Found via: A Chair, a Fireplace & a Tea Cozy
No Non-fiction Monday this week for me :-( All of my non-fiction reading this week has been older and not-necessarily-YA Civil War stuff.
So instead I'll give you some Civil War historical fiction!
Riot looks at the New York City draft riots of 1863, when the draft was first instituted in the United States, and included the provision that rather than being drafted a man could give the government $300 in order to pay for a replacement. Considering that an average monthly salary back in the day would hover around $10 (and could be significantly less if you were of a disliked class, such as a free Black man or an Irish immigrant), only the rich would be able to afford avoiding the draft. This just heightened existing class and racial tensions, since many of those who would now be forced to fight viewed it as a rich man's war fought by poor men on behalf of black men.
At the center of this particular story is Claire, the daughter of a white Irish mother and an African-American father, who run a nice little hotel with hopes of owning it someday. Claire has fair enough skin that she easily passes for white, though it's generally known in the neighborhood that she's biracial. When the first mutterings of the draft riots begin, a few local hooligans come by Claire's family's hotels, looking for support, but Claire's family is determined to stay out of the fray, insulting the hooligans.
As the city explodes into violence, Claire's parents do everything they can to keep her safe, but Claire is determined to figure out for herself where she fits into this riot: she is Irish, but isn't she also Black? Where should her loyalties lie? And why did this have to devolve into violence in the first place?
I have to admit, I'm not a fan of the screenplay narrative method. I thought it worked for Monster but just fell short here. I felt like we were too removed from everything, from Claire's feelings about her identity to the brief glimpses of the violence. Nothing really connected, and the screenplay format led to some awkward dialogue to explain the background and historical setting that would have been covered in narration in a traditional book. Due to this distance, I felt like this would probably work best for someone who has a bit of working knowledge of the draft riots, and wants an interesting story about the people at the time.
Showing posts with label irish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label irish. Show all posts
Monday, October 19, 2009
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Review: Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd
I missed my stop on the subway twice because of this book. It's such a quiet book I wouldn't have expected that to happen, but because it's a quiet book with a lot going on, you want to pay close attention, so you can figure out what's going on as Fergus does.
It's 1981, the Troubles are going strong in Ireland, and Fergus' brother Joe is in jail for his participation. The leader of a hunger strike in the prison where Joe is being kept has just died, and everyone is concerned about what will happen next. When Fergus and his Uncle Tally cross the border dividing Ireland to dig up some peat, their biggest concern is getting back to their side of the border without getting caught. While digging in the bog they discover what appears to be the body of a young girl. Since they're so close to the border of the two parts of Ireland, authorities from both sides come to investigate. Neither want any part in looking into the horrible murder of a child, but when it's revealed the girl is actually ancient - from AD 80 - suddenly everyone wants to be involved.
Fergus, as the discoverer, gets to be part of the research process - and strikes up a friendship, then a romance, with the daughter of the lead researcher. In the meantime, he also needs to balance family concerns as his brother joins in the hunger strikers. As part of a desperate attempt to get Joe to stop starving himself, Fergus agrees to help out a local boy he knew in school by running mysterious packages across the poorly guarded border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Oh, and Fergus is also studying to take his final exams, desperate to get at least a B in all of them so he can study medicine at university. And his dreams are regularly haunted by the story of the bog child, called Mel, and how she came to be entombed in the bog.
There's a lot going on in this book, but Dowd weaves together the multiple story-lines flawlessly. This was a book that I definitely couldn't put down.
It's 1981, the Troubles are going strong in Ireland, and Fergus' brother Joe is in jail for his participation. The leader of a hunger strike in the prison where Joe is being kept has just died, and everyone is concerned about what will happen next. When Fergus and his Uncle Tally cross the border dividing Ireland to dig up some peat, their biggest concern is getting back to their side of the border without getting caught. While digging in the bog they discover what appears to be the body of a young girl. Since they're so close to the border of the two parts of Ireland, authorities from both sides come to investigate. Neither want any part in looking into the horrible murder of a child, but when it's revealed the girl is actually ancient - from AD 80 - suddenly everyone wants to be involved.
Fergus, as the discoverer, gets to be part of the research process - and strikes up a friendship, then a romance, with the daughter of the lead researcher. In the meantime, he also needs to balance family concerns as his brother joins in the hunger strikers. As part of a desperate attempt to get Joe to stop starving himself, Fergus agrees to help out a local boy he knew in school by running mysterious packages across the poorly guarded border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Oh, and Fergus is also studying to take his final exams, desperate to get at least a B in all of them so he can study medicine at university. And his dreams are regularly haunted by the story of the bog child, called Mel, and how she came to be entombed in the bog.
