Heath Street Stories: A Look Back at 1950's Innocence in ... (ISBN 1420896075)

Fresh New Voice in Fab 50's Memoir:
A family moves from a mountain cabin deep in the Oregon back country to a postwar housing tract. Their new neighbors are a paper pulp mill, weeds and unique, complex, often hilarious characters rebounding from the World War. There's the English war bride who's taken aback at the prodigious waste in America; the Pacific theater vet who re-ups for Korea; wacky housewives a la Lucy Ricardo and Ethyl Mertz; true love and lost romance all wrapped in a deliciously funny, entertaining and touching prose that speaks with the flavor of the Pacific Northwest. The humorous situations and character descriptions make this book a cut above the memoirs overflowing with gushy sentimentality and egocentric focus. This is all about people who relished life and the American Dream always just out of reach for some. Long before we thought about Equal Rights, Women's Lib, Political Correctness, there was a generation who built this country through self determination, hard work and a belief that everyone ought to follow the rules and be rewarded according to their contribution. Where has America derailed since those heady times? Reading this book makes you think about where we are in the world today and revel in the sweet reminiscences of a more innocent time. I'm buying a second copy to send to my grandmother. I know she will recognize some of these characters and certainly identify with the aspirations and tempo of those times. She's always telling me I have no idea what a sea change the 60's brought to suburban life and attitudes, and now with Heath STreet under my belt, I finally know what she was talking about.

Excellent 50's Memoir:
Excellent prose; fresh,unique humor; outstanding dialogue and drama mixed with hilarious fun and vivid descriptions of life in the 1950's. A young girl becomes the spyglass through which we view the changing landscape of postwar suburban America. A Pacific Northwest mill town sets the scene for a year of wonderful mayhem, drama and poignant examination of the seeds of the gender wars, the Cold War, post traumatic stress for veterans and pride in the USA that has been dimmed by corruption, cynicism, technology run amok and voter apathy. Once you get into this book, you'll feel the stress levels reduce, and you will start to feel good about yourself and this country's future again. To say the book is funny doesn't quite do it justice -- it's a riot. And then just when your sides are aching, you turn the page and feel the pain and sadness reflected in the lives of families struggling to conform, to succeed in pursuit of the great American Dream. Great book well worth the read. New author, I think, but I'll be looking for her next book.

Terrific Fab Fifties Memoir:
Five stars for fresh, unique, zany humor and feel-good laughs, excellent prose with a NW rhythm, right-on characterizations, dynamite dialogues and truly original insight. A worthwhile book that opens a window on a street-level perspective of suburban life and aspirations in the 1950's. Each chapter is a gem worth savoring and expanding the theme with folks who were around during those postwar days. Get the book, spend a few hours enjoying it like a vintage wine and then go out and find some friends to share it with. You'll be glad you did.

Fifties Family Album,:
The setting is Oregon, small town, milltown neighborhood filling with postwar vets and survivors of the Great Depression and WWII. The stories are woven around a cast of characters taken straight from the zany sitcoms we've all seen -- Luci and Desi, Ralph Cramden and Alice, the Nelsons, etc. The exception with Heath Street is that these people are not just one dimensional, and we bleed, laugh and empathize as they struggle to make a life for themselves in the prosperity that marked this fabulous era. If you wondered what it was like for your parents who produced the rebels of the '60's and the yuppies of the '80's, this book will serve up a slice of the American pie and give readers the flavor of suburbia before the Gender Wars, Civil Rights, Viet Nam, Watergate, TV, hippies and drugs. And in addition to the background that depicts Oregon and the NW so well, the witty humor and episodes are much more fun and entertaining than any of the TV shows trying to portray everyday life during that time. On the whole, a very worthwhile read full of good laughs and feel-good glimpses of the way it was with punchy drama and pathos thrown into the mix for a thoroughly good trip.

"...A great look back at a time where life was much simpler.":
"Heath Street Stories is a great look back at a time where life was much simpler. The author Gehla S. Knight does a wonderful job telling this humorous story that will take readers down memory lane." "This is a story that will fill readers with laughter as one family makes a transition from a mountain cabin located in Oregon to Suburban America." "The dialogue is delightful and the descriptions and details are definitely reminiscent of the 1950's." "The author does a superb job delivering an insightful read with interesting characters showing what America was once like."