Mary Burns (1) (1944–)

This is written by a fellow author from Allium Press of Chicago. In this book we follow a young Irish immigrant making her way in Chicago during a tumultuous week in 1919. It did remind me that my grandfather’s stepsister came to Chicago from Ireland to be a maid until all her money saved in a bank was lost and she returned to the farm in Mayo where we visited her in the 1970’s. In this book Maeve Curragh escaped a life with nuns in Florida to make a life in Chicago with her sister. She lost her love in the flu epidemic and the story is driven by her meeting and becoming involved with a young train conductor over a few days in a hot summer. It starts with a disaster when a blimp crashes into a building. Maeve worries about a little girl who has disappeared as she reads the papers each day and then the city is plunged into the face riots that started on one of the Chicago beaches that summer. Against the backdrop of a city and society in turmoil, Maeve struggles to survive and deal with her feelings about the young man. Although the action is confined to a few days, it is told by a much older Maeve, so in the end we have a much larger picture of the whole life of the character.

It is a fairly fast moving story that is easy to read as you follow Maeve’s journey through the city. You get a sense of the sights and smells and the tensions of this vigorous, “city of big shoulders.” Allium’s motto is “rescuing Chicago from Capone… one book at a time” and this series paints a picture of an earlier period than the days of gangsters. It is one of a number of books by the press that cover Chicago architecture in the 1880’s (Honor Above All), progressive politics of Hull House and other groups in the 1890’s (Death at Hull House, Her Mother’s Secret) and the lives of early Chicagoans in the first couple of decades of the twentieth century (Beautiful Dreamer, The Reason for Time). Chicago is a quintessential American city with many people in its past who deserve to be remembered. This is one of the books that succeeds in conjuring up one of those earlier times.
… (meer)