Fiction set in the '20s
October 28, 2011 12:23 AM Subscribe
I am in need of period-specific fiction. Specifically the 1920s.
I am looking for fiction (preferably prose) that sets itself in post-Great War, pre-Great Depression America, especially, but not limited to those that deal with organized and disorganized crime. Historical fiction welcome. Thrillers not so much. I am looking for an accurate depiction, so a well-researched story is a must. Equally important is the quality of the writing.
I am going to head this one off at the pass and say that I have read The Great Gatsby.
I am looking for fiction (preferably prose) that sets itself in post-Great War, pre-Great Depression America, especially, but not limited to those that deal with organized and disorganized crime. Historical fiction welcome. Thrillers not so much. I am looking for an accurate depiction, so a well-researched story is a must. Equally important is the quality of the writing.
I am going to head this one off at the pass and say that I have read The Great Gatsby.
Aside from early works like Psmith, Journalist, which would fit your organized crime requirements, except that it was written in about 1910, and Indiscretions of Archie (1921), most of Wodehouse's books have English settings. Laughing Gas and some of the short stories are set in 1930s Hollywood, if that interests you at all.
Damon Runyon's Guys and Dolls came out in 1932, but I think most of its stories were written in the late 1920s. Sinclair Lewis'Elmer Gantry (1927) is set in the world of organized religion, not organized crime, but it is worth reading just for the over the top, melodramatic disdain Lewis has for "Middle West" and religions of all kind.
posted by betweenthebars at 1:34 AM on October 28, 2011
Damon Runyon's Guys and Dolls came out in 1932, but I think most of its stories were written in the late 1920s. Sinclair Lewis'Elmer Gantry (1927) is set in the world of organized religion, not organized crime, but it is worth reading just for the over the top, melodramatic disdain Lewis has for "Middle West" and religions of all kind.
posted by betweenthebars at 1:34 AM on October 28, 2011
Arrowsmith, also by Lewis, is a very readable fictionalized account of the state of bacteriology research and medicine at the time.
posted by Jorus at 2:25 AM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Jorus at 2:25 AM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
Also, if we're on a Sinclair Lewis roll, then Babbit reads like a good and accurate slice of middle-class Midwest life in the early twenties (though it's admittedly pretty far from organised/disorganised crime).
posted by hydatius at 3:38 AM on October 28, 2011
posted by hydatius at 3:38 AM on October 28, 2011
And, oh yeah, Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett is brilliantly bloody trip through criminal disorganised mayhem.
posted by hydatius at 3:52 AM on October 28, 2011
posted by hydatius at 3:52 AM on October 28, 2011
Arthur Cheney Train wrote in and of that period. He was a former New York prosecutor turned novelist whose work focused on the judicial system.
posted by timeo danaos at 4:06 AM on October 28, 2011
posted by timeo danaos at 4:06 AM on October 28, 2011
Sorry. Didn't see the "America" bit of your specifications.
posted by lollusc at 4:49 AM on October 28, 2011
posted by lollusc at 4:49 AM on October 28, 2011
Fitzgerald wrote more than just Gatsby. I downloaded Tales of the Jazz age for free for my Kindle. They have a whole list over at Amazon.
posted by TooFewShoes at 6:34 AM on October 28, 2011
posted by TooFewShoes at 6:34 AM on October 28, 2011
I enjoyed Diamond Ruby, by Joseph Wallace! A fun read, but based on actual events and the period details seemed well-researched.
posted by songs about trains at 6:50 AM on October 28, 2011
posted by songs about trains at 6:50 AM on October 28, 2011
It'll sound a bit odd, but Barbara Hambly's Bride of the Rat God. It's contemporary fantasy set in 1920s Hollywood, but Hambly's a historian by training and she writes with a historian's attention to setting and detail.
Out of print like so much of her stuff, but available on Kindle.
posted by McCoy Pauley at 7:03 AM on October 28, 2011
Out of print like so much of her stuff, but available on Kindle.
posted by McCoy Pauley at 7:03 AM on October 28, 2011
All of Sinclair Lewis. Try Theodore Drieser too, particularly American Tragedy but Sister Carrie too.
And how about Upton Sinclair?
posted by Billiken at 7:56 AM on October 28, 2011
And how about Upton Sinclair?
posted by Billiken at 7:56 AM on October 28, 2011
I've forwarded this suggestion on mefi before-Jaqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series. Post WWI Britain from the perspective of a damaged WWI nurse turned private investigator with a shell-shocked working class side-kick. Incredibly evocative of the day to day life and politics of post-WWI Britain. The crimes/mysteries are connected to the challenges that are created by a limping UK after the war.
posted by rumposinc at 8:10 AM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by rumposinc at 8:10 AM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
Not organized crime, but set in the 20's are Betty Smith's Joy in the Morning and Tomorrow Will Be Better.
posted by brujita at 9:08 AM on October 28, 2011
posted by brujita at 9:08 AM on October 28, 2011
Seconding Damon Runyon. Do not blame us, though, if you find yourself speaking in the style of said scribe after partaking.
posted by Quietgal at 9:27 AM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Quietgal at 9:27 AM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
I've loved F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story Bernice Bobs Her Hair since I first read it back in the ninth grade. It was written and is set in the Jazz Age, and is a Roaring 20s version of Mean Girls, in a way. (No matter how much things change, they stay the same....) Bernice is an uptight country girl from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, who goes for an extended visit to the city with her flapper cousing Marjorie. Marjorie considers Bernice dull , but her mother forces her to introduce Bernice to take her to parites and introduce her to her swinging friends. Eventually Bernice learns how to be interesting and usurps Marjorie's popularity....so Marjorie plots some drastic hair-cutting revenge.
posted by Oriole Adams at 10:32 AM on October 28, 2011
posted by Oriole Adams at 10:32 AM on October 28, 2011
Studs Lonigan
Scarface and Little Caesar were based on novels
posted by brujita at 4:12 PM on October 28, 2011
Scarface and Little Caesar were based on novels
posted by brujita at 4:12 PM on October 28, 2011
Nthng Fitzgerald's other stories, especially Bernice.
posted by radioamy at 8:32 AM on October 31, 2011
posted by radioamy at 8:32 AM on October 31, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by empath at 1:07 AM on October 28, 2011