ladies Man”. These 1950s are populated by sex and violence – topics that may have been considered too taboo for open discussion in the 1950s and for television recreations in the 1970s, but were likely as common in “real” life then as they are today, albeit in different forms.

Rose-colored glasses pictures of history are so common; these stories don’t always paint a particularly flattering picture of the world of the ‘50s, but they do provide a refreshing glimpse into the past and a reminder that the good ol’ days weren’t always good. Don’t get me wrong – there are good and happy moments, but you have to hunt for them, pushing aside the frustrations and emotions of youth and youth-gone-by to get there.

Zlotchew goes out of his way to evoke a feeling with these stories. They are presented almost as vignettes, rather than individual stories. Characters overlap, as do settings and even some of the plotlines, in a manner that at first I found confusing and even a little derivative, but that I now believe was intentional. It might not have been my choice for an overarching organizational strategy, but I can see why he chose it, and believe that it works overall – particularly if the goal of the book is to paint a picture of “real” life in days gone by.

If you’re looking to take a trip down a yellow bricked nostalgia road, you may find yourself disappointed; if you’re looking for a grittier snapshot of the past, you are much more likely to like what you see. 🙂

For more information on Clark and his writing, visit him here!