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    Modern Girls
    Modern Girls
    Modern Girls
    Audiobook13 hours

    Modern Girls

    Written by Jennifer S. Brown

    Narrated by Elizabeth Wiley

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In 1935, Dottie Krasinsky is the epitome of the modern girl. A bookkeeper in Midtown Manhattan, Dottie steals kisses from her steady beau, meets her girlfriends for drinks, and eyes the latest fashions. Yet at heart, she is a dutiful daughter, living with her Yiddish-speaking parents on the Lower East Side. So when, after a single careless night, she finds herself in a family way by a charismatic but unsuitable man, she is desperate: unwed, unsure, and running out of options.

    After the birth of five children-and twenty years as a housewife-Dottie's immigrant mother, Rose, is itching to return to the social activism she embraced as a young woman. With strikes and breadlines at home and National Socialism rising in Europe, there is much more important work to do than cooking and cleaning. So when she realizes that she, too, is pregnant, she struggles to reconcile her longings with her faith.

    As mother and daughter wrestle with unthinkable choices, they are forced to confront their beliefs, the changing world, and the fact that their lives will never again be the same . . .
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateDec 20, 2016
    ISBN9781515986140
    Modern Girls

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    Reviews for Modern Girls

    4/5

    39 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      In Jennifer S. Brown’s Modern Girls it’s 1935 in New York City and mother and daughter, Rose and Dottie Krasinsky both find themselves in similar straits. Rose, Dottie’s mother, is 42 years old and thinks her childbearing days are over. She longs to return to the days when she can devote herself to the “cause,” raise the children she has, and find some time for her. Dottie, her oldest child and only daughter, has a promising career as a bookkeeper and a steady beau she hopes to marry. An argument with Abe, her boyfriend, and one mistake leave her pregnant and faced with life-changing decisions. Rose also finds herself in the family way and while she is married, she questions her condition and how her life will change with another child. All of this takes place in a changing world uneasy about Hitler and what’s occurring in Europe. Modern Girls is a book of the old and the new, about dreams and reality. Rose and Dottie are very realistically drawn and I became caught up in their fates.
    • 4/5
      I had some doubts at various points while reading this book, but I loved the story by the end. This novel packs a lot into four weeks in the life of a Jewish mother and daughter in 1930s New York City. Both are dealing with unexpected pregnancy and secrets they struggle to shared with each other, themes which drive the action in this novel. I really appreciated the details about life within a Jewish family in this era - the concern for relatives still in Europe, the divides among different members of the Jewish community, the need for extra sets of dishes for Kosher cooking. Overall, a very enjoyable novel that concludes on a hopeful note.
    • 4/5
      The Krasinkys are a Russian Jewish family living in New York City in the years leading up to World War II, and this is the story of Rose Krasinsky and her oldest child, her only daughter, Dottie. The Great Depression is still strong, though FDR has begun the New Deal programs that will alleviate it.

      Dottie is nineteen, working as a bookkeeper at an insurance company, and engaged to her boyfriend of three years, Abe Rabinowitz. Rose is 42, though husband Ben thinks she's 39, volunteers with relief groups, and cares for her home, husband, and children. The three younger ones are Izzy, at seventeen, Alfie, just a few years younger, and Eugene, just seven.

      Rose and Dottie have each just discovered they are pregnant.

      It's alarming news for both, and potentially disastrous for Dottie, especially since Abe is not the father. After a fight with Abe, Dottie succumbed to anger and temptation with another young man in the neighborhood.

      Together and separately, Rose and Dottie have to work their way through the complexities of their situations, struggling as much with their perceptions of themselves as modern women and Americans rather than women of the Old Country as they are with the very complicated practicalities. The character development and lived background of the time and place are marvelously done. Brown presents a layered reality you can get lost in, and there are no cardboard characters here at all.

      Recommended.

      I received a free electronic galley from the publisher via NetGalley.
    • 4/5
      I have read many books set during this turbulent time in our history, but nothing that has tackled the delicate subject of unexpected pregnancies in a mother AND a daughter. The setting is 1935, New York City. The Krasinsky family lives in an apartment in the Lower East side of a Jewish neighborhood. Dottie is the responsible daughter who works in Midtown Manhatten crunching numbers all day. It may sound boring but for Dottie, numbers calm her and bring her structure. If she can just make the numbers work out then everything will fall into place. Unfortunately, the numbers aren't falling into place when she starts calculating the weeks and realizes she is pregnant and there is no possible scenario that her long-time beau is the father.Rose, Dottie's mother, has five children and now that the boys are a little older, feels she is ready to devote more time to Socialism. Her brother is stuck in Europe and with the news of Hitler and his attacks on the Jews, she is desperate to bring him to America. Just when Rose starts to think she can leave some of the cooking and cleaning behind, she realizes she is pregnant. Dottie and Rose keep their secrets to themselves, hiding behind dresses that are fitting too tight and appetites that are waning due to nausea. Suddenly one of them notices their symptoms are similar the two share their secrets with each other. Rose puts all her efforts into saving Dottie's relationship and reputation while dreading her own future of raising more children. The desperation of their situations and the sacrifices Rose is willing to make for Dottie offer amazing glimpses into the lifestyle of these women in the 1930's. I found the dual pregnancies interesting with both women dreading the consequences of their actions. Rose is happily married and was finally seeing the "light at the end of the tunnel" of motherhood while Dottie had plans for marrying a loyal Jewish man and taking college courses. She had just been named Head Bookkeeper and was thankful she could contribute more to the family's finances. Of course, the two of them can't keep their pregnancies hidden forever and Dottie's world is suddenly turned upside down. There are decisions made that will affect both Dottie and Rose for a lifetime. I found the pre-WWII piece of the story to be quite interesting. So much of the truth was hidden from people living in America. The news from Europe that was being reported in the papers wasn't as bad as what was truly happening to the Jewish people. Rose was frantic to get her brother to America but while reading, I was wondering to myself if it was already too late. With the chapters rotating between Dottie's perspective and Rose's, the story moves along quickly because you want to get back to the other character's situation. I found the main characters and their friends and family to be well-developed and created with care. From Dottie's snippy and conniving co-workers to Rose's deeply opposite boys, you could picture each one of them and appreciate their part of the storyline. For a debut novel, the novel is particularly unique and draws you in from the first few pages. As I found the story moving along at a fast pace and wondering how everything was going to end, I noticed I was in the final pages of the book (I read this as an eBook). I knew there was no way the lives of Dottie and Rose were going to get wrapped up in these final pages and I began to worry. If you don't like endings that leave you guessing, then this may disappoint you. It isn't that I wanted everything neat and tidy, but I felt let down with the ending as it was. I can understand if the author is hoping to write a sequel, but if not, I feel it was a much too abrupt ending with too many questions left unanswered. This debut novel certainly held my attention and left a memorable impact. I just hope there is more to tell in this mother/daughter story.