I Never Learned to Dance
by Larry Eley

BOOK REVIEW, by Don Poss
Webmaster, War-Stories.com and VSPA.com

 

 

 

Amazon.com:
I Never Learned to Dance

I Never Learned to Dance, by Larry Eley, takes place in rural America in the early sixties. Larry Eley spins an early1960’s tale of a young boy to young man, painting a watercolor-to-charcoal story of innocence of youth clashing with hardships of life, and a humorous reading of teenage years of misadventures and friendships.

Larry Eley’s personal story is a mixture of country-American life, trying to catch up to modern times, while fearing lost naiveté that is fleeting as youthfulness and once lost can never be regained.

I Never Learned to Dance brought to mind visions and stories like Huckleberry Finn... quiet flowing springs with childhood friends drifting on patched inner tubes... Oak wood campfires... stars blazing horizon to horizon...party-line phones, country living...Little Rascals... Darla ... Goonies… Home Alone… school bullies... Godzilla-wedges...tom boys... skinny-dipping... broken families ... snowboard sliding, dysfunctional step-dad... alcoholism gone mad... pretty girls and tongue-tied speechlessness... Junior High and High School... first love... sports... geeks, nerds, brainiacs... school-jocks... and the Vietnam War looming just over the horizon.

I wholeheartedly recommend I Never Learned to Dance, by Larry Eley.  A nostalgic story of the last of America’s formative years, when everything was possible and successes assured.  Although we may never regain our innocence, knowing that once upon a time those days of Camelot and Mayberry were real, we are the better for it.

You will feel better having read, I Never Learned to Dance—it is a book to remember.