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The Boston Girl A Novel Anita Diamant Books

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The Boston Girl A Novel Anita Diamant Books

The only other book by Anita Diamant I've read is The Red Tent, which is one of my favorite novels. Because of that, I was a little surprised at this one as it is so completely different. The Red Tent is lush and evocative. The Boston Girl is a Jewish Grandmother recounting her life.

And it is absolutely delightful!

I think this book hit me on two emotional levels. For one thing, Addie Baum reminds me of my grandmother. Sort of. On the surface, there probably isn't that much in common between Addie, a Jewish girl growing up in the North End of Boston, and my grandmother, a Norwegian girl growing up in small town North Dakota, other than they are about the same age. But, Addie reminded me of what I always pictured my grandmother to be as a young woman--spunky and ahead of her time.

The other tie for me was that this book takes place in Boston and I lived there for 3 years. While I don't miss the city, it is fun to read about place with which I'm familiar. Diamant vividly creates early 20th century Boston and it was great fun for me to take a trip back in time with her.

This book reads exactly like what it is: a grandmother telling her granddaughter about her life and what shaped her into the woman she became. There are several times in the book where Addie makes asides, telling her granddaughter not to tell her mother something or, well, hinting about things that happened in her life that probably wouldn't be proper to talk about (her granddaughter, as you discover at the end of the book, gave up the hinting and just lays at all out--I almost snorted tea through my nose when that little bit came up!).

This was one of those books that I just could not put down--I plowed through it in a little over a day, which is pretty fast for this mother of young kids. Yet, I still kept scratching my head about how this was so different from Diamant's The Red Tent. I guess it is the measure of a skilled author to be able to write in such different voices.

I highly recommend this book to, well, just about anyone. Just be warned...if you think you'll be reading something along the lines of The Red Tent, you'll need to adjust your expectations (trust me, it will be worth it!)


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The Boston Girl A Novel Anita Diamant Books Reviews

I really enjoyed this story but I wanted it to be more than it was, and it could have been. The story is told, not just in the first person, but as a monologue. The main character is 85 years old and is telling her life story to her granddaughter. But that's it. Occasionally there is a sentence or two addressed to the granddaughter to tell us just a little bit about that person. And at the very end, literally the last page, you learn a little bit more about her, but just a very tiny bit. This story would have been so much better, and would have had more emotional impact, if it had been told in a more traditional way. I would have preferred some interweaving of the later generations and their lives. I can understand if the author didn't want to write that kind of a book. However, the monologue style gives us a story almost devoid of drama. Many very dramatic events happened to Addie, the main character, and she lived through extraordinary times. But the format doesn't involve the reader, I felt completely untouched emotionally by events that should have gripped me, that should have had me gasping, smiling, crying, laughing. Instead, it was like reading a newspaper article about someone's life.

And Anita Diamant obviously got tired of her story as she ends it in the 1930's, with a quick wrap up to the present day of 1985. What about everything that came later? It's a cop out to start in 1985 and take the story only as far as the '30's. If you don't want to write past that date, if you want your history to centre only on the first 30 years of the 20th century, then the format should have been different. It should have been written as a first person story, not a monologue story told to someone else, or it should have been written as third person, which would have been my preference to lend some more drama.

But my biggest criticism is of the monologue itself. It is mostly told without emotion, the way one would relate a story to someone else, yes, but not a format for a satisfying read from a novel. Three stars because Diamant writes well and the story flows and is very readable. It's a quick read, informative and fairly pleasant, so if you are interested in the topic and want a light read, then I recommend it. But don't expect much more.
Addie's story is deceptively simple. She started her life as a Boston girl after immigrating with her father and sisters from Russia in 1896. The novel is formed from the interview she has granted her granddaughter near the end of her life. Without drama or pathos, she tells the story of her journey from the tenements where she shared a tiny apartment with her Jewish family, Along the way she is part of the growth of women's rights in the new world. Along the way are the unavoidable pains and sorrows.

Diamant's special gift is her creating the world of her characters from history. The reader enters the world view that prevails the era of the story, and is then able to appreciate the struggle of our narrator, Addie, to enact a stage of her own. Addie is forced to find her voice and to create it from whole cloth. She does it in simple language that lures the reader into the discourse. At some point, the complexity of her issues become apparent, and the novel takes on that extra dimension of richness that distinguishes a good book from other releases. Addie is a memorable character, specific to her time, who proves the fact that the soul has truths to share across the years.
The only other book by Anita Diamant I've read is The Red Tent, which is one of my favorite novels. Because of that, I was a little surprised at this one as it is so completely different. The Red Tent is lush and evocative. The Boston Girl is a Jewish Grandmother recounting her life.

And it is absolutely delightful!

I think this book hit me on two emotional levels. For one thing, Addie Baum reminds me of my grandmother. Sort of. On the surface, there probably isn't that much in common between Addie, a Jewish girl growing up in the North End of Boston, and my grandmother, a Norwegian girl growing up in small town North Dakota, other than they are about the same age. But, Addie reminded me of what I always pictured my grandmother to be as a young woman--spunky and ahead of her time.

The other tie for me was that this book takes place in Boston and I lived there for 3 years. While I don't miss the city, it is fun to read about place with which I'm familiar. Diamant vividly creates early 20th century Boston and it was great fun for me to take a trip back in time with her.

This book reads exactly like what it is a grandmother telling her granddaughter about her life and what shaped her into the woman she became. There are several times in the book where Addie makes asides, telling her granddaughter not to tell her mother something or, well, hinting about things that happened in her life that probably wouldn't be proper to talk about (her granddaughter, as you discover at the end of the book, gave up the hinting and just lays at all out--I almost snorted tea through my nose when that little bit came up!).

This was one of those books that I just could not put down--I plowed through it in a little over a day, which is pretty fast for this mother of young kids. Yet, I still kept scratching my head about how this was so different from Diamant's The Red Tent. I guess it is the measure of a skilled author to be able to write in such different voices.

I highly recommend this book to, well, just about anyone. Just be warned...if you think you'll be reading something along the lines of The Red Tent, you'll need to adjust your expectations (trust me, it will be worth it!)