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Had a Good Time: Stories from American Postcards
For many years Pulitzer Prize-winning 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 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," where 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," where a newspaper reporter covers an incident of American military adventurism in a foreign land, these are intimate and fascinating glimpses into the lives of ordinary people in an extraordinary age.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
60 people are currently reading
407 people want to read
About the author
Robert Olen Butler
86 books454 followers“I’ll never stop believing it: Robert Olen Butler is the best living American writer, period.”
– Jeff Guinn, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Robert Olen Butler has published sixteen novels—The Alleys of Eden, Sun Dogs, Countrymen of Bones, On Distant Ground, Wabash, The Deuce, They Whisper, The Deep Green Sea, Mr. Spaceman, Fair Warning, Hell, A Small Hotel, The Hot Country, The Star of Istanbul, The Empire of Night, Perfume River—and six volumes of short fiction—Tabloid Dreams, Had a Good Time, Severance, Intercourse, Weegee Stories, and A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, which won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Butler has published a volume of his lectures on the creative process, From Where You Dream, edited with an introduction by Janet Burroway.
In 2013 he became the seventeenth recipient of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature. He also won the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and has received two Pushcart Prizes. He has also received both a Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. His stories have appeared widely in such publications as The New Yorker, Esquire, Harper’s, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Zoetrope, The Paris Review, Granta, The Hudson Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, and The Sewanee Review. They have been chosen for inclusion in four annual editions of The Best American Short Stories, eight annual editions of New Stories from the South, several other major annual anthologies, and numerous college literature textbooks from such publishers as Simon & Schuster, Norton, Viking, Little Brown & Co., Houghton Mifflin, Oxford University Press, Prentice Hall, and Bedford/St.Martin and most recently in The New Granta Book of the American Short Story, edited by Richard Ford.
His works have been translated into twenty-one languages, including Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Polish, Japanese, Serbian, Farsi, Czech, Estonian, Greek, and most recently Chinese. He was also a charter recipient of the Tu Do Chinh Kien Award given by the Vietnam Veterans of America for “outstanding contributions to American culture by a Vietnam veteran.” Over the past two decades he has lectured in universities, appeared at conferences, and met with writers groups in 17 countries as a literary envoy for the U. S. State Department.
He is a Francis Eppes Distinguished Professor holding the Michael Shaara Chair in Creative Writing at Florida State University. Under the auspices of the FSU website, in the fall of 2001, he did something no other writer has ever done, before or since: he revealed his writing process in full, in real time, in a webcast that observed him in seventeen two-hour sessions write a literary short story from its first inspiration to its final polished form. He also gave a running commentary on his artistic choices and spent a half-hour in each episode answering the emailed questions of his live viewers. The whole series, under the title “Inside Creative Writing” is a very popular on YouTube, with its first two-hour episode passing 125,000 in the spring of 2016.
For more than a decade he was hired to write feature-length screenplays for New Regency, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Disney, Universal Pictures, Baldwin Entertainment Group (for Robert Redford), and two teleplays for HBO. Typical of Hollywood, none of these movies ever made it to the screen.
Reflecting his early training as an actor, he has also recorded the audio books for four of his works—A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, Hell, A Small Hotel and Perfume River. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree from the State University of New York system. He lives in Florida, with his wife, the poet Kelly Lee Butler.
– Jeff Guinn, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Robert Olen Butler has published sixteen novels—The Alleys of Eden, Sun Dogs, Countrymen of Bones, On Distant Ground, Wabash, The Deuce, They Whisper, The Deep Green Sea, Mr. Spaceman, Fair Warning, Hell, A Small Hotel, The Hot Country, The Star of Istanbul, The Empire of Night, Perfume River—and six volumes of short fiction—Tabloid Dreams, Had a Good Time, Severance, Intercourse, Weegee Stories, and A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, which won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Butler has published a volume of his lectures on the creative process, From Where You Dream, edited with an introduction by Janet Burroway.
In 2013 he became the seventeenth recipient of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature. He also won the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and has received two Pushcart Prizes. He has also received both a Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. His stories have appeared widely in such publications as The New Yorker, Esquire, Harper’s, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Zoetrope, The Paris Review, Granta, The Hudson Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, and The Sewanee Review. They have been chosen for inclusion in four annual editions of The Best American Short Stories, eight annual editions of New Stories from the South, several other major annual anthologies, and numerous college literature textbooks from such publishers as Simon & Schuster, Norton, Viking, Little Brown & Co., Houghton Mifflin, Oxford University Press, Prentice Hall, and Bedford/St.Martin and most recently in The New Granta Book of the American Short Story, edited by Richard Ford.
