1980s

The 1980s are evoked through a compact, intimate memory of music and sisterhood rather than through a broad account of the decade. For Yolandi Von Riesen, the period is bound to “Thunder Road,” a song that once energized the girls’ imaginations and that she reaches for again while trying to comfort herself during Elfrieda Von Riesen’s hospitalization.

A Childhood Soundtrack

Yolandi recalls the song as an anthem of their girlhood, one that lit a fire in what she calls their plain-girl hearts. Its place in the 1980s is conveyed through specific, youthful performances: singing into hairbrushes as microphones, or belting the song into the wind from the backs of half-ton trucks and the tops of hay bales. The images make the decade vivid without turning it into a catalogue of fashions or public events; its defining measure here is the way a song could animate ordinary places and reflections.

Memory Recalled in the Hospital

The memory returns much later, when Yolandi leaves Elfrieda’s room and wanders the hospital hallways. After rubbing away her tears, she comes back trying to comfort herself and sings—not quite fully—to the tune of “Thunder Road.” She invokes the Boss as an authoritative presence, and the old anthem becomes something she can call upon for hope. The remembered song does not resolve the crisis, but it gives Yolandi a way to endure the immediate moment and return to her sister.

The Decade as Emotional Measure

The passage places the sisters’ childhood beside the strain of Elfrieda’s adult illness. In the remembered scenes, singing is exuberant and shared; in the hospital, Yolandi’s effort is faltering and solitary, directed partly toward her own need for hope. The distance between those moments gives the 1980s its significance: the past is not restored, but its music remains available as a form of emotional support.

Narrative Significance

The novel makes the decade present through retrospective recollection rather than a separate historical episode. Yolandi’s memory moves from hairbrush microphones and open-air singing to a hospital chair, allowing a familiar song to carry childhood feeling into a crisis between sisters. The 1980s thus function as a personal archive—briefly reopened when the present offers little reassurance.