Book Review: City of Hope by Kate Kerrigan

City of Hope by Kate Kerrigan
ARC, Paperback, 355 pages
William Morrow Paperbacks
June 25, 2013
★★★½☆☆

Genre: Historical Fiction

Source: Received from publisher for review as part of TLC Book Tours

An uplifting, inspiring and heartwarming story of a woman truly ahead of her time, City of Hope is the heart-rending but inspiring follow-up to Ellis Island

It is the 1930s and when her beloved husband, John, suddenly dies, young Ellie Hogan decides to leave Ireland and return to New York. She hopes that the city's vibrancy will distract her from her grief. But the Depression has rendered the city unrecognizable-gone is the energy and atmosphere of fun that Ellie fell in love with ten years before.

Plunging headfirst into a new life, Ellie pours all her passion and energy into running a home and refuge for the homeless. In return they give her the kind of love, support and friendship she needs to try and overcome her grief. Until, one day, someone she thought she'd never see again steps through her door. It seems that even the Atlantic isn't big enough to prevent the tragedies of the past from catching up with her.

City of Hope is the follow up to Ellis Island released in 2009. Again we see Ellie leaving Ireland behind to move to the Big City in America. Again we deal with some culture shock, but in a slightly different way that before because this time around Ellie is coming over as a wealthy woman to a Depression Era New York City. When we first begin to meet characters that we met in the first book I began to worry that it was going to be a sort of re-hash of the first book- however again I was surprised by the fact that I ended up getting a story I didn’t expect.

There is a LARGE cast of characters here – and while you may not remember who is who exactly, you get the feel of the large community that Ellie creates around her. Some characters came and went too abruptly for me to really connect with them or care about what ended up happening to them, but there were certainly those you could care about and connect with. Having such a diverse cast (diverse in SO many ways) allows there to be something for almost any reader. But Ellie is a hard character to read – I thought I knew where she was going but was disappointed with her choices toward the end of the book. I felt like everything had been leading up to this big decision and established the reader’s commitment to that decision and then she does a complete turn-around at the end – I’m not really sure she grew as a person after all of that. I don’t know that I was disappointed with her choice, per se, but more so with her wishy-washy-ness and how I felt that there was character development that didn’t really do much for me. I was actually really into Ellie’s story until about the last two chapters.

I enjoyed the new view on the Depression. Normally you see people really down on their luck, and you do see that here, but they actually try to find ways to build themselves out of it and the way they did so was interesting. The author creates a unique feel to the environment that they are living in.

The one thing I found hard to buy into was that Ellie has this endless supply of money from businesses that she built up in Ireland – but I didn’t really feel it was believable. How did what was considered a lot of money in a rural community in Ireland in pre 1930 equate to lots of wealth in New York City (even during the Depression the kinds of things she was buying would still have been expensive comparatively)?

I enjoyed the book, but wouldn’t say I loved it. I will likely read the upcoming third book because I want to know where her “big decision” ends up taking her – but I was sort of hoping it was going to resolve itself in book two.

Author Kate Kerrigan also has written Ellis Island and the third book in the series will be upcoming, Land of Dreams. Outside the series, Kerrigan has written Recipes for a Perfect Marriage. You can visit Kate Kerrigan’s website for additional information about the book. If you would like to preview the story before reading it, why not try out this excerpt of the book?

My reviews of other books by this author:

• Ellis Island

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Tina’s Book Reviews
• Books in the City

You can check out the rest of the stops on the TLC Book Tour for City of Hope (I am the last stop I think).

 

Here are some choices for purchasing the book: Amazon, B&N, RJ Julia (my fav indie bookstore). 

 

Copyright © 2013 by The Maiden’s Court

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Angel Island: The Experience and Virtual Tour

Until recently, I did not know anything about Angel Island and its role in the immigration story of the United States. After reading Shanghai Girls by Lisa See I learned a lot about the experience at Angel Island and wanted to know more and to share some of it with you.

Angel Island served as the initial stopping point for immigrants who wanted to enter the US from the west. The Immigration Center was active from 1910 to 1940. The experience there was much different than that at Ellis Island in New York. Angel Island’s purpose was to determine those who were coming under legal reasons and deport those back to their country of origin who could not answer the interview questions adequately.