His works have been translated into twenty-one languages, including Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Polish, Japanese, Serbian, Farsi, Czech, Estonian, Greek, and most recently Chinese. He was also a charter recipient of the Tu Do Chinh Kien Award given by the Vietnam Veterans of America for “outstanding contributions to American culture by a Vietnam veteran.” Over the past two decades he has lectured in universities, appeared at conferences, and met with writers groups in 17 countries as a literary envoy for the U. S. State Department.
He is a Francis Eppes Distinguished Professor holding the Michael Shaara Chair in Creative Writing at Florida State University. Under the auspices of the FSU website, in the fall of 2001, he did something no other writer has ever done, before or since: he revealed his writing process in full, in real time, in a webcast that observed him in seventeen two-hour sessions write a literary short story from its first inspiration to its final polished form. He also gave a running commentary on his artistic choices and spent a half-hour in each episode answering the emailed questions of his live viewers. The whole series, under the title “Inside Creative Writing” is a very popular on YouTube, with its first two-hour episode passing 125,000 in the spring of 2016.
For more than a decade he was hired to write feature-length screenplays for New Regency, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Disney, Universal Pictures, Baldwin Entertainment Group (for Robert Redford), and two teleplays for HBO. Typical of Hollywood, none of these movies ever made it to the screen.
Reflecting his early training as an actor, he has also recorded the audio books for four of his works—A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, Hell, A Small Hotel and Perfume River. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree from the State University of New York system. He lives in Florida, with his wife, the poet Kelly Lee Butler.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
January 10, 2008
Robert Olen Butler is one of my favorite authors (if not my very favorite), and his book A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain is perhaps my favorite book of all time. What Butler does best is imagine the internal thought processes and feelings of a character and express that in first-person narrative; I don’t believe any living writer is better than Butler at first-person narrative prose (both from a technical and aesthetic standpoint). Had a Good Time is a book of short stories, with each story’s origin being a real postcard from the early 1900’s collected by Butler. The book shows a picture of the postcard and its accompanying text, and follows it with a short story told in first-person narrative crafted around the text and the postcard picture. This sets Butler up to write a book to his strengths, so you would think this book would rate higher than it does. To me, this seems like a Writer’s Workshop exercise in developing plot – more a literary challenge than an inspired idea – and ultimately that is the weakness of this collection of stories. The prose is still vintage Butler, which I like, and there are sentences in here and looping thought processes that shake my heart. Butler also does an incredible job of making each narrative sound and feel unique. My favorite stories are Mother in the Trenches, This is Earl Sandt, and No Chord of Music. My least favorite stories are The Grotto, Christmas 1910, and The One in White. But ultimately, the majority of the stories lack the powerful emotional depth that I know Butler is capable of producing. Butler’s mediocrity is still better than most writers’ highest potential, however, so this book still ranks this highly. A recommended read, but not quite among Butler’s best stuff.
June 16, 2024
Cool concept. Mediocre execution. How do a young daughter of South Dakota settlers, an enslaved person in Louisiana, and a middle-aged man at Coney Island wind up sounding like the same person?
August 31, 2013
To be honest, I'm not much on short story collections. But this one looked good and I picked it up at the library on impulse. I was not disappointed. A wonderful collection of stories inspired by early 1900's picture postcards, sometimes by the photo, sometimes by the message, sometimes by both. It was a nice variety, as well. All were first person but Butler wrote from both male and female POVs and the stories covered a wonderful arc of emotions. I cried at the end of "Mother in the Trenches". "The Ironworker's Hayride" made me laugh. "No Chord of Music" was kind of a proud, smiling moment for two women exploring independence. "Christmas 1910" and "Carl and I" put an ache in my heart and "Twins" just broke it right in two. A couple of the stories were kind of "eh", but I liked most of them. I will more than likely seek out other short story collections by this author.
May 25, 2018
I would read a grocery list written by Robert Olen Butler. He's got me in the palm of his hand. Plus, I'm a serious fan of postcards. This is a collection of short stories, each based on a postcard. Just a lovely read.
August 4, 2022
Robert Olen Butler does not disappoint in this collection of short stories based on postcards of the early 1900’s. Mother in Trenches broke my heart, Up by Heart made me laugh and cheer, but the final picture and message on the postcard took my breath away. This is a clever idea for a collection of short stories.
December 22, 2021
During the busy holiday season, short stories a good choice to pick up and read at random. The Hayride was a favorite, lighter in tone and with a zinger of an ending. Also Christmas 1910, a cute story, perfect for this time of year.
September 19, 2020
Abandoned after reading two stories in full, and dipping into others. The stories I read seem very lightweight and literal. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of "thinking outside the box" of the original messages, in either narrative or technique. I came away without much sense that Butler had mined the possibilities of the stories behind his vintage postcards.
I requested this as a Christmas present some years ago, because I just loved Butler's story (in Tabloid Dreams) "Jealous Husband Returns in the Form of Parrot." Now, there's a story that takes a thin, back of an envelope premise and spins it into gold -- funny, sad, a masterclass in how to use an off-beat perspective. (The story, if you're not familiar with it, does exactly what it says on the label: told from the POV of the reincarnated husband, who is forced to watch the bedroom antics of his wife, living it up as a Merry Widow ...)
The other thing that I don't like about this collection, is that Butler, well, cheats: he felt the need to "enhance" the intriguing bare bones of the postcard messages with a link to a contemporary newspaper story -- I guess he felt the need to added narrative oomph ... I don't think that was necessary, and it feels like it made a nonsense of the challenge of spinning a story from the old postcards ...
I requested this as a Christmas present some years ago, because I just loved Butler's story (in Tabloid Dreams) "Jealous Husband Returns in the Form of Parrot." Now, there's a story that takes a thin, back of an envelope premise and spins it into gold -- funny, sad, a masterclass in how to use an off-beat perspective. (The story, if you're not familiar with it, does exactly what it says on the label: told from the POV of the reincarnated husband, who is forced to watch the bedroom antics of his wife, living it up as a Merry Widow ...)
The other thing that I don't like about this collection, is that Butler, well, cheats: he felt the need to "enhance" the intriguing bare bones of the postcard messages with a link to a contemporary newspaper story -- I guess he felt the need to added narrative oomph ... I don't think that was necessary, and it feels like it made a nonsense of the challenge of spinning a story from the old postcards ...
February 13, 2009
Well written as always is the case with Butler, but this is the first collection of his stories that left me a bit cold. They felt more like technical exercises built around a central conceit (stories based on actual antique postcards) than real and inevitable expressions of the author's craft. Forgettable.
July 11, 2023
--A "novel" idea to write short stories related in some way to both sides of postcards from the first two decades of the twentieth century.
--The author won a Pulitzer prize for a short story collection in the 1980's or 1990's.
--I cannot understand why the author included short newspaper clippings on the pages before photos of the postcards followed by text of the stories. I assume the clippings were real. Most clippings seemed to have nothing to do with the stories following them.
--My feeling at the end of ten of the 15 stories was "meh." And that was about how many stories I kept looking at how many pages I had, when reading one, left to finish a story.
--The stories were all quite different from one another. Different voices, different subjects.
--The author has a penchant for repeating phrases (which I found unnecessary) in some of the stories, and mentioned, in passing, the subject of one of the postcards (biplane) in several other stories.
--I became aware of this book after taking the author's graduate creative writing course (34 hours) on YouTube. In the course he showed you the process he used -- while he was actually writing -- to create the "This Is Earl Sandt" story.
--To give you more perspective, I usually read non-fiction and took the creative writing course for something different to do, gain a different perspective, and, of course, to learn something, although I don't expect to ever pursue creative
writing.
--The author won a Pulitzer prize for a short story collection in the 1980's or 1990's.
--I cannot understand why the author included short newspaper clippings on the pages before photos of the postcards followed by text of the stories. I assume the clippings were real. Most clippings seemed to have nothing to do with the stories following them.
--My feeling at the end of ten of the 15 stories was "meh." And that was about how many stories I kept looking at how many pages I had, when reading one, left to finish a story.
--The stories were all quite different from one another. Different voices, different subjects.
--The author has a penchant for repeating phrases (which I found unnecessary) in some of the stories, and mentioned, in passing, the subject of one of the postcards (biplane) in several other stories.
