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There are a lot of things I wish I could go back and do differently in high school and college. I’m betting I’m not alone in those feelings. I may or may not be trying to work out some of those regrets in my latest manuscript, a time loop story set in the mid-1990s.
While I know a book set in this time period will appeal to women my age, I can’t help but think it might have a broader appeal. The story highlights female friendships as well as mother/daughter relationships. Perhaps readers my daughter’s age (early 20s) might want to learn more about the time period where we had to drop off film to be developed before we could peruse pictures from a party!
Nostalgia is defined as “a bittersweet, longing for the past,” and is often triggered by various scents, sounds, or memories. This longing for a simpler time before social media and technology controlled our lives has been influencing the books I select to read lately, too. Throw in some fun pop culture references, a time period in the last 60 or 70 years, and I’m sold.
I’ve just finished the novel Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven (her novel All the Bright Places remains one of my most treasured young adult reads). Niven was inspired by watching reruns of the long-running sitcom Ozzie and Harriet, which featured the real-life Nelson family. Knowing the fictional family in Meet the Newmans was based on a television sitcom from the 1950s and 60s intrigued me immediately. I love reading behind-the-scenes stories about the entertainment industry.
When patriarch of the family, Del Newman, is hospitalized and put into a medically-induced coma after a car accident, his wife Dinah must take over the reins of the television show and their family. The reader soon realizes Dinah has never been involved in the family’s finances and her two sons and husband all have secrets they are keeping from one another. Woven throughout the fun nostalgia of Hollywood are the very real issues that were still limiting women from equal rights in the workplace, the choice to choose her own contraception, financial freedom, and more. Reviewers have compared the book to Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.
One way authors can successfully use nostalgia in their work is through a dual timeline. This was the case with another novel I recently read by Sarah McKoy, Whatever Happened to Lori Lovely? The novel was inspired by the real-life story of actress Dolores Hart, an actress who co-starred with Elvis Presley. Hart abruptly left Hollywood in the late 1960s to become a Benedictine nun. The book follows the story of Lu, who is working on her history thesis for college in 1990. Desperate to complete the project, she pitches the idea of writing an oral history of her aunt’s life. Lori Lovely was a Hollywood starlet who left stardom in 1969 to join a convent and Lu makes the trip to visit her and try to uncover the mystery that led to her aunt making such a momentous life choice.
On my pile of advanced reader copies is a novel titled American Fantasy by Emma Straub. The story features middle-aged woman in the midst of divorce who takes a cruise featuring a 90’s boy band with her sister. As someone who grew up dancing and singing to the music of the New Kids on the Block, I’m ready to dive deep into the nostalgia of my own youth with this one.
Not only can nostalgia reflect the past, but it can also help us bridge the dialogue between generations, and explore the human condition. In my current work-in-progress, I jotted down the following statement when trying to narrow down the central theme:
As much as you would like to change things in the past, you can only change the path of your future.
Do you enjoy writing and reading stories that remind you of years past? What have been some of your favorite books featuring nostalgia?
Renee Roberson is an award-winning writer and host/creator of the true crime podcast, Missing in the Carolinas.
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