If you could go back and live in the 1970s, would you do it? Gas was a lot cheaper, there were rotary phones and Pong was the hottest video game back then. The 1970s were an interesting era.
Here’s a look at a selection of novels set in the 1970s.
What was it like for a Chinese American to marry a white woman in the ’70s? Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng is the tragic story of a Chinese-American family losing a teenage daughter and, beyond that, it is the story of racism and alienation. A lot of interesting issues are brought to the surface, such as the children’s biracial experience and the wife who has dreams of having a life outside of the home. There is also the husband who has always felt different and takes out his frustration in unexpected ways. This is a well-written, sensitive and unique approach to family dynamics in a different time.
A Change in Altitude by Anita Shreve examines a marriage and illustrates social attitudes that were prevalent in the 1970s. Margaret and Patrick have been married a few short months when Patrick announces they will be joining a climbing expedition to Mount Kenya. Margaret is terrified and not fit enough for the taxing hike on a high-altitude glacier, and yet agrees to go along. The trip ends in tragedy when a team member becomes disorientated and falls to her death. In the aftermath, the couple’s marriage is on shaky ground. Patrick blames Margaret for the accident and Margaret is unable to cope with her feelings. Shreve’s story illustrates the conflicting emotions that people dealt with at a time where there were many challenges associated with the general apathy toward working women.
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides is a bizarre tale about the Lisbon girls, all five of whom committed suicide in the early 1970s. The novel, set in the author’s native Michigan, conveys the immaturity of high school boys and their obsession with the girls. The boys narrate the story and their recollections represent the collective memories of the group and their memories of what happened to the family and the girls. The overall feeling is rather dark and creepy, and there is never one straight forward reason for what happened. This is hardly an appealing topic but Eugenides writes it so well that you are pulled into it.
The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley is one of the best examples of portraying the gothic genre’s gloomy, scary and sinister elements. Growing up with a strict Catholic mother, two boys have their faith tested each year when the family and some other members of the church, including the local priest, travel to the remote Lancashire coast around Easter. Their mother looks for a miracle every year that will cure her son and forces the whole group to fast and pray. The danger and isolation of the location combined with the old and creepy house they stay in stand in stark contradiction with any sort of Easter pilgrimage.
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen features a mole for the northern communists who finds himself torn between ideology and friendship. This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is a captivating and stimulating book and an indictment of the U.S.’s treatment of the Vietnamese during and after the war. We’ve had many examinations of the war from the American point of view, here’s one from the opposing side.
Drop by your local library and find out more about the 1970s, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more.
A Good Read is a column by Tri-City librarians that is published on Wednesdays. Susan Clark works at Port Coquitlam’s Terry Fox Library.
