Lunch Bucket Paradise is a coming of age novel set in post-World War II California. It is called a true-life novel. It is not a memoir; it is a fictional accounting of the spirit of these times.
What I greatly appreciated about this book is how much it made me think. It's structured in a way that there are brief "big picture" sections—descriptions, for instance, of the housing opportunities after World War II, of racial relations, of eating dinner parked in front of a television set watching Walter Cronkite. Then we are back into the particular story of this boy growing up in this world.
The thing that set this book apart for me was the use of details. The book is firmly grounded in our American culture at this time. Some of it invited nostalgia. I miss drive-ins. I remember the thrill of first discovering Jello and Betty Crocker cakes. Some of it I did not know. I had never heard about the tuberculosis wards before. That was both fascinating and sobering to me. Some of it inspired me. The young man in this story loves jazz. I have some knowledge of this music, but the way he describes it in this book made me want to know much more.
There are also moments of deep emotions in this book. There is humor. I think my favorite instance involved the notion of a momentous event coupled with an unfortunate song. There are economic hardships and difficult work decisions. There is the pure joy of musicianship, the visceral pleasure of capturing a song onstage. When I read this book, I felt that I got to experience that moment.
