The Best Fiction About the Golden Era?

[David Conwill]

Just wondering what book recommendations people had about the era we all love. Nothing gets me feeling the time like a good novel. Don't get me wrong, I love non-fiction and indeed most of my books are such, but whenever I really feel like I need to visit 1933-34, I pull out A Century of Progress by Fred Saberhagen and travel back in time with Alan Norlund to visit the Chicago World's Fair and kill Hitler. It's too bad Saberhagen never wrote another book like that, everything else was all about vampires and barbarians and such.

So, how about it? What books will turn me into a time traveler?

By the way, I'm sorry if this is a repost, but have you seen what comes up when you search "books" on this forum?

-Dave

 

[Rittmeister]

Raymond Chandler is the best for me in capturing 30s-40s LA. There are also early Graham Greene, Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammett and many more. For a NY feel there is Damon Runyan. It really depends on the what you are looking for: mystery, romance, biography, etc. Many of the great movies made during the Golden Era were adapted from best-selling novels, like The Thin Man, The Maltese Falcon and The Glass Key by Hammett; or Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. A lot of the British period films over the last 20 years have been based on books, such as Remains of the Day.

Of course, there are the biggies like Hemingway, Faulkner, Williams, etc.

For a European feel, there is Vicki Baum who wrote Grand Hotel; and Georges Simenon, the creator of the French detective Maigret. A modern writer of WWII and pre-war espionage is Alan Furst. He has good period detail, but his style is too modern for my taste. You might check out Only Yesterday by Frederick Lewis Allen about the 1920's.

I will try to think of more, but I would start with looking for the novels that were adapted into movies that you like from the era. I found this link to bestsellers of the 1930s:

http://www.caderbooks.com/best30.html

 

[Spiffy]

My choice is Berlin Noir by Phillip Kerr. It's a collection of three detective novellas set in Berlin during the rise of the Nazi party. Pretty good stuff considering I bought my copy for $2 from a church thrift store.

 

[Rittmeister]

I just looked at the reviews of the Kerr book on Amazon. I have to read him, since I have read all of Chandler at least three times. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Spiffy]

They're amazingly multilayered mysteries....and all of the traditional noir stereotypes seem fresh and new because they're German!

 

[CharlesB]

The Man in the High Castle

 

[SamMarlowPI]

i'd go with chandler and hammett...

 

[Mahagonny Bill]

I've always liked the Doc Savage stories by Lester Dent. Sure they were cheap pulp stories and tend to be formulaic, but the descriptions of the equipment and the buildings and methods that are used (86th floor, top of the worlds largest skyscraper...A two way radio the size of a small suitcase!...Doc always putting radium in peoples shoes so he can track them...) really show the world of the 30's and 40's, even if the events of the story are unreal. It's almost like you get a clearer view of the time by reading the fiction of the time.

 

[DeaconKC]

Rex Stout always does it for me.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

The Biograph Girl by William J. Mann

 

[Smithy]

Not the States but Barbara Cleverly's books are a fantastic evocation of the 1920s India of the Raj. Her writing style is reminiscent of Agatha Christie. Superb novels and I recommend them highly.

 

[Jack Scorpion]

John Dos Passos - U.S.A. Trilogy (Covers 1910s-1930s)... this one is hands down what I use for time travel.

Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby... I know you've read, but man, the setting is superb.

Over his pulp contemporaries, I'd go with Raymond Chandler, too. Although it is a specifcally Los Angeles experience.

Chester Himes - A Rage in Harlem: Another very specific time and place, but a lot of strong character in the setting.

But I think... what helps me time travel the most to any point in history... is a good biography. Polito - Savage Art (Jim Thompson) is spectacular for this.

 

[Story]

Interview with Alan Furst (mentioned earlier in thread)

Q: What drove you to the 1930s and early '40s?

A: When I sat down and started reading and thinking about it, at play in Europe at the time were at least two or three Soviet secret services, at least two or three British secret services — plus a secret service for every other nation in Europe. I thought, "If I wanted to write a panoramic, historical spy novel, what better time to do it?"

http://www.mercurynews.com/books/ci_10083155

 

[Helen Troy]

Can't belive no-one has mentioned James Elroy yet. So I'll make sure to mention him properly: Elroy, Elroy, Elroy. Seriously; read some Elroy.

Oh, and did I mention how brilliant James Elroy writes?

 

[KittyT]

"The Golden Age" by Gore Vidal. I personally didn't like it, but a lot of people do.

 

[Nighthawk]

I cannot reccomend the award-winning short story 'Jeffty is Five' by Harlan Ellison enough. It doesn't exactly take place in the Golden Era, but to say more would give away the plot. It's been published in both the Shatterday and Essential Ellison collections.

NH

 

[Foofoogal]

Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.

 

[carter]

Two O'Clock Eastern Wartime by John Dunning. [Scribner - 2001]

 

[gingermore]

Any Phryne Fisher book by Kerrie Greenwood (set in 1920s Melbourne, Australia)

 

[Kishtu]

For WW2 British cosiness, Elizabeth Goudge's Damerosehay trilogy.

As I may have said in other threads, I love Ms Goudge's work - it has an essentially "wholesome" quality, and I intend that as a compliment; they're fairly simple books, about some fairly hefty topics.
The fact that she was a devout Christian is very apparent from her writing; it doesn't bother me none, and I'm not...