Buy used:
$8.97
FREE delivery May 15 - 21. Details
Or fastest delivery May 9 - 13. Details
Used: Good | Details
Sold by ThriftBooks-Phoenix
Condition: Used: Good
Comment: Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Don Carpenter
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Class of '49 Hardcover – January 1, 1985

by Don Carpenter (Author)
3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 3 ratings
See all formats and editions
The novel and two stories in The Class of '49 take us from a Portland, Oregon, high school in 1949, through such memorable way stations as the Brookley Air Base Service Club in Mobile, Alabama, and Palace Billiards in San Francisco, to Sunset Strip and a Hollywood movie lot in the late sixties.

In a sequence of short narratives the title novel portrays the triumphs and embarrassments of several students over the course of a single year. They are as different as Clyde Merriman, who "had no particular ambitions" but whose future is quickly decided when his girlfriend gets pregnant; the Maloney brothers, one the student body president, the other an outcast; Janet Salterlee, who trained for fifteen years to be Queen of the Rose Festival; Blaze Cooney, who attempts to write a novel; Anne Tressman, whose only interest is ballet; and Tommy German, the hanger-on, who tries desperately to meet girls on the seaside boardwalk—yet behind their fantasies and foibles lies a common rite of passage.

"One Pocket" traces the fascination of a writer, stuck in the air force, with the game of pool. He discovers that on occasion he can shoot "in a 'zone' way over his head," a discovery at once exhilarating and alarming. Finally, in "Glitter: A Memory," the writer, at work on a screenplay for a fading star, learns the lesson of Hollywood that things are not as they seem in a world of fantasy, deception, and calculated illusion.

Comical, lively, and tender, The Class of '49 shows Don Carpenter's voice to be one of the most vital in contemporary American writing.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    181 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    North Point Press
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 1985
  5. ISBN-10
    0865472130
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0865472136
  7. See all details
Next page
Amazon First Reads | Editors' picks at exclusive prices

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Previous page
  1. From a Distant Place
Next page

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ North Point Press (January 1, 1985)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 181 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0865472130
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0865472136
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 3 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Don Carpenter

Don Carpenter

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5
3 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

ralph manzo
4.0 out of 5 stars enjoyed book
Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2023
Verified Purchase
resd
Helpful
 Report
Rather Be Reading
3.0 out of 5 stars Lesser Carpenter
Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2019
"The Class of '49" isn't really a proper novel (and it's only really long enough to be considered a novella) so much as a series of disconnected vignettes following some characters from the same high school over succeeding years. While Carpenter often wove together separate character/story strands in his novels, here they don't really come together into a "big picture" at all--it's just a bunch of moderately interesting fragments whose individual figures don't even make a firm enough impression to be remembered if/when they resurface 20 or 50 pages later. The other two self-contained stories in the book (one about shooting pool) are fine, but this is a minor book by an underrated writer who wrote some major ones. It is not at all up to the standard of "Hard Rain Falling," "Turnaround" or "Fridays at Enrico's."
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

falsetaff
4.0 out of 5 stars Lost work
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2024
Verified Purchase
I have read a lot of Don Carpenter starting with Hard Rain Falling his most easily available and probably his best novel. This novel is long out of print and in the UK semmingly hard to find. Carpenter has a calmly flowing style that's very easy to read. The Class of 49 is really a novella following a class of high school students with slightly interconnected stories about each character in turn. Also included are another 2 short stories 'glitter' and 'one pocket' the later a story about shooting pool. All 3 stories are enjoyable and if you're a Carpenter fan this is still worth tracking down but it doesn't rate up along side his better work.
Report