The role of political and sexual identity in the works of Klaus Mann Book

By no means a mere chronological history of events, this book carries you through each decade of the last century like a ride whirling you through a Small World at Disney, but with tremendous substance and profound significance. It's the literary form of watching a filmstrip of the American landscape and its society; Snapshots of "now" from ten different eras.

What It Felt Like describes quite vividly what it indeed must have felt like to live in the 20th Century, honing in on the vibe of the times, rather than a check-marked list of what made the news. While subtly using key events to mark the passage of time, Allen makes you feel like you were really there.

To support his description, Allen takes on a writing style for each chapter that exemplifies the "talk" of that time. Every contributing factor to What It Felt Like is wrapped up in its decade's very own lingo. Sometimes, at the beginning of the book, this makes for a disjointed read. But once you settle into his approach, it becomes a beautiful accompaniment.

After finishing the book, I reread the first chapter, and skimmed chapters two and three, to reacquaint myself. It's amazing how different each decade can be from another, and how different the end of the century is from its beginning. And yet, they are remarkably and frighteningly similar. Finish this book, and then reread the first chapter. "The more things change, the more they remain the same."

History should be taught this way in schools. Every child would be hooked.