"“Stern” is about being Jewish in the American dream suburbs in the 1950s. It’s very dark and very, very funny. Maybe the funniest book I’ve ever read."

"She’s an extremely talented writer. Her first novel, set in the 1950s, is about a woman who grew up with a very eccentric mother, which, of course, is why I related to it."

"I saw this when I was fourteen. Saga the tomboy is one of my favorite characters. Falling in love with boys while wanting to be like them is how I spent my childhood, and the 1950s sports clothes dictated what I wore for the next ten years."

"I wrote my thesis on this prophetic Graham Greene novel about the dangers of American involvement in Vietnam, set in the 1950s before most people knew we were operating in Vietnam at all. In a very jaded, British way, Greene points out the dangers of well-intentioned interventions."

"Another instance of pleasurable re-reading. William Gaddis’ first novel, mid-1950s, The Recognitions, and I remember walking into a bookstore in Manhattan and being intrigued by the striking cover design, from a 15th century Italian altarpiece. The first paragraph knocked me out and I’ve been reading and re-reading Gaddis ever since."

"Of course I was Becky Thatcher from age five to 10 and switched to Huckleberry at 13 because he had all the fun. And before I ever set foot in Heidelberg in the 1950s, Twain’s Tramp held my hand when our American twangs were ridiculed by speakers of that awful German language."