Great Penformances is a collection of contemporary reviews of best-selling fiction of the last century. Each review looks at a 20th century novel in terms of its importance and entertainment value for today’s readers.
Novels reviewed in Great Penformances are books baby boomers bought themselves or saw on their parent’s bookshelves. Most are by writers whose names are unknown to today’s readers, like Ben Ames Williams and Rachel Field. A few are by distinguished literary figures like John Steinbeck and Sinclair Lewis. Others are by authors whose names appear again and again: Thomas B. Costain and Taylor Caldwell, for example.
People who never read any of these books know their titles. Some went on to theatrical careers. Many were picked up by Hollywood and packaged for the big screen. But some film versions were so awful they turned people off from reading the novels on which they were based.
Since the books reviewed in Great Penformances were best-sellers, they are still fairly easy to find today in libraries, second hand book stores, and garage sales. As copyrights expire, many are being reprinted for a new generation of readers.
Great Penformances seeks to attract a new generation of readers for yesterday’s great books by encouraging libraries and bookstores to promote older fiction.
