Fiction from The Busted Boom

Summer Reading Series
America Between The Wars: Fiction From The Busted Boom
10 sessions with Craig Chisholm and Michael Lardner
Thursdays, July 14 to September 8, 7:30 PM
Fascism has overtaken Europe and the desperate, reeling Americans are being sold a dream through the New Deal in a broad attempt to mitigate empty dinner plates and joblessness for more than one in four. Nearly a million farms are foreclosed. Schools close, kids separate from their parents, migrating in all directions doing whatever it takes just to get by. The 30s were a time of turmoil for most and a decade shaping the terrain of the way life was to be lived on the edge—in shadow or in light. There is no shortage of literature that can provide insight into that era. This summer’s reading group will look at the following five works of fiction: The Ways of White Folks by Langston Hughes, Double Indemnity by James M. Cain, The Unpossessed by Tess Slesinger, In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck, and It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis. Poems and vignettes of the period will be shared, each participant is welcome to be part of the sharing.

Craig Chisholm is a writer and editor at Gigantic Sequins. For much of the past year Craig has been active with the Indigenous Peoples’ History Reading Group. Michael Lardner has spent years doing typography and during the summers help coordinate these literature sessions.