Upon arriving at Angel Island the immigrants would be subjected to a series of interviews where they would need to correctly answer ever increasingly obscure questions about their families and hometowns. Their answers would be compared with others who had come over with them or who had come over previously and look for discrepancies. You can watch this video I have included below which shows a recent recreation of a couple of these immigration interviews. It is quite long but you can watch a portion to get an idea of how ridiculous these interviews would have been. I don’t think I could have passed these interviews myself.

Reenactment of a series of Angel Island Interrogations

While waiting to pass the interview process the immigrants would have to stay in the dormitories – sometimes for as little as a week, or sometimes for as much as a year. These were not the most comfortable arrangements. In the video below you can take a tour of the dormitories as they would have been during the active years of Angel Island.

Virtual Tour of Angel Island Immigration Station and Museum

If you happen to be traveling to the San Francisco area or live in that area, you can visit Angel Island today. It has a great number of opportunities for hiking, biking etc as well as a little historical tour. The Immigration Station now houses a museum. The museum is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 11-3 and is $5 admission for adults and $3 for youths. There are 1 hour lecture tours available for an additional $7. You can learn more about the state park here.

Most people who know of Angel Island know of it as the immigration center – but it had a history both before and after that period. It served as a military center, a quarantine station, camp for prisoners during WWII, and as a state park. Here is a timeline of Angel Island history.

If you want to hear first-hand stories of the Angel Island experience you can read or listen to some of these interviews.

Or if you are looking for some reading recommendations, check out some of these:

• Barde, Robert Eric. Immigration at the Golden Gate: Passenger Ships, Exclusion, and Angel Island. Westport: Praeger, 2008.
• Fanning, Bramwell and Wong, William. Images of America: Angel Island. Arcadia Publishers, 2007.
• Lee, Erika and Judy Yung. Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Or you can get a more complete listing here.

Have any of you been here before? Do you know anyone that had to pass through Angel Island to immigrate here?

 

Copyright © 2013 by The Maiden’s Court

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Book Review: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
Unabridged, 13 hr. 29 min.
Random House Audio
Janet Song (Narrator)
May 26, 2009
★★★★½☆

Genre: Historical fiction

Source: Downloaded audio from my local library

“In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, a city of great wealth and glamour, the home of millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father’s prosperous rickshaw business, twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Though both sisters wave off authority and tradition, they couldn’t be more different: Pearl is a Dragon sign, strong and stubborn, while May is a true Sheep, adorable and placid. Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree . . . until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from California to find Chinese brides.

As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the Chinese countryside, in and out of the clutch of brutal soldiers, and across the Pacific to the shores of America. In Los Angeles they begin a fresh chapter, trying to find love with the strangers they have married, brushing against the seduction of Hollywood, and striving to embrace American life even as they fight against discrimination, brave Communist witch hunts, and find themselves hemmed in by Chinatown’s old ways and rules.

At its heart, Shanghai Girls is a story of sisters: Pearl and May are inseparable best friends who share hopes, dreams, and a deep connection, but like sisters everywhere they also harbor petty jealousies and rivalries. They love each other, but each knows exactly where to drive the knife to hurt the other the most. Along the way they face terrible sacrifices, make impossible choices, and confront a devastating, life-changing secret, but through it all the two heroines of this astounding new novel hold fast to who they are–Shanghai girls.”

I have adamantly avoided novels set in Asia because I have never had that much interest in the part of the world. Not because I have any negative opinions of the people or the history of this area, but the lifestyle is outside of my typical comfort zone of the European sphere. Shanghai Girls made this transition to Asian settings painless for me because Shanghai in the 1930’s is very metropolitan, Westernized, and modernized.

This book is a family story. It is the story of two sisters (as well as various extended family members and false family members) and the things that they will go through and do for each other. I don’t have any siblings so I can’t personally connect to the sibling experience, however the author makes the sister relationship so tangible that you can connect with it. You get to see the family dynamics of new immigrants, old immigrants, and subsequently the generations born in the United States. I absolutely loved the characters that Lisa created – all of them, even the ones I didn’t like were so well written that they hang around with you for a long time after finishing the book.

