Had a Good Time - by Robert Olen Butler (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

"Gloriously imaginative and utterly hypnotizing short stories" inspired by vintage twentieth-century postcards, from a Pulitzer Prize-winning author (Booklist, starred review).

For many years, author Robert Olen Butler has collected picture postcards from the early twentieth century--not so much for the pictures on the fronts but for the messages written on the backs, little bits of the captured souls of people long since passed away. Using these brief messages of real people from another age, Butler here creates fully imagined stories that speak to the universal human condition.

In "Up by Heart," a Tennessee miner is called upon to become a preacher, and then asked to complete an altogether more sinister task. In "The Ironworkers' Hayride," a young man named Milton embarks on a romantic adventure with a girl with a wooden leg. From the deeply moving "Carl and I," in which a young wife writes a postcard in reply to a card from her husband who is dying of tuberculosis, to the eerily familiar "The One in White," in which a newspaper reporter covers an incident of American military adventurism in a foreign land, these short stories are intimate and fascinating glimpses into the lives of ordinary people in an extraordinary age.

"A wonderful collection."--The Atlantic Monthly

Review Quotes

"Fifteen gloriously imaginative and utterly hypnotizing short stories . . . Scintillating, soulful, and surprising." --Donna Seaman, Booklist

"A wonderfully varied third collection from Pulitzer-winning Butler that investigates diverse lives--and deaths--early in the twentieth century . . . Assured, accomplished, and another intriguing change of pace from an adventurous writer who refuses to be pigeonholed." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"A thoughtful commentary on America at the dawn of a new century: while some Americans were buoyed by their confidence in technology and progress, others, at the mercy of a disease-ridden, hardscrabble existence, could trust only in their faith in God." --Publishers Weekly

"I'll never stop believing it: Robert Olen Butler is the best living American writer, period. . . . Only Butler could have crafted Had a Good Time. . . . [The] characters and situations absolutely sing in your mind as you read. And the most amazing thing--no two narrators sound alike. It's like reading short stories by a dozen different, immensely gifted authors." --Jeff Guinn, Fort Worth Morning Star

"[Butler] chose fifteen postcards, breathed lives into the correspondents, and the result is a wonderful collection of stories that depicts American life after the turn of the twentieth century from a wide variety of perspectives." --Jessica Murphy, Atlantic Monthly

"All of these stories are told in the first person, but Butler rarely settles for impressing us with his range of vocal effects. He favors strong plots and strong twists. . . . The author more than satisfies us with the book's tonal variety and unexpected linkages." --Thomas Mallon, Washington Post

"Butler inhabits these people with eerie emotional accuracy. He changes the narration to suit each character's voice, and brings wide swaths of early 20th-century America to life with a few deft strokes. . . . There is a great deal to admire in this collection--crisp writing, marvelous imaging, the discussion of large, existential questions that are as central to life now as they were a hundred years ago." --Roland Merullo, Boston Globe

"All of the stories are short and such good company that we read them in an afternoon. What's more, we had the feeling that Butler enjoyed them almost as much as we did." --Arizona Republic

"Butler extends his reach once again . . . from the spiky class-conscious sallies of an angry bellhop in 'Hotel Touraine' to the muted, anxious reflections of a middle-aged man sitting on the beach in 'Sunday, ' he crafts strong individual voices whose cadences and rhythms reflect the world these characters live in." --Wendy Smith, Newsday

"Butler has collected vintage postcards for 10 years . . . and in his terrific new collection, he uses his findings to inspire mesmerizing excursions into loss and affirmation. From their smudged, often enigmatic messages . . . evolve tales that capture the rugged promise of the brand-new 20th century." --Connie Ogle, Tampa Tribune

"Butler's newest collection of stories looks to turn-of-the-century American postcards for its literary inspiration, and the strength and uniqueness of his narrative voice makes these tales as equally pleasurable and potentially award-winning as [his] first." --Jennie A. Camp, Rocky Mountain News

"Butler remains, unfortunately, a precious literary secret. . . . Had a Good Timeis a legacy of supreme imagination, surely inimitable." --Larry Swindell, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"Butler's imaginative re-animation of anonymous lives from the past is both entertaining and informative, an alternate history of forgotten souls." --Regis Behe, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

"Butler throws his literary voice back in time to the early part of the American century in order to embody some of the great themes of the era. A nostalgic look backward, Had a Good Time has a little something for all tastes." --Chris Watson, Santa Cruz Sentinel

"Good Southern storyteller that he is, Butler sometimes writes with a comically absurd quality reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor . . . [Had a Good Time] makes for a juicy feast, full of memorable stories you will want to read slowly, not in bunches, but chewing them over one by one, discussing them with friends." --Alice Evans, Oregon Live

"Picture postcards offer an unusually fertile vantage point from which to examine the traditions and complications of American life. In these terrific new stories, he uses his findings to inspire mesmerizing excursions into loss and affirmation." --Denver Post/Rocky Mountain News

"A collection of short stories that does nothing short of illuminating our humanity. . . . A deeply moving book filled with emotionally gripping tales." --Curled Up With a Good Book

"Butler proceeds to demonstrate his virtuosity by building moving, readable stories on these brief missives, some funny, some mere glimpses into distant lives, some truly tragic. In the aggregate, the tales make up a portrait of American life a century ago, its fears and tears, its hopes and laughter. . . . A moody, well-crafted collection." --Clay Evans, Daily Camera (CO)

"I would read a book like this by anyone, but Butler's an amazing storyteller, so it's even better." --Bill O'sullivan, Cargo

"Butler is brilliant at shifting not only the fictional voices from story to story, but also each characters' disposition, attitudes and shapes of thought, fooling you into believing each one. The author has quite a bit of fun here, and his playfulness is infectious." --Christian Martin, Bellingham Weekly (WA)

"Whether poignant or fiercely funny, Butler's stories faithfully follow the lead of the long-dead, always taking great care not to dispel the mood created by the postcard's author." --Andrea Hoag, Star Tribune

"Superbly crafted short stories." --Marc Leepson, VVA Veteran

Praise for Robert Olen Butler:

"Robert Olen Butler may be our preeminent practitioner of first-person narrative. . . . Butler . . . [gives] eloquent voice to characters scarcely heard from otherwise. . . . The result [is] original, funny, bizarrely haunting." --Wilton Bernhardt, Chicago Tribune

"You have to admire a writer who takes risks, and Robert Olen Butler takes big ones. . . . One of our most original writers." --Anthony Brandt, Men's Journal

"[Robert Olen Butler] deserves our gratitude, for his continued risk-taking and stubbornly singular sensibility." --Todd Kilman, The Washington Post

"Once again, [Butler's] language is right on the money in this alternately witty and moving meditation on value and values. . . . Butler plays with the usual stereotypes of romance but ultimately rejects them in favor of something much more satisfying and surprising." --Ron Charles, The Christian Science Monitor on Fair Warning

"Engaging . . . fascinating . . . accompanied by the wealth of evocative detail one might expect from a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize . . . Rich and captivating." --Les Standiford, The Miami Herald on Fair Warning

About the Author

Robert Olen Butler is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of seventeen novels, including Hell, A Small Hotel, Perfume River, and the Christopher Marlowe Cobb series. He is also the author of six short story collections and a book on the creative process, From Where You Dream. He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and received the 2013 F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature. He teaches creative writing at Florida State University.