A lovely and intriguing coming-of-age story from the perspective of a Russian Jew, The Boston Girl is refreshing.

What I liked: Diamant described 20th century New York beautifully. I enjoyed reading about the wonderful relationships formed between Addie and her friends and how they developed into strong, unconventional women. I also love how this story is told in an oral history format. A grandmother telling her story to her granddaughter? How much better can it get? I love the solidarity between different nations and generations of women.

What would have improved the story for me: The end was abrupt. So much of the book was dedicated to Addie’s youth and so little was said about her middle and old age. I would like to have learned more about her later years, and the woman she became. For a feminist book (and it tried to be), it seemed that Addie's story stopped when she married and had children. I would like to have seen how Addie defied the normal conventions of her time. And I would like to have seen Addie interact more with the issues of child labor laws and lynching; for me, a more vigorous interaction would have made the story more interesting. That being written, I also understand the limitations of the time, particularly in the context of the traditional life she pursued.

Recommended.

 

Are the 1910s–1930s making a comeback? See this week's post, “The Fog of War.”

I chose this book from NetGalley because I've read a couple of Anita Diamant’s books and I really enjoyed them. I like that after reading them, I feel satisfied that I’ve read a good story and also, somehow, smarter. She has a gift for telling complicated stories in an elegant, simple manner, and the story of Addie Baum is no different. Addie tells her story to her granddaughter with the benefit of years and hindsight, and Diamant brings the book up-to-date with nods to current trends in contrast to Addie’s experience.

 

This is the story of a young woman living through periods of great change in women’s roles, and Diamant gives us a capable heroine to challenge the status quo. For me, something about the telling reminded me of a more grown-up version of the Betsy-Tacy stories my daughters and I read aloud together a couple of years ago. This is meant as a compliment, as they were a highlight in our reading, and Betsy was a well-loved character. We read all of those stories as they spanned her lifetime, just as Addie’s story spans almost a century, and the many changes those times brought. As I’ve come to understand, reading a book by Anita Diamant is always time well spent.

It's rare to read happy stories, so I liked that about the Boston Girl. Not all of it is happy stuff, but it has a generally happy ending. And although it reads like history lite, it deals with some emotionally complex things - mostly Addie's relationship with her mother. Not sure I buy that she would never have heard the n-word growing up in Boston, though.