The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant
Addie Baum is the daughter of Jewish immigrant parents trying to adjust to life in America around the turn of the 20th century. The family settled in Boston and struggle to fit in. The premise of The Boston Girl is that Addie is telling the story of her life to her granddaughter.
She starts at the very beginning describing the tiny tenement apartment in the North End. Her father spends all his free time at shul. Her mother, who never learned to speak English, insists everything, all the way down to the potatoes, which they ate often because they were cheap, was better in the old country. Addie saw the wealth of opportunity in Boston when her parents could not, often hiding where she was going and what she was doing for fear of being told no. Addie found other mentors and friends who took her away from the stifling family life she dreaded at home. She had an adventurous spirit yet was often naive about the world. I loved Addie. She never took no for an answer.
What I didn't like about The Boston Girl was that I never felt grounded in the setting for Addie's story. I've read many books about immigrants in this same time period. Usually they are set in New York. I was excited to hear of one set in a different place and I hoped I would learn something new. But I often found myself drifting into thinking Addie was in New York and had to pull myself back into the Boston mindset. I often wished there was more of a thread between Addie and the granddaughter who was listening to the story. When it did pop in, which wasn't very often, again I had to pull myself back into that part of the storyline.
The Boston Girl has a great character in Addie Baum. She told her own story of a fascinating life. According to the title, there is a secondary character, Boston who I never felt attached to. Her story could have been taking place almost anywhere. I really wanted it to be in Boston.
Addie Baum is the daughter of Jewish immigrant parents trying to adjust to life in America around the turn of the 20th century. The family settled in Boston and struggle to fit in. The premise of The Boston Girl is that Addie is telling the story of her life to her granddaughter.
She starts at the very beginning describing the tiny tenement apartment in the North End. Her father spends all his free time at shul. Her mother, who never learned to speak English, insists everything, all the way down to the potatoes, which they ate often because they were cheap, was better in the old country. Addie saw the wealth of opportunity in Boston when her parents could not, often hiding where she was going and what she was doing for fear of being told no. Addie found other mentors and friends who took her away from the stifling family life she dreaded at home. She had an adventurous spirit yet was often naive about the world. I loved Addie. She never took no for an answer.
What I didn't like about The Boston Girl was that I never felt grounded in the setting for Addie's story. I've read many books about immigrants in this same time period. Usually they are set in New York. I was excited to hear of one set in a different place and I hoped I would learn something new. But I often found myself drifting into thinking Addie was in New York and had to pull myself back into the Boston mindset. I often wished there was more of a thread between Addie and the granddaughter who was listening to the story. When it did pop in, which wasn't very often, again I had to pull myself back into that part of the storyline.
The Boston Girl has a great character in Addie Baum. She told her own story of a fascinating life. According to the title, there is a secondary character, Boston who I never felt attached to. Her story could have been taking place almost anywhere. I really wanted it to be in Boston.
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