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These Days
Fueled by a passion for 1940s movies and her jazz musician father's nostalgia for a time when "every hole-in-the-wall bar had a band," 14-year old Becky Shelling dreams of a career in show biz. It's 1974, hardly a high point in jazz history when trumpeter Ernie Shelling disappears, abandoning his adoring daughter to an abusive step-mother, an indifferent step-sister and a step brother-in-law who lusts after her behind his wife's back. For solace, Becky befriends Carolyn Kibble, upstairs neighbor and barmaid at Ernie's former haunt, the Half-Mile Bar. But it's the attention of Lenny Moss that's the real salve for her emotional wound. Smooth-talking, dapper, and very married, Lenny has nostalgic yearnings of his own. Unbeknownst to Becky, his nostalgia is limited to a time when men ruled and women knew their place. Taking her to work for him on Baltimore's "World-Famous Block," Lenny inadvertently leads her down a path of self-discovery on a once-stylish, now-decrepit adult-entertainment strip, where everyone has a tale about the good old days, but nothing is quite as it seems. As Becky struggles to reconcile her life as Lenny's mistress/star performer with the realization that her father's disappearance was no accident, THESE DAYS juxtaposes past and present, myth and reality in ways that shine a light on the pitfalls of nostalgia and challenge the tenacity with which we cling to the past. "[These Days] gives credence to the saying, 'You should write what you know.' It's obvious this writer knows her territory." - Amazon Vine Review "As original as it is addictive. A truly compelling read that is worthy of high praise." - Publisher's Weekly Independent Review.
322 pages, Paperback
First published June 13, 2013
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255 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 25, 2014
If you are a sentimental person, as I am, and you love Baltimore, as I do, then you'll probably love this Roman a Clef from former Block dancer Margo Christie that was very well-written for a first novel. Paints a vivid picture of the decline of a beloved place with all the requisite nostalgia. The love story aspect is a little creepy but again, I think the author was trying to draw from her experiences and show how that situation and their surroundings affected her.
August 18, 2013
I enjoyed These Days very much.She lays out a scene so that you feel you are right there. I never spent much time in Baltimore,however I now feel I grew up in the city. Being in my 20's "Those Days" it was a delightful trip to my past. Great read. Looking forward to her next book.
November 28, 2014
I did a reading with Margo Christie a little while ago, and we had an interesting discussion about using life experiences in memoir and fiction. I read from my memoir, Innocent, and she read from this novel, which is based on some of her own experiences.
Fourteen-year-old Becky Shelling idolizes her father, jazz trumpeter Ernie Shelling, a romantic figure whose gigs take him traveling or staying out till the wee hours. He in turn favors her over his step-daughter, treating Becky to dance lessons and taking her along to sing with one of his woman friends, Teri the Canary. To Becky, his glamorous work far outshines their shabby rowhouse in Highlandtown, a blue-collar neighborhood in Baltimore of formstone rowhouses with at least one bar, if not four, at every intersection.
Then he gets a gig in Miami and leaves, promising to send Becky a bus ticket. Although her stepmother continues to let Becky live there, life becomes more and more intolerable as her stepsister’s boyfriend and his rowdy friends take over the place whenever Arlene is at work. It’s 1974, but Becky has assembled a wardrobe out of the 1940s, thanks to Goodwill shops. Hoping for a stage career, she finds a job at a run-down dinner theater in Middle River, working as an usher, coat-check girl, costume repairer, or whatever else needed doing while snagging some small parts.
It’s there that she meets Lenny Moss, an older man who sells insurance and looks like Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. She becomes not just his mistress but also his employee when he fulfills his long-time dream of opening a bar on the Block, Baltimore’s famous red-light district. The Block used to stretch to several blocks of burlesque clubs but by the 1970s had begun its long slide down into an ever-shrinking area of peep shows and strip joints. Moss hopes to reverse this trend by imbuing his club with some of the opulence of the old days, when women wore fabulously beaded and embellished gowns and danced and teased with their fans and feathered boas.
Stories of older men and young teenaged girls make my skin crawl, but there’s something sweet about this one. Becky is so invested in becoming a 1940s glamour queen; she and Lenny meet on level ground when it comes to their dreams. However, morning always comes, and hanging out with her new friends on the Block, Becky begins to learn the truth about her father.
This award-winning book is thoroughly addictive. Long past my usual lights-out, Christie’s prose kept me reading, oh just one more page, one more chapter. Her dialogue is a delight, catching the nuances of the varied cast of characters, from clumsy teenaged boys to sultry torch singers. And bars and kitchens and gowns all come to life in her descriptions. It was also fun to hear all the stories about the Block in the good old days. When I was growing up, it was still world-famous. I remember a doctor visiting us from India. “All I know about Baltimore,” he said, “is Fort McHenry and the Block.”
Holding onto the past, wanting to recreate a more dazzling time, seems relatively harmless. Becky’s story, though, makes me think again about the sometimes dangerous allure of nostalgia.