--I became aware of this book after taking the author's graduate creative writing course (34 hours) on YouTube. In the course he showed you the process he used -- while he was actually writing -- to create the "This Is Earl Sandt" story.
--To give you more perspective, I usually read non-fiction and took the creative writing course for something different to do, gain a different perspective, and, of course, to learn something, although I don't expect to ever pursue creative
writing.
May 10, 2022
I like this premise. I know my own imagination is sparked by everything from a lit window in a house at night to check-out cards found in old library books. Plus, I like to write postcards!
Unfortunately, nothing really stood out to me in this short story collection. There were a couple that made me laugh, some that made me sad, and the writing was good. But nothing grabbed me. That could also be completely my fault. Like most people in the world right now, I've got a lot on my mind.
It's a solid collection and I still love the premise. Maybe I'll write some more postcards soon and in a hundred years, someone will write a story about one of them!
Unfortunately, nothing really stood out to me in this short story collection. There were a couple that made me laugh, some that made me sad, and the writing was good. But nothing grabbed me. That could also be completely my fault. Like most people in the world right now, I've got a lot on my mind.
It's a solid collection and I still love the premise. Maybe I'll write some more postcards soon and in a hundred years, someone will write a story about one of them!
March 23, 2021
The premise for this short-story collection was novel, as Butler based each one on an historical postcard from the early 1900s. Some of the stories really captured my attention. Others, not so much. Together, they formed an interesting picture of that time period. Butler is without a doubt an exceptional writer. Each protagonist varies wildly from the others and the voice of each piece varies as well. Included with the postcards are some newspaper articles, which also highlighted what people's views were back then. An interesting read, but not something that I really fell in love with.
March 4, 2019
7-Word Review: Every vintage postcard tells an intriguing story.
Favorite line: Say, we’re just trying to get out of childhood in one piece, all of us.
This book provides charming tales of Americana inspired by scribblings written on old postcards. As a collector of vintage postcards myself, I wonder why I didn’t think of this??? Because I’m not Robert Olen Butler. That’s why.
Favorite line: Say, we’re just trying to get out of childhood in one piece, all of us.
This book provides charming tales of Americana inspired by scribblings written on old postcards. As a collector of vintage postcards myself, I wonder why I didn’t think of this??? Because I’m not Robert Olen Butler. That’s why.
March 3, 2020
For this book, Robert Olen Butler used postcards as inspiration for short stories. As a lover of postcards and short stories, I thought "Hooray! This is the book for me." Sadly, I only ended up enjoying two stories from the collection- one about a lady with a "wooden leg" and another about a lady who values the finer things in life. The rest of the stories were not memorable.
December 11, 2020
Short stories prompted from old postcards
These short stories, each prompted by an old postcard, were quite good. I particularly liked "Up by Heart," where an illiterate man whose wife has read the Bible to him so often that he has committed it to memory, has an encounter with his creator.
These short stories, each prompted by an old postcard, were quite good. I particularly liked "Up by Heart," where an illiterate man whose wife has read the Bible to him so often that he has committed it to memory, has an encounter with his creator.
September 13, 2022
Chock full of nostalgic twists
Short stories contrived to reflect the turn of the century, each with its own voice of either gender and all written with introspection and a certain insight. This has guided my middle of night miseries back to slumber in just the way needed for several weeks, for which I’m grateful.
Short stories contrived to reflect the turn of the century, each with its own voice of either gender and all written with introspection and a certain insight. This has guided my middle of night miseries back to slumber in just the way needed for several weeks, for which I’m grateful.
January 6, 2023
This book has one of my all-time favorite short stories. As with any book of short stories, some are stronger than others, but the biggest stand-out is "The Ironworkers' Hayride" - a hilarious tale about a date between an awkward bachelor and a woman with a cork leg. If you like collecting postcards or just enjoy nostalgia, I really recommend this book!
August 6, 2017
Butler does another good job.
March 9, 2019
Captivating collection of short stories based on the messages written on the back of postcards.
May 11, 2022
Fun concept for a book. Loved the variety of stories. Particularly liked Mother in the Trenches and Up by Heart.
April 7, 2023
Depressing. I thought there would be some fun stories.
Want to read
June 6, 2025Cutting is for Carl and I
By Robert Olen Butler
By Robert Olen Butler
October 8, 2008
This book is really good at creating the atmosphere of early 20th century America in the world. And as they say, the more things change...
Each story begins with a newspaper clipping from August 7, 1910, and an early 20th century postcard pictured on both front and back. The stories derive from the specific postcard and its message, and the newspaper clipping provide a counterpoint that culminates in the final story of the book. The news is familiarly absurd. The postcards are mysteries to which Butler gives us one solution. We are free to imagine others.
Two of the most moving concern the waging of war. Reading about Woodrow Wilson's reasons for going into Mexico and seeing the inevitable results--death on all sides and a growing hatred of Americans in "The One in White"--well, it's not hard to make a connection there. And the heartbreaking "Mother in the Trenches" needs no explanation.
There was also an eerie 9/11 parallel to "This is Earl Sandt", which is immediate upon viewing the photo on the postcard, and continues throughout the narrative. Other stories feature Americans in a Muslim country, born-again religion, immigration, abortion, the legacy of slavery, death from TB, explorations on the nature of love, men and women trying to define their roles--all, though firmly rooted here in life 100 years ago, absolutely fresh and right for 2008.
Each story begins with a newspaper clipping from August 7, 1910, and an early 20th century postcard pictured on both front and back. The stories derive from the specific postcard and its message, and the newspaper clipping provide a counterpoint that culminates in the final story of the book. The news is familiarly absurd. The postcards are mysteries to which Butler gives us one solution. We are free to imagine others.
Two of the most moving concern the waging of war. Reading about Woodrow Wilson's reasons for going into Mexico and seeing the inevitable results--death on all sides and a growing hatred of Americans in "The One in White"--well, it's not hard to make a connection there. And the heartbreaking "Mother in the Trenches" needs no explanation.
There was also an eerie 9/11 parallel to "This is Earl Sandt", which is immediate upon viewing the photo on the postcard, and continues throughout the narrative. Other stories feature Americans in a Muslim country, born-again religion, immigration, abortion, the legacy of slavery, death from TB, explorations on the nature of love, men and women trying to define their roles--all, though firmly rooted here in life 100 years ago, absolutely fresh and right for 2008.
September 9, 2010
I am new to the writing of Robert Olen Butler... And I think I am hooked. I also just finished Intercourse, but definitely favored Had a Good Time.
Both books showcase Butler's talent for the short story, and specifically, for first person narrative, but Had a Good Time was, for me, truly captivating.
Each story begins with an early twentieth century era postcard. From a few scratched lines, an address, a brief idea of a time and place, Butler fills in the blanks to create stories and character more rich and diverse than I could have imagined.
Often I am most impressed by authors who have a gift for imagery- painting pictures with words and dropping me right into a time and place, just by describing it to me. But imagery and place are not the things that stand out most to me after reading this.
I finished each story feeling that everything I know and understand about these little worlds came from the characters, from being inside of each of them, looking out on the world and struggling to understand it.
Strong women, powerful introspection, and themes of death abound, while twists and clever endings kept my wheels spinning long after I finished each vignette. A perfect package....
Don't miss this book !
Both books showcase Butler's talent for the short story, and specifically, for first person narrative, but Had a Good Time was, for me, truly captivating.
Each story begins with an early twentieth century era postcard. From a few scratched lines, an address, a brief idea of a time and place, Butler fills in the blanks to create stories and character more rich and diverse than I could have imagined.
Often I am most impressed by authors who have a gift for imagery- painting pictures with words and dropping me right into a time and place, just by describing it to me. But imagery and place are not the things that stand out most to me after reading this.
I finished each story feeling that everything I know and understand about these little worlds came from the characters, from being inside of each of them, looking out on the world and struggling to understand it.
Strong women, powerful introspection, and themes of death abound, while twists and clever endings kept my wheels spinning long after I finished each vignette. A perfect package....
Don't miss this book !
February 16, 2014
I'm a fan of Robert Olen Butler, especially his short stories. He's a master of the form, as evidenced by his Pulitzer-winning collection Good Scent From a Strange Mountain. Had a Good time sees Butler taking 20th century postcards and bringing them to life. Butler's ability to craft unique voices for his characters is on full display here. As a backdrop to the stories, the turn of the century looms big, bright, and ominous; people are unnerved by electric lights, and they're keenly aware of the many ways that death can still find them.
