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Baker Towers
Bakerton is a community of company houses and church festivals, of union squabbles and firemen's parades. Its neighborhoods include Little Italy, Swedetown, and Polish Hill. For its tight-knit citizens -- and the five children of the Novak family -- the 1940s will be a decade of excitement, tragedy, and stunning change. Baker Towers is a family saga and a love story, a hymn to a time and place long gone, to America's industrial past, and to the men and women we now call the Greatest Generation. It is a feat of imagination from an extraordinary voice in American fiction, a writer of enormous power and skill.
368 pages, Paperback
First published December 30, 2004
About the author
Jennifer Haigh
27 books1,015 followersJennifer Haigh is an American novelist and short story writer. Her new novel MERCY STREET takes on the contentious issue of abortion rights, following the daily life of Claudia Birch, a counselor at an embattled women's clinic in Boston.
Her last novel, HEAT AND LIGHT, looks at a Pennsylvania town divided by the controversy over fracking, and was named a Best Book of 2016 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and NPR. Earlier books include the novel FAITH, about a beloved Boston priest accused of a molesting a child in his parish, and THE CONDITION, the story of a woman diagnosed in childhood with Turner's Syndrome.
Haigh's critically acclaimed debut novel MRS. KIMBLE won the PEN/Hemingway Award for first fiction. Her second novel, the New York Times bestseller BAKER TOWERS, won the PEN/L. L. Winship Award for outstanding book by a New England author. Her short story collection NEWS FROM HEAVEN won of the Massachusetts Book Award and the PEN New England Award in Fiction. A Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, she writes frequently for The New York Times Book Review. Her fiction has been published in eighteen languages.
Her last novel, HEAT AND LIGHT, looks at a Pennsylvania town divided by the controversy over fracking, and was named a Best Book of 2016 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and NPR. Earlier books include the novel FAITH, about a beloved Boston priest accused of a molesting a child in his parish, and THE CONDITION, the story of a woman diagnosed in childhood with Turner's Syndrome.
Haigh's critically acclaimed debut novel MRS. KIMBLE won the PEN/Hemingway Award for first fiction. Her second novel, the New York Times bestseller BAKER TOWERS, won the PEN/L. L. Winship Award for outstanding book by a New England author. Her short story collection NEWS FROM HEAVEN won of the Massachusetts Book Award and the PEN New England Award in Fiction. A Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, she writes frequently for The New York Times Book Review. Her fiction has been published in eighteen languages.
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January 23, 2025
Baker Towers is a family saga set in the fictional mining town of Bakerton, Pennsylvania. It begins with the death of the Novak family head in 1944 (although there are references to events that happened before this) and ends in the 1970s, when the town has begun to fall into decline. Haigh tracks the lives of the Novak family through the intervening decades, chronicling the impact of change in American society on this small town, and its characters. There are five children in the Novak clan. When we first meet them, George, the oldest, is serving in the military; his youngest sibling, Lucy, is piping hot out of the oven. Haigh has a talent for giving each of these very different siblings a unique voice. Some have more stage time than others (a flaw she tries to address by tying up some loose ends in a later book); but those in the spotlight are shown clearly and to great effect.
Jennifer Haigh - image from Patch.
Haigh brings to life diverse aspects of Bakerton life, from the drudgery of factory work to ethnic and religious divisions, from union elections to the plague of black lung, from young love to adult desires, from a wedding with old-world elements to a town dance that summons an image of the Kaaba in Mecca. Haigh looks beyond the town for a bit, describing the experience of single women in DC during the war, and one woman’s post-war experience in the military. But mostly she concentrates on changes in the town and in her characters as the outside world evolves and time marches on. Cars and telephones become ubiquitous. Presidents are elected; one is murdered. But to the citizens of Bakerton, and the Novak family, the world seems distant, an echo over a far hill. But no matter how insulated or isolated they are in this close-knit small town, change seeps into their lives, shaping them in unexpected ways. Haigh offers us temporal touchstones in each chapter, helping orient us in US history.
As might be expected in any tale of a small town, there is much here about longing, but not nearly so much about escape as one might expect. The yearning for fulfillment is at the center of her characters’ lives, along with the fear that this small place may never offer a way to satisfy wants and needs, and might even extinguish hope.
Haigh was born and raised in the great metropolis of Barnsboro, PA, a mining town that provided the model for Bakerton. Her grandfathers were miners. I have a bit of an in-house expert to consult on this. My wife was born and raised in Wilkes-Barre, PA, a more easterly version of Bakerton, a place with street names like Carbon Lane and Anthracite Street, and public spaces like Coal Street Park and Miner’s Park. She tells me that when she read this book some years back she felt as if Haigh had been writing about her town. So we can take it from a local that Haigh nailed it.
One caveat is that there are a lot of characters in this book. While one might be tempted to keep track of them all, to do so might induce madness. Stick to keeping up with the Novaks.
Baker Towers opens with coal cars heading in to town and ends, decades later, with Amish buggies. New, plain residents have emerged, and while they begin to re-green the land, the history that lies beneath remains. Lives go on, or don’t. Directions change, or don’t. Hopes are realized and dreams are dashed. Love is found and squandered. There are satisfactions and regrets. As Haigh makes clear, where you are from may not determine what your life will be, but it has an indelible impact on the person you will ultimately become
PS – I must add that in a rare exception to my usual strictly solo practice, I called on mywife personal editor extraordinaire for some assistance after completing an almost-final cut, and feeling unsatisfied with the result. She deserves partial credit (but no blame) for the contents, as the final edit was mine alone.
PPS – Haigh, eight years after Baker Towers was published, wrote a follow up, News from