BACK-IN-PRINT!!!!!
The long over-due 2ND EDITION is scheduled for July 2012. Please keep checking at Amazon.com for availability.
Note: The book has been out-of-print for over 10 years with used copies selling for over 3-times the original list price. Don't miss this 2nd edition - it contains significant additional material plus author's historical notes.
CLASS: Historical Fiction.
ISBN:
LENGTH: 307 pages;
112K words
PUBLISHER and YEAR: Patriot Press, © 1990; BeechHouse Press, © 2012;
OUTLINE: This historically and technically
correct, coming-of-age novel is set during the birth of the rock
& roll and hot rodding era. There are descriptions of the
building of a race car, racing (legal & otherwise), juvenile
sexual encounters, high school life, death and many events with
which anyone who has ever been an American teenager will
identify. The novel has been made required reading in at least
one major university's Post World War II history classes.
OPENING LINES: Pinned back against the plastic seat covers, I could just barely see the speedometer from behind the huge tach that was clamped to the steering column; ninety, ninety-five, wham! He slammed the shift lever into third and still the force of acceleration kept me prisoner of the seat back.
AUTHORS COMMENT:
"I was determined to accurately record this time
period [for some of us], in novelized form. I did not want to
produce another whitewash of the time span such as 'PEGGY SUE
GOT MARRIED' or 'AMERICAN GRAFFITI.' The latter,
though set in 1962, pictured only fifties vehicles and music. It
was certainly amusing but it didn't depict the kids of the
fifties, the generation of true pioneers of hot rods and rock
& roll. By 1960, the time when CIRCA 1957 ends, rock &
roll had lost its punch and would remain lackluster until the
arrival of the Beatles in 1964. Hot rodding, as the innovators of
the 1950s lived it, was also passé by the turn of the decade. No
longer was it possible to win a race just because you could do a
better tune-up than the other guy. The sixties marked the
beginning of the modern and still current,
who-ever-has-the-most-money-wins-the-race, era. Teen-age sex, however, hasn't changed . . . .
"Though classified as a novel, the book is autobiographical. It didn't start out that way, it's just that I couldn't make up better stuff than what really happened."
SELECTED REVIEWS:
OBSERVATIONS:"CIRCA 1957 is a true-to-life story of a young man growing up during the days when all young men were enthralled by cars, racing and rock & roll." HOT LINE NEWS, July 2002.
"Perhaps the best compliment for any novel is that it's worth the time and effort to read...a slice of the past brought to the present...all of the proper settings of the times." OLD CAR NEWS.
"Klein has done his homework well as he has really captured the feeling of the era."STREETSCENE.
"Captures the true flavors of adolescence in the late '50s. Kudos to the author ." CAR COLLECTOR MAGAZINE.
"A souped-up, piston-pounding, tire-squealin' honey of an American epic. Grabs you by the gearshift and won't let go for 260 pages" THE CINCINNATI POST
"Good walk down memory lane. If you were a teenager in the fifties...you'll sefinitly see yourself and your friends." AUTOMOBILIA NEWS
"It's a book that will make you laugh and cry and remember...." STREET ROD ACTION
Yeah, we were there
in the beginning,
singing, dancing and spinning,
driving, racing and winning.
To make those days our own,
to make our mark, to set us apart,
then suddenly we were grown
There's not been a
time as close to heaven.......as
CIRCA 1957.
******************************************************
EXCERPT FROM CHAPTERS
CHAPTER 5
"Big Bart's D-Gas '49 Ford is coming into the staging area now. Ol' Isky was there when BB christened her on Reading Road a few days ago. That flathead's sporting six-deuces, and a poked and stroked Merc engine, sure 'nuff. Ah... the sound of a flathead is still sweet music even to this die hard Chevy man. Uh, oh. Looks like somethin' broke. I don't see any smoke so it must be in the drive train. Put back in the mud, or put a Chevy in it, sure 'nuff."Chapter 14
We pantomimed, holding hands, seeing only each other, hearing only the words and knowing they were meant just for us. I felt my heart racing, I saw her lips quiver... we were like two full race duce-coupes all revved up waiting for the drop of the flag.We pressed tight to each other, kissing and hugging, standing on the outer edges of the dance floor, oblivious to anyone and anything. Anything that is until . . . . We parted with my promise to bring her my black wool jacket. The one with KNIGHTS embroidered on the back in three-inch-high, old English-style letters over a patch of a hoodless roadster.I caught a ride to Carters' with a kid from my English class. It was just starting to rain. I didn't see any familiar faces so I had to decide if I should wait to see if somebody showed up to give me a ride home, or start thumbing now before the rain got worse. I decided on the latter walking the two blocks to Section Road to catch a ride. I stood out in the cold rain for ten minutes before seeing the first car. It passed me by, even though I used my most pathetic look while emphasizing my thumb in an exaggerated way. The third or forth car had a bubble gum machine on top. I tucked my thumb in my fist and turned to walk to the sidewalk. I was sure I could be arrested for soliciting a ride or something. The Amberley patrol car stopped next to me and I walked over to the passenger door which opened.
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