The Hours Count by Jillian Cantor

From the author of Margot, comes a new historical fiction book set in New York from 1947-1953. In The Hours Count, Cantor begins to weave the story of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and Millie Stein together. Millie, her Russian immigrant husband Ed, and toddler son David, who doesn't speak, have just moved to the more upscale Knickerbocker Village apartments. Ed pays no attention to Millie or David as he's gone to work all day and comes home to drown his sorrows with vodka. Feeling completely alone and in desperate need for a friend, Millie meets her neighbor Ethel Rosenberg, and they bond over motherhood.

With World War II just over and the Soviet Union becoming more powerful, the United States is on the brink of the Cold War. With Communism, Joe McCarthy's Communist hunt, espionage, and the threat of an atomic bomb on the horizon, much of America is on high alert. When Millie meets Jake, a psychotherapist, at a party held by the Rosenbergs, she begins to question everything about her life. Is Ed really who he says he is? Could he be a KBG spy? As Jake works with David on his speech issues, it's clear to see that Jake isn't necessarily who he says he is either. Millie and Ethel's friendship winds together even more as the FBI begins to close in the Rosenbergs. As she sees her friend's life begin to unravel, Millie begins to realize that her life isn't what she once she thought either.

Paying close attention to detail, Cantor paints a clear picture of the hysteria that ensued surrounding McCarthy's Communist witch hunt. Although Millie is a fictional character, Cantor has researched the Rosenbergs and told an interesting story of a dark time in American history.

Some Luck by Jame Smiley

Jane Smiley’s newest novel is the first in The Last Hundred Years trilogy.  The Pulitzer prize winning author intends to cover 100 years in the life of an Iowa farm family and the first novel, Some Luck, covers the years 1920-1953.  Smiley follows the Langdon family of Denby, Iowa through childbirth, death, the Great Depression and World War II in a unique fashion.  Not only does the author write from many of the different characters points of view, but each chapter itself represents one year. 

We begin with Walter, the 25 year-old father and owner of the farm.  His wife Rosanna is about to give birth to their first child, Frank, and he is ruminating on all of the things that farmers think about: which crops to plant this year, how many animals are there to take care of and can I really afford to farm all of this land? As the years move forward, Smiley introduces us to all of the Langdon children: Frank, Joe, Mary Elizabeth, Lillian, Henry and Claire and their unique personalities.  We see Walter struggle with changing technologies (horses vs. tractors) and Rosanna has her own challenges with loss and religion. 

Each of the Langdon children is different than the last, and we hear a lot from the point of view of Frank, the handsomest and, arguably, the most cunning Langdon child.  When the US gets involved in World War II, he joins the army and becomes a sniper while his sensitive younger brother Joe stays home on a II-A deferment and takes care of the family farm.  Lillian falls in love with a handsome stranger and Henry devours books as fast as he can get his hands on them.  The reader is quickly absorbed into the world that Smiley creates and is soon laughing and crying along with the family. 

Some Luck has been shortlisted for the National Book Award and is a profound family saga.

The 40s: The Story of a Decade by The New Yorker

            When current events seem overwhelming, it can be instructive, even comforting, to read about the courage and resilience of previous generations. In The 40s: The Story of A Decade, The New Yorker has collected many articles from that dire decade when The Great Depression persisted and the entire world went to war. Begun in 1925 as a magazine of humor and local interest, The New Yorker became, during the decade of the 1940’s, a national powerhouse of reporting and opinion, employing the greatest writers of the time. These writers lived in London during the blitz, landed on Iwo Jima with the Marines and crossed the Channel on D-Day. Other well-researched articles cover subjects familiar to all Americans today: John F. Kennedy and his PT boat; the Monuments Men; and the Berlin airlift. John Hersey’s famous work, Hiroshima, about six survivors of the atomic bomb, was first published on August 31, 1946, and occupied nearly the entire issue.  

            But The New Yorker articles were not devoted solely to matters of historical and political importance. The best of the movie, book, music, fashion and theater reviews have been reprinted in this book. Alas, no cartoons! Here also are the best poetry and short stories of the 1940’s. Shirley Jackson’s famous The Lottery was first published in The New Yorker. As in many modern magazines, there were articles about celebrities of the day. Such diverse personalities as Walt Disney, Eleanor Roosevelt and Walter Winchell were featured in various issues.  Human interest articles have not been omitted. Of particular interest to all readers might be the report on the 1949 Miss America contest. The simplicity of the contest and contestants stands in stark contrast to the sophistication of the current event. Three of the forty-eight states did not send contestants. All contestants were required to compete in donated Catalina swimming suits, Catalina being a pageant sponsor. In a parade rolling down the boardwalk, each contestant, wearing an evening gown, sat on a float pushed by a couple of men.  As for talent, there was the usual singing, acting and musical instrument playing. However, Miss Nevada’s talent was raising purebred Herefords. She had wanted to bring one of her cows, but pageant officials would not allow it. And the lackadaisical Miss New York State, the contestant featured in the article, gave little thought to her talent. “Her act, as she planned it, was going to consist of getting up in her nurse’s uniform and making a little speech about her nursing experience…All I know how to do is give a good back rub.” Who would not root for this young woman!

Check out The 40s: The Story of a Decade by The New Yorker @ the library!

Agostino by Alberto Moravia

Originally written in 1940’s Italy and rejected by Fascist censors, Agostino by Alberto Moravia has been retranslated and republished by the New York Review of Books. Despite being set in a different country and different time, it tells a timeless and universal story of isolation and loss of innocence. Thirteen year old Agostino is vacationing at a beach with his attractive and newly widowed mother. An only child, he has basked in his mother’s attentions all his life. So, when she seems to enjoy the attentions of a handsome young man on the beach, Agostino begins to feel jealous, confused and rejected.To avoid his mother, he hangs out with a gang of tough working class boys, boys with whom he has nothing in common. They steal and vandalize property. They communicate each other with insults and physical blows. They humiliate Agostino emotionally and physically. Nevertheless, driven by curiosity and a desire to leave behind his childhood(and his attachment to his mother), he seeks them out daily. He comes to realize that he no longer fits into either world.

Check out Agostino by Alberto Moravia @ the library!

The Wives of Los Alamos by Tarashea Nesbit

In The Wives of Los Alamos, Tarashea Nesbit tells the story of the creation of the atomic bomb through the experiences of a group who knew nothing about the work, the wives of the scientists recruited to develop a project they called the “Gadget.”

Families began arriving in Los Alamos in 1943 when it was a city still under construction. Although the wives were a diverse group, coming from various backgrounds and various parts of the country, they quickly became a group, a neighborhood and a sisterhood, united by isolation from friends and family, physical hardship, patriotism, and keeping secrets when they didn’t even know what secrets they were keeping. For this reason, the author’s choice of telling the story through the first person plural, the communal “we,” works very well. Most of the wives were young, newly married college graduates. Their names were changed and their letters home censored. They were assigned to live in hastily constructed apartments with army-issued home furnishings. The roads and yards were either mud or dust. Sometimes there was no water or power. They tried to lead ordinary lives: cooking, cleaning and raising children. They formed friendships and helped each other. They formed book clubs and held dances. They argued and gossiped. After August, 1945, when everyone in the world learned what their husbands had been working on in Los Alamos, they were free to return to normal life. Some stayed in Los Alamos, their husbands taking jobs with the National Laboratory. Some left, their husbands taking teaching positions or jobs in private industry. Some felt pride and some felt guilt about the bomb. They resumed their middle-class American lives, but for a few years they had been part of something that changed the history of the world.

Check out The Wives of Los Alamos @ the library!