Jay Arnet

The Way They Were Jay Arnet

This novel was written years ago. It was found "Like a treasure in a grandma's attic" and reviewed by close literary friends who advised publication. It is an absorbing story of a day when the United States was embattled among Communism, Fascism, Peace, War, Strikes, Depression, hopeful and hopeless love. It was a time when many in the population were immigrants and their children, strangers. Television had not erupted; radio was dominant. Every city had several newspapers usually for less than a nickel. Gangster Dillingers were thought to be Robin Hoods, (which they were not) and often achieved their nebulous glory before they were thirty. It was a time of Billie Holiday, Paul Robeson, The Scottsboro Boys, America First, Father Coughlin, Franklin Roosevelt, Hemingway, and Steinbeck. The urbanite relaxed by going to a crowded beach along a waterfront. Young love sometimes had a dollar to splurge on a date. Young love made do and was often oblivious to the whirling crises of the times. Much of this is in The Way They Were written fifty-odd years ago. An enthralling view.