Fourteen-year-old Becky Shelling idolizes her father, jazz trumpeter Ernie Shelling, a romantic figure whose gigs take him traveling or staying out till the wee hours. He in turn favors her over his step-daughter, treating Becky to dance lessons and taking her along to sing with one of his woman friends, Teri the Canary. To Becky, his glamorous work far outshines their shabby rowhouse in Highlandtown, a blue-collar neighborhood in Baltimore of formstone rowhouses with at least one bar, if not four, at every intersection.
Then he gets a gig in Miami and leaves, promising to send Becky a bus ticket. Although her stepmother continues to let Becky live there, life becomes more and more intolerable as her stepsister’s boyfriend and his rowdy friends take over the place whenever Arlene is at work. It’s 1974, but Becky has assembled a wardrobe out of the 1940s, thanks to Goodwill shops. Hoping for a stage career, she finds a job at a run-down dinner theater in Middle River, working as an usher, coat-check girl, costume repairer, or whatever else needed doing while snagging some small parts.
It’s there that she meets Lenny Moss, an older man who sells insurance and looks like Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. She becomes not just his mistress but also his employee when he fulfills his long-time dream of opening a bar on the Block, Baltimore’s famous red-light district. The Block used to stretch to several blocks of burlesque clubs but by the 1970s had begun its long slide down into an ever-shrinking area of peep shows and strip joints. Moss hopes to reverse this trend by imbuing his club with some of the opulence of the old days, when women wore fabulously beaded and embellished gowns and danced and teased with their fans and feathered boas.
Stories of older men and young teenaged girls make my skin crawl, but there’s something sweet about this one. Becky is so invested in becoming a 1940s glamour queen; she and Lenny meet on level ground when it comes to their dreams. However, morning always comes, and hanging out with her new friends on the Block, Becky begins to learn the truth about her father.
This award-winning book is thoroughly addictive. Long past my usual lights-out, Christie’s prose kept me reading, oh just one more page, one more chapter. Her dialogue is a delight, catching the nuances of the varied cast of characters, from clumsy teenaged boys to sultry torch singers. And bars and kitchens and gowns all come to life in her descriptions. It was also fun to hear all the stories about the Block in the good old days. When I was growing up, it was still world-famous. I remember a doctor visiting us from India. “All I know about Baltimore,” he said, “is Fort McHenry and the Block.”
Holding onto the past, wanting to recreate a more dazzling time, seems relatively harmless. Becky’s story, though, makes me think again about the sometimes dangerous allure of nostalgia.
May 13, 2015
With a swish of her sensuous hips and a toss of her Rita Hayworth red hair, plucky Becky Shilling goes from a star-struck teenager who longs for Broadway’s lights to the star of Baltimore’s aging Block, a strip of neon-lit buildings once famous for burlesque houses featuring international stars like Blaze Starr.
Margo Christie’s semi-autobiographical first novel is billed as a “tale of nostalgia” and an ode to burlesque before its co-opting by hipsters.
“These Days” contains enough champagne, Frank Sinatra, feathered boas, and colorful characters to rival any film noire. What makes it all the more poignant is that it takes places in the 1970s, a time when hippies, acid rock, and the Viet Nam War supplanted any notion of 1940s glamour.
“These Days” is a wonderful and poignant coming of age story. Becky Shilling is both a character out of time and a timeless character. She is both wise beyond her 16 years and naive enough to believe that her married lover is the man of her dreams.
Set in Baltimore amidst smoky bars serving crab cakes and Natty Boh beer and white Cadillacs parked next to swanky steak joints, “These Days” is an ode to better times for a city that recently experienced devastating riots.
Christie masterfully depicts a an age-old story of a girl with big dreams who transforms before our eyes into a wise woman.
Margo Christie’s semi-autobiographical first novel is billed as a “tale of nostalgia” and an ode to burlesque before its co-opting by hipsters.
“These Days” contains enough champagne, Frank Sinatra, feathered boas, and colorful characters to rival any film noire. What makes it all the more poignant is that it takes places in the 1970s, a time when hippies, acid rock, and the Viet Nam War supplanted any notion of 1940s glamour.
“These Days” is a wonderful and poignant coming of age story. Becky Shilling is both a character out of time and a timeless character. She is both wise beyond her 16 years and naive enough to believe that her married lover is the man of her dreams.
Set in Baltimore amidst smoky bars serving crab cakes and Natty Boh beer and white Cadillacs parked next to swanky steak joints, “These Days” is an ode to better times for a city that recently experienced devastating riots.
Christie masterfully depicts a an age-old story of a girl with big dreams who transforms before our eyes into a wise woman.
November 11, 2013
I so enjoyed this book by local author Margo Christie. She had such a wonderful way of telling her story. I couldn't put it down. I was right there with her back in the 70's walking the streets known as "The Block" in Baltimore. A new understanding of those young women that landed in the strip joints and burlesque. For a first book She did a wonderful job. Thanks for sharing your story Margo! Can't wait for her next book.Margo Christie
July 27, 2016
Delightful recounting of the girlhood of a vagabond musician's daughter in a very special era in Baltimore. Our protagonist, Becky, has a unique voice that carries the story along nicely. Good read in a setting very familiar to me.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews