The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant

 

The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant   322 pgs. 

"From the New York Times bestselling author of The Red Tent and Day After Night, comes an unforgettable coming-of-age novel about family ties and values, friendship and feminism told through the eyes of a young Jewish woman growing up in Boston in the early twentieth century.

Addie Baum is The Boston Girl, born in 1900 to immigrant parents who were unprepared for and suspicious of America and its effect on their three daughters. Growing up in the North End, then a teeming multicultural neighborhood, Addie's intelligence and curiosity take her to a world her parents can't imagine - a world of short skirts, movies, celebrity culture and new opportunities for women. Addie wants to finish high school and dreams of going to college. She wants a career and to find true love."  (Source: Goodreads)

 85 year old Addie Baum  is asked, "How did you get to be the woman you are today?" by her granddaughter. The spry octogenerian goes back to the beginning:  Boston, 1900. Addie is the child of Russian immigrants of the Jewish faith.  Her story touches upon some of the highlights of the early 20th century: The Great War and The Spanish Flu, to name a couple. The story is sad in parts, but the narrator never dwells too long on the tragic. She keeps the pace moving by going on to the next event. I thought it was poignant and often humorous.