There's a lot going on in this book, but Dowd weaves together the multiple story-lines flawlessly. This was a book that I definitely couldn't put down.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Double Whammy Review: Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix & Ashes of Roses by Mary Jane Auch
These reviews are going up together because they both deal with the same subject: the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of March 25th, 1911. When I saw that Margaret Peterson Haddix had a new book out about the fire (and the strike that preceded it), I knew I had to read it, and remembering how much I liked Ashes of Roses when it first came out, I picked that up as well so I could read them together. I blame the former wanna-be English teacher in me.
Uprising focuses on the lives of three young women in New York City, two young immigrant women who work at the Triangle Factory (Yetta, a Jewish immigrant from Russia and Bella, an Italian immigrant fresh off the boat), and a third woman, Jane the disillusioned daughter of a millionaire, who vows to help the Triangle Factory workers in any way possible when they organize a strike against the unfair - and dangerous - labor practices at the factory.
The story is introduced to us by a Mrs. Livingston, who is telling the story to the now-grown daughter of one of the factory's owners and who can somehow reveal the inner lives and knowledge of three different women (while the book is narrated in the third person, the chapters alternate between focusing on Yetta, Bella and Jane). The story starts as Bella arrives in America to begin her new life, working in the Triangle factory so she can send money back to her starving mother and siblings in Italy. Bella doesn't know a word of English, so when a crowd of workers spontaneously get up and leave in the middle of the day, Bella goes out with them, not knowing she is participating in the beginning of The Uprising of 20,000. Yetta, another of our protagonists, is one of the leaders of the strike - she and her sister Rahel are active in the burgeoning union and Yetta is one of the union's most fervent devotees.
As the strike continues, Bella, desperate for money and not understanding the meaning of strikes or unions, continues to work as a scab, while Yetta walks the picket lines daily for months. Jane, who feels useless and adrift in a society that only values her for what assets she could bring her father by marrying a wealthy man, becomes one of many wealthy women who support the poor strikers in any way they can, from standing between the strikers and police (the police won't hesitate to beat poor immigrant women to a pulp, but avoid the society ladies as much as possible) to bringing food to the strikers and posting money to bail them out of prison.
The three women's friendship is cemented when Bella receives a letter from home, which she can't read. Jane, who knows some Italian, reads the letter to Bella and translates it for Yetta, who speaks Yiddish and English. Jane's family recoils at the thought of the well-bred young woman fraternizing with such lowly women, but Jane is determined to stick with the working girls, even after the strike is over and work continues as usual at the Triangle Factory - until the day of the deadly fire.
Ashes of Roses has a much narrower focus. While Uprising follows three women and covers events around the factory from the beginning of the strike in 1909 through the fire in 1911, Ashes of Roses focuses on one Irish immigrant, Rose, and the whole book covers only about a month and a half - Rose's first terrible week or so in America with her mother and sisters, and then another few weeks with just one sister as they live in a room rented to them by a Triangle factory worker and union organizer, Gussie, and her father. After a week of learning how to use a sewing machine under Gussie's tutelage, Gussie brings Rose with her to the factory to begin work. Two weeks later, on pay day, the infamous fire breaks out.
I remember when I first read Ashes of Roses, I found the scene of the fire gripping. This time around, not so much. It's still a compelling account of the tragedy, but for me it no longer seemed quite so action-packed.
Not that Uprising had a fire scene that was any better. Overall I think that Ashes of Roses is the stronger of the two books, especially for older readers, because Uprising had way too many illogical moments for me to palate. The women that have absolutely no language in common seem to have an awfully good idea of what the other is saying (only occasionally does the caveat "She must have been saying something like..." appear), and Mrs. Livingston seems to have a psychic link to the women who died in the fire in order to be able to convey their last moments so vividly. Both books also have some clunky foreshadowing - lots of conversations and observations about fire escapes on buildings and how the newly immigrated women are awestruck by them.
Uprising is more concerned with painting a larger historical picture as Haddix's fictional characters often see real historical figures of the early labor movement. Haddix also includes a very substantial author's note at the end, giving further background into the story and her research process (ironically, she begins her author's note by saying she hates notes in other books that say 'this was real, but this wasn't' as she prefers to do the research herself...but then her note goes on to explain every historical person and event that appears in her book!). Auch's author's note is shorter, but then her book also doesn't cover as wide of a time as Uprising. Both books do cover some of the same experiences however, including both Bella and Rose working in flower-making sweatshops and, of course, the Russian Jewish union leaders that feature prominently in both books.
Sometime soon, when I'm not buried under wedding planning materials, I'm heading down to the building that once housed the factory - as Yetta points out in Uprising, the building was designed to be fireproof and it was. It still stands today and is a National Historic Landmark.
Uprising focuses on the lives of three young women in New York City, two young immigrant women who work at the Triangle Factory (Yetta, a Jewish immigrant from Russia and Bella, an Italian immigrant fresh off the boat), and a third woman, Jane the disillusioned daughter of a millionaire, who vows to help the Triangle Factory workers in any way possible when they organize a strike against the unfair - and dangerous - labor practices at the factory.
The story is introduced to us by a Mrs. Livingston, who is telling the story to the now-grown daughter of one of the factory's owners and who can somehow reveal the inner lives and knowledge of three different women (while the book is narrated in the third person, the chapters alternate between focusing on Yetta, Bella and Jane). The story starts as Bella arrives in America to begin her new life, working in the Triangle factory so she can send money back to her starving mother and siblings in Italy. Bella doesn't know a word of English, so when a crowd of workers spontaneously get up and leave in the middle of the day, Bella goes out with them, not knowing she is participating in the beginning of The Uprising of 20,000. Yetta, another of our protagonists, is one of the leaders of the strike - she and her sister Rahel are active in the burgeoning union and Yetta is one of the union's most fervent devotees.
As the strike continues, Bella, desperate for money and not understanding the meaning of strikes or unions, continues to work as a scab, while Yetta walks the picket lines daily for months. Jane, who feels useless and adrift in a society that only values her for what assets she could bring her father by marrying a wealthy man, becomes one of many wealthy women who support the poor strikers in any way they can, from standing between the strikers and police (the police won't hesitate to beat poor immigrant women to a pulp, but avoid the society ladies as much as possible) to bringing food to the strikers and posting money to bail them out of prison.
The three women's friendship is cemented when Bella receives a letter from home, which she can't read. Jane, who knows some Italian, reads the letter to Bella and translates it for Yetta, who speaks Yiddish and English. Jane's family recoils at the thought of the well-bred young woman fraternizing with such lowly women, but Jane is determined to stick with the working girls, even after the strike is over and work continues as usual at the Triangle Factory - until the day of the deadly fire.
Ashes of Roses has a much narrower focus. While Uprising follows three women and covers events around the factory from the beginning of the strike in 1909 through the fire in 1911, Ashes of Roses focuses on one Irish immigrant, Rose, and the whole book covers only about a month and a half - Rose's first terrible week or so in America with her mother and sisters, and then another few weeks with just one sister as they live in a room rented to them by a Triangle factory worker and union organizer, Gussie, and her father. After a week of learning how to use a sewing machine under Gussie's tutelage, Gussie brings Rose with her to the factory to begin work. Two weeks later, on pay day, the infamous fire breaks out.
I remember when I first read Ashes of Roses, I found the scene of the fire gripping. This time around, not so much. It's still a compelling account of the tragedy, but for me it no longer seemed quite so action-packed.
Not that Uprising had a fire scene that was any better. Overall I think that Ashes of Roses is the stronger of the two books, especially for older readers, because Uprising had way too many illogical moments for me to palate. The women that have absolutely no language in common seem to have an awfully good idea of what the other is saying (only occasionally does the caveat "She must have been saying something like..." appear), and Mrs. Livingston seems to have a psychic link to the women who died in the fire in order to be able to convey their last moments so vividly. Both books also have some clunky foreshadowing - lots of conversations and observations about fire escapes on buildings and how the newly immigrated women are awestruck by them.
Uprising is more concerned with painting a larger historical picture as Haddix's fictional characters often see real historical figures of the early labor movement. Haddix also includes a very substantial author's note at the end, giving further background into the story and her research process (ironically, she begins her author's note by saying she hates notes in other books that say 'this was real, but this wasn't' as she prefers to do the research herself...but then her note goes on to explain every historical person and event that appears in her book!). Auch's author's note is shorter, but then her book also doesn't cover as wide of a time as Uprising. Both books do cover some of the same experiences however, including both Bella and Rose working in flower-making sweatshops and, of course, the Russian Jewish union leaders that feature prominently in both books.
Sometime soon, when I'm not buried under wedding planning materials, I'm heading down to the building that once housed the factory - as Yetta points out in Uprising, the building was designed to be fireproof and it was. It still stands today and is a National Historic Landmark.
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