Mark Twain Made Me Do It and Other Plains Adventures
Books / Paperback
Books › Fiction › Alternative History
ISBN: 0803275927 / Publisher: Bison Books, March 1997
Humorous essays describe life in western Nebraska during the 1950s, including the impact of Sputnik, a raft trip down the South Platte, family travel, and holidays with grandparents
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Mark Twain Made Me Do It and Other Plains Adventures is a collection of humorous essays portraying western Nebraska life and culture of the 1950s. Anecdotes on small-town baseball and the polio epidemic of 1952 provide a historic backdrop to the story of a wide-eyed boy exploring the limits of his universe. The adventures of a Twain-inspired raft trip down the South Platte and Sputnik-inspired homemade rockets mirror a society of seemingly settled lifestyles and frenzied technological advances. Family travels, holidays with Grandpa and Grandma, and marvelous creations like his sister’s stories of Susabelle and the magic Band-Aids weave a splendid tale. But Jones’s world is not one of sentimental nostalgia; running battles with town bullies, sobering encounters with religious buffoons, and an impressive collection of pedagogues specializing in violent corporal punishment capture the earthy essence of a world now largely disappeared.
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