My favorite aspect of this novel was the immigrant experience. I have always been fascinated with immigrant stories after hearing my own family’s immigration stories from my grandparents years ago. In this book you are exposed to the total immigrant experience from the logistics of how to get to the United States, what they endured at Angel Island (which was a substantial portion of the novel), what still hung over their heads following arrival, and what the immigrant status meant in the United States. This was the type of depth I was looking for, and thought I was going to get when reading Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan, but didn’t get. I know that the Ellis Island and Angel Island experiences were quite different but I was looking for real stories and that is what I got with Shanghai Girls. You really got the feeling of what it might have been like to have been in their shoes. I also can truthfully say that I learn A LOT from this novel.

This book has some very heavy and dark moments and is certainly not for the light at heart but I feel that it totally captured the experience of the times. I couldn’t put this one down and will definitely be reading Dreams of Joy which is a continuation of this story.

★★★★★

This is a book that I am very glad to have selected to listen to on audio book. The narration was wonderful and added so much to the reading experience. Her voice set the tone for the book and I certainly appreciated being able to hear the pronunciations of the Chinese words. The pacing of the reading was perfect.

Author Lisa See also has written the following novels: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Dreams of Joy, On Gold Mountain, and Peony in Love. You can visit See’s website for additional information about the books. Each book has some awesome features on its page for additional exploration. If you would like to preview the story before reading it, why not try out this excerpt of the book?

You can also watch this book talk with the author about Shanghai Girls where she provides some historical background and her connections with the novel.  It is quite fascinating and doesn’t give any spoilers that you don’t get out of the book blurb:

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Lara’s Book Club
• Confessions of a Book Addict

 

Copyright © 2013 by The Maiden’s Court

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Book Review: Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan

Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan
ARC, Paperback, 368 pages
William Morrow Paperbacks
June 28, 2011
★★★★☆

Genre: Historical Fiction

Source: Received from Publisher for review

Sweethearts since childhood, Ellie Hogan and her husband, John, are content on their farm in Ireland—until John, a soldier for the Irish Republican Army, receives an injury that leaves him unable to work. Forced to take drastic measures in order to survive, Ellie does what so many Irish women in the 1920s have done and sails across a vast ocean to New York City to work as a maid for a wealthy socialite.

Once there, Ellie is introduced to a world of opulence and sophistication, tempted by the allure of grand parties and fine clothes, money and mansions . . . and by the attentions of a charming suitor who can give her everything. Yet her heart remains with her husband back home. And now she faces the most difficult choice she will ever have to make: a new life in a new country full of hope and promise, or return to a life of cruel poverty . . . and love.

Ellis Island was quite the enjoyable read, but for an entirely different reason than I anticipated when I set out to read it. Before I started reading I thought that the general focus of the book would be the time on Ellis Island for Ellie between leaving Ireland and arriving at New York City. I was looking forward to the Ellis Island immigrant experience; however I arrived as something entirely different. A story of love, torn desires, dreams of the future, and still the immigrant experience.

Kerrigan gives the reader a solid feel for both Ireland and America in the 1920’s. The contrast between the two is shocking – rural, extremely close, farming community vs. big, noisy, city life. I grew to enjoy Ellie’s life in both Ireland and New York – while extremely different, still the same in some ways. I myself was torn between which sections of the novel I enjoyed more, America or Ireland – but for different reasons.

The story was fast paced and the characters really suck you right into their lives and loves. The end of each chapter pulls you right into the start of the next – always needing to know what will happen on the next page.

The one thing that I would have liked to have more of was time at the titular Ellis Island. There were two small, very short scenes taking place on this island. I would have liked it to have been more central to the story. There was a moment when I thought it might have been a game changing moment, however that was not the case and I was left a little disappointed in the end.

You can visit Kate Kerrigan’s website for additional information about the book. If you would like to preview the story before reading it, why not try out this excerpt of the book?

My Other Reviews of Books by this Author:

• City of Hope

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Rundpinne
• Book Addiction

Here are some choices for purchasing the book: Amazon, B&N, RJ Julia (my fav indie bookstore).

 

Copyright © 2012 by The Maiden’s Court

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