The Year We Danced: A Memoir
by Stephen E. Smith
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Pub Date May 07 2024 | Archive Date Jun 10 2024
Mindbuck Media | Apprentice House
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Description
With the number of Covid cases increasing and the death toll steadily rising, award-winning writer Stephen E. Smith decided it was appropriate-maybe even necessary-to write about happier, less stressful times.
In a box of forgotten files, he rediscovered loose-leaf binders and keepsakes from his first year of college. It had been more than half a century but reading through his course notes, personal observations, and the clippings he'd torn from magazines and newspapers, he pieced together the events, good and bad, tender and tragic, that shaped his freshman year.
Much of what he writes is disarmingly funny, but recalling the Civil Rights Movement, the War in Vietnam, and the complexities of finding himself a stranger in the South forced him to reassess a period of his life he'd long recalled as carefree. In this vivid and poignant mid-60s memoir, readers come to understand how friendship, a love of language and music, and the bittersweet remembrance of lost love can help sustain us through difficult times.
Advance Praise
“Stephen Smith is a highly engaging, sympathetic and humorous everyman, addressing adventures and situations most folks have had, such as being an All American college-boy-or-girl-home-on-break worker in retail over the Christmas holidays. His experiences as a Drug Fair Veg-o-matic salesman come to us with hilarious dry-wit and droll delivery. So memorable -- and heartwarming to the maximum!" — Bland Simpson, author of North Carolina: Land of Water, Land of Sky
“Stephen Smith’s new memoir is loaded with whip-smart humor, keen insights into a college kid trying to figure things out, and reminiscences of a time and place that leave you smiling and musing, “Yes, that’s the way it was.” This book is a great read. Jaunty, delightful, wonderfully absorbing, impossible to resist. The writing simply shines.” — Judy Goldman, author of Child: A Memoir
“One of the enduring pleasures of my life is that I get to read Stephen E. Smith on a regular basis. We should all be so lucky. His poetry is sublime and his prose is witty, charming, poignant and crafted with the consummate skill of a P.G. Wodehouse, one of the writers he cherished as a young man. The Year We Danced: A Memoir is sweet and funny and profoundly us. If you love a tale, or tales, well told, this is the book for you.” — Jim Moriarty, Editor PineStraw magazine
“Would you buy a Vega-O-Magic from this man? If ‘this man’ is Stephen Smith, the answer is emphatically YES! Smith’s humorous tone and talent for the absurd make him and this book companionable and delightful. Smith is a reliably hilarious storyteller.” — Paul Jones, author of Something Wonderful
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781627205382 |
| PRICE | $22.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 270 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Glenda T, Reviewer
The Year We Danced
A Memoir
Stephen E. Smith
Apprentice House Press
Two Step? Jive? Tango? Foxtrot? I wanted to know what kind of dance was danced in this year of dance so I picked the memoir off Netgalley’s shelf. I appreciate real photos of real people in real stories and the cover successfully communicated that.
I opened the page and went to college.
Stephan communicated his story well and even as I type this review I feel like he may read it and rip apart my grammar and punctuation. He learned from the best. His story was a white dress shirt starched stiff, tucked into khaki pants, and ironed into a perfect crease. Impeccable.
I had difficulty with the phlegm. I longed for Blondie to grab hold of the author, kiss him long and hard and deep until his toes curled and his khakis split their seems in sensation. The energy of emotion was missing and I felt a little like Sheldon was knocking on the door calling Penny forth.
While the story would have exploded with some chi, it was good despite its absence.
I enjoyed learning about the Shag, Elon College, and the music that inspired the author through his freshman year. I would rate this book a solid 3 out of 5 because it was good and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys memoirs.
The Year We Danced was an insightful glimpse into a moment in time that I wouldn’t know existed if the author hadn’t penned his memoir.
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.
Reviewer 206781
The Year We Danced: A Memoir by Stephen E. Smith will send you back to the swinging (?) sixties in his nostalgic recollection of his first year as a college student. I enjoyed some of the specific details- the clothes he wore, the music he listened to, and some events of that first year. I had trouble finding the purpose of explaining how his father chose the college for him, FORGED his application, and only told the author that would be his destination— shortly before he went. Or maybe that was the satire part?
