A review by otterno11
Had a Good Time: Stories from American Postcards by Robert Olen Butler

4.0

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.