3.6 out of 4 stars.
A lovely coming of age story about a Jewish girl by the name of Addie Baum growing up in Boston, Mass trying to find her way during a male dominant time period of the early 1900’s. The point of view is the reader hearing an 85 year old Baum tell her grandchild about her life.
This book received a lot of attention after its release and after finishing it myself I realized the reason for that is because people love a happy ending family tale. Diamant is able to capture Baum in a way that is genuine, honest, and soft. It is as if she is looking back on her life and explaining it to her granddaughter with rose colored glasses and I mean that in a nice way. The same way a person who realizes that although their life was not easy, the good outweighed the bad and she is checking it off as a success. She had a good group of friends, a family that was passionate about their roots, able to get successful jobs, and even find love.
In our crazy and chaotic culture we sometimes take the above “wins” for granted. We are greedy and always wanting more. It puts this into perspective because the majority of this book was when Baum was in her early twenties, the same age her granddaughter is when listening. Although similar ages, their memories are most likely light years apart.
I say this with experience because my own mother had me at around 25 years of age living in New York City holding a full time job. I am 28 years old, live in a quiet suburb, and can’t imagine raising a child right now because my day job is enough to keep me exhausted! It is refreshing to take a step back and see how far living in America has come but also appreciate what it used to be. I wouldn’t mind bringing back a few things that were cherished back then.
I believe reading this book is warm and inviting. Yes, it is not a show stopper that you cannot keep from turning the pages because it is so intense, but instead it is one that the reader would like to return to once it is put down. In my book (no pun intended) that is what I enjoy in reading. Life is hard enough – why not relax a bit and hear a nice story from the perspective of an old lady sometimes? ha!
It doesn’t hurt that I write this review having grown up in the Cape Ann/Boston area that this book takes place and it is so nice to hear the beautiful described in such a nice way. However, even if you live in Idaho I still think you will be able to relate!
