The Boston Girl
A Novel
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4.1 • 860 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
New York Times bestseller!
An unforgettable novel about a young Jewish woman growing up in Boston in the early twentieth century, told “with humor and optimism…through the eyes of an irresistible heroine” (People)—from the acclaimed author of The Red Tent.
Anita Diamant’s “vivid, affectionate portrait of American womanhood” (Los Angeles Times), follows the life of one woman, Addie Baum, through a period of dramatic change. Addie is The Boston Girl, the spirited daughter of an immigrant Jewish family, born in 1900 to parents who were unprepared for America and its effect on their three daughters. Growing up in the North End of Boston, 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. From the one-room tenement apartment she shared with her parents and two sisters, to the library group for girls she joins at a neighborhood settlement house, to her first, disastrous love affair, to finding the love of her life, eighty-five-year-old Addie recounts her adventures with humor and compassion for the naïve girl she once was.
Written with the same attention to historical detail and emotional resonance that made Diamant’s previous novels bestsellers, The Boston Girl is a moving portrait of one woman’s complicated life in twentieth century America, and a fascinating look at a generation of women finding their places in a changing world. “Diamant brings to life a piece of feminism’s forgotten history” (Good Housekeeping) in this “inspirational…page-turning portrait of immigrant life in the early twentieth century” (Booklist).
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Speaking to her favorite granddaughter, 85-year-old Addie Baum reflects on what it was like to come of age as an independent-minded, literary Jewish girl in early 20th-century America. Anita Diamant—author of The Red Tent—skillfully captures America's diverse and changing culture with this intimate and touching portrait of a shrewd, compassionate, and sassy woman who went from a squalid tenement to a job in a big-deal newsroom. We loved The Boston Girl and her fascinating, affecting story.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Diamant (The Red Tent) tells a gripping story of a young Jewish woman growing up in early-20th-century Boston. Addie Baum, an octogenarian grandmother in 1985, relates long-ago history to a beloved granddaughter, answering the question: "How did I get to be the woman I am today?" The answer: by living a fascinating life. First reminiscing about 1915 and the reading club she became a part of as a teenager, Addie, in a conversational tone, recounts the lifelong friendships that began at club meetings and days by the seaside at nearby Rockport. She tells movingly of the fatal effects of the flu, a relative's suicide, the touchy subject of abortion and its aftermath, and even her own disastrous first date, which nearly ended in rape. Ahead of her time, Addie also becomes a career woman, working as a newspaper typist who stands up for her beliefs at all costs. This is a stunning look into the past with a plucky heroine readers will cheer for.
Customer Reviews
Lovely
This is the second time I've read this book and so glad I did. I felt like I was visiting an old friend in Addie. It's intimately told and made me teary a few times, such a lovely account of witnessing someone learn their self worth and overcome changing times and having the courage to say, "why not, let's try this!"
Addie is amazing.
You find yourself quickly drawn into Addie's world. Your heart breaks when her heart breaks. You're happy when she's happy. You are angry when she's angry. Diamant has a way of looping the reader in emotionally with her characters and you are rooting for them even before you really know them. The narrator, Linda Lavin, does an excellent job of bringing Addie to life. There are times where she grumbles something or laughs and its absolutely like hearing the story of a life from a vivacious elderly woman. Excellent.
Disappointing
Still remembering how great The Red Tent was and looking for a new read, I downloaded this. Boring. Fluffy. Just an overall disappointing book with little substance. At the end, the reader even has to endure a nasty political swipe against Ronald Reagan which at this point is tired and trite.