Life in the '50s

Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
Bone, an illegitimate child in a family of social outcasts, sees her mother's happiness with her new husband and will not tell when the stepfather begins abusing her in the 1950s.

Matters of Honor by Louis Begley
At Harvard in the 1950s, three mismatched freshmen are thrown together as roommates – Sam, an aristocratic Yankee; Archie, an affable Army brat; and Henry, a Polish refugee – in the story of their college years and their friendship.

Everything She Thought She Wanted by Elizabeth Buchan
A married mother of two grown children, 42-year-old Barbara Beeching embarks on an unexpected affair with a younger man at the expense of everything she has ever known, while Siena, a career woman in her mid-thirties, re-evaluates her chosen childless state in the wake of her husband's hopes about parenthood.

Saint of Lost Things by Christopher Castellani
In a 1953 Italian neighborhood in Delaware, Maddalena Grasso, her husband Antonio, and Guilio Fabbri live in the shadows of St. Anthony's Church, where their prayers are heard and fate and circumstances intervene to answer them in unforeseeable ways.

Underworld by Don DeLillo
A work combining fiction and history in a collaboration that encompasses 50 years gives readers a glimpse into the realities upon which America's modern culture is based and explores the complex relationship between waste analyst Nick Shay and artist Klara Sax.

Where Trouble Sleeps by Clyde Edgerton
When the stranger Jack Umstead shows up in Listre, North Carolina, during the 1950s, the town soon realizes that he has ulterior motives for being there.

L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy
An epic crime novel that stands as a steel-edged time capsule – Los Angeles in the 1950s, a remarkable era defined in dark shadings. This is the story of three cops in a spiral, a nightmare that tests loyalty and courage, a nightmare that offers no mercy, allows for no survivors.

Cheat and Charmer by Elizabeth Franks
A richly textured novel set against the backdrop of 1950s Hollywood, the McCarthy era, the blacklist and expatriate Europe chronicles the story of Dinah Lasker, the wife of a successful producer, writer and director, who confronts a series of conflicting loyalties when she is subpoenaed to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Queen of the Underworld by Gail Godwin
In 1959, as the first wave of Cuban exiles arrives in the United States, Emma Gant, finally free of her stifling family and bullying stepfather, embarks on a career as a reporter and begins to thrive in the sultry world of Miami.

The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
Hijuelos evokes, by day, a New York of crowded Harlem apartments made cheery by Cuban hospitality, and by night, a raucous club scene of stiletto heels and waxy pompadours – all set against a backdrop of a square, 1950s America that thinks worldliness means knowing cha-cha.

Seventh Heaven by Alice Hoffman
During the steamy summer of 1959, a sleepy Long Island suburban community is transformed by the arrival of Nora Silk, an attractive young divorcee, and her two young sons.

Lake Wobegon Summer 1956 by Garrison Keillor
During the summer of 1956, 14-year-old Gary struggles with the hormonal pains and obsessions of puberty as he experiences a passionate devotion to his rebellious cousin Kate and pursues his dream of becoming a writer.

On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Narrated by Sal Paradise, one of Kerouac's alter-egos, On the Road is a cross-country bohemian odyssey that not only influenced writing in the years since its 1957 publication but penetrated into the deepest level of American thought and culture.

The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry
Meet Jacy, Duane and Sonny: teenagers stumbling toward adulthood, discovering the beguiling mysteries of sex and the even more baffling mysteries of love.

The Sisterhood of Blackberry Corner by Andrea Smith
In 1950s Canaan Creek, South Carolina, childless Bonnie Wilder braves the antagonism of the town's close-knit African-American community when she creates a secret adoption network for unwanted babies.

The Year the Music Changed: the letters of Achsa McEachern and Elvis by Diane C. Thomas
Isolated by her wisdom and disfigurement, 14-year-old Achsa is moved by a recording she hears from an unknown 20-year-old country singer named Elvis Presley, and when he responds to her letter, the two of them find solace in an insightful and revealing friendship.