1949 features three narratives that perform an ersatz dance as they coax each other along throughout the course of the short novel. The first narrative belongs to James Trudell, a veteran of WWII and the Battle for Iwo Jima. Trudell tells his story of the invasion and conquest of the island over a period of time that spans Thanksgiving Day, 1948 and the early 60's. The largest part of his story is presented to an audience made up of one of two sisters, Linda and Louise, or both women concurrently. He is a hard bitten, heavy drinking ex-Marine who can't shake his past and connect to the family he started almost by accident. He fell in love with a woman he met once on a train station platform and never forgot her. He is in no way self-conscious and feels no sense of irony at any point. The second story line in 1949 concerns James' son, Tandy, an amazing high school athlete who made the winning basket in a classic Mississippi basketball prep playoff game one night in early 1967. Tandy is antithetical to both James, his father, and Richie Hardin, his lifelong friend. Tandy is a straight arrow, God fearing, small town real estate mogul. Throughout the book he has a recurring dialogue with Richie, who appears at various times to be a misanthrope, womanizer, failed writer/journalist, a man who escaped the Deep South and its constraints, but keeps coming back. Richie is 1949's main story teller and the spine that holds the three narratives together. Ultimately, James and Tandy leave this plane, two decades apart, and Richie Hardin lives on to tell their stories, and part of his own.