Some reviewers found that the stories settled into a predictable form, and I suppose that's true. Butler's stories tend to follow a pattern, but the pattern is one aspiring short story writers would do well to follow. Other reviewers found the characters cold and the stories less-than-fulfilling, sentiments I can't disagree with more. If you love well-drawn characters (men and women, white and black, young and old) wrangling with America's brave foray into the 1900s, then you should check out this collection. You won't be disappointed.
Some reviewers found that the stories settled into a predictable form, and I suppose that's true. Butler's stories tend to follow a pattern, but the pattern is one aspiring short story writers would do well to follow. Other reviewers found the characters cold and the stories less-than-fulfilling, sentiments I can't disagree with more. If you love well-drawn characters (men and women, white and black, young and old) wrangling with America's brave foray into the 1900s, then you should check out this collection. You won't be disappointed.
September 11, 2011
Good although I felt oddly distant from the characters.
The trouble with short stories (as I've said before in other posts - sorry) is that if you are enjoying them, involved with the characters, they are too short. Just as you've begun to get to know them they're over! So the only short stories I've enjoyed until now have not been character based. The twist in the tail, reveal one surprise plot twist short stories are great (see Roald Dahl's short stories and 'Stories of the Sinister and Macabre' edited by Steve Bowles).
This is different. The stories have one surprise to reveal, but the characterisations are essential. However, I'm distant enough from them that I don't miss them when they're gone. Exquisitely positioned by the author? I have to assume so.
The idea of using a real postcard as inspiration for each story is also charmingly different.
The trouble with short stories (as I've said before in other posts - sorry) is that if you are enjoying them, involved with the characters, they are too short. Just as you've begun to get to know them they're over! So the only short stories I've enjoyed until now have not been character based. The twist in the tail, reveal one surprise plot twist short stories are great (see Roald Dahl's short stories and 'Stories of the Sinister and Macabre' edited by Steve Bowles).
This is different. The stories have one surprise to reveal, but the characterisations are essential. However, I'm distant enough from them that I don't miss them when they're gone. Exquisitely positioned by the author? I have to assume so.
The idea of using a real postcard as inspiration for each story is also charmingly different.
September 25, 2019
I had not been aware of Robert Olen Butler's work before picking up "Had a Good Time: Stories from American Postcards," but his writing here shows a great recreation of the United States at the turn of the century and the surprisingly familiar problems that affect people, then and now. The short fiction in this surprisingly diverse collection are set in the 1900s and 1910s (the golden age of the postcard), each told in the voice of a person inspired by an actual message written on the back of a vintage American postcard. Butler does a great job making each of these men and women feel unique, with their own voices and experiences. Postcards were in many ways the "instant message" of the time, when a cheap and fast way to communicate with friends and loved ones back home were as important as the image included, and Butler vibrantly animates these slices of preserved life.
July 21, 2008
I just finished "Had a Good Time" by Robert Olen Butler. It is a collection of short stories based on real vintage postcards from the early 1900's collected by the author. I really liked this book. It is not a light, fluffy read, but well worth the time. It is a quick read because you can read just one story in a sitting. Most of the stories were pretty sad, which was the feeling of the time between the turn of the century and the first World War, but there are some optimistic stories too. My favorite was "The Ironworkers' Hayride." It is a cute story with an optimistic message. I highly recommend this book.
March 31, 2008
Robert Olen Butler is one of my favorite authors. I checked out this book by chance at the library because his name caught my eye. My maiden name is Butler. The book seemed like it might be interesting so I took a chance. I am so glad I did! Butler likes to collect old picture postcards, not so much for the pictures, but for the words written on them. For this book, he selected a few postcards and built short stories, using what was already written on card as a foundation. What a cool idea! I highly recommend this book!
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February 5, 2009This varied collection and the unusual adventures of Americans facing the dawn of a new century won a few critics over. A man falls in love with a girl with a wooden leg; a woman pines away for her dying husband. Still another jumps off a hotel balcony. Most reviewers, however, expected more from Butler. The blame might be better placed on the postcards themselves. Only a few were suited for fully realized characters and conflicts. Others, unfortunately, only serve as a jumping off point for clich_
December 27, 2007
The concept was so facinating! Butler took early 19th century postcards and using the photo and what people wrote, he made them into short stories. Each chapter was different. However, when I read the story, I found I wasn't capitivated. He probably did a great job showing ordinary people in the correct time period, with the appropriate dialogue and descriptions. I just found most of the stories boring.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews