Not Just a (Boston) Girl

When the husband came home and told me that one of his customers leant me a book, I was wary.  I'm not big on reading recommendations from strangers and asked what prompted this one.  It turns out that while the husband was building this woman a bookshelf, he mentioned that I was a reader.  And the woman thought that I might enjoy this novel called The Boston Girl.  The cover proclaimed that it was by Anita Diamant, the author of The Red Tent.  That alone signaled it must be serious, making me even leerier.  So I left it on an end table, reading one mystery and rom com after another, rationalizing that I'd get around to it some time.  

Evidently, that time was last week.  I looked at it sitting there expectantly under my leopard lamp, struck by the ocean and its suggestion of summer.  And I sighed and thought, you win, Anita.  My journey to Boston began.  

The Boston Girl opens in 1985 when eighty-five-year-old Addie Baum reflects on her life during an "interview" with her granddaughter.  What follows is a flashback to 1915 where we meet fifteen-year-old Addie, the titular Boston Girl and youngest child in a poor Jewish immigrant family.  Addie may live in a tenement, but she doesn't want to end up working in a sweatshop like her mother and sister.  She has big dreams, dreams ignited by books.  Her mother says that she reads too much, sometimes even calling her a whore for her ambitions.  It's rough, to say the least, and difficult to understand a mother talking to her daughter that way for wanting an education.  But then, it was a different time, and the Baums have been hardened by heartache.  Disease, the deaths of babies and children, and even a suicide are all part of their story and were sometimes too much for me.  Yet there's hope glinting through these tragedies, and that hope is Addie.  She has grit and gumption, and her first act of rebellion is running away to an educational retreat.  There she bonds with the daughters of Jewish, Irish, and Italian immigrants, bright, like-minded girls who also want something more.  Many become friends for life.  

Soon, what started as a story centered around class and family struggles turns into something much more complex: that is, a story about what it means to be a woman.  As Addie strives to make her way in the world, she often takes one step forward and two steps back.  The double standards that she and her friends face at work and while dating aren't so different than the ones that women deal with today.  But she keeps going, speaking up for herself at a time when most people thought that women should be seen and not heard.  She's an inspiration, reminding me that the privileges I enjoy today are thanks to trailblazers like her -- and also that there are still times when I need to be brave and speak up too.

So I'm glad I finally opened that book.  

I guess sometimes it pays to talk to listen to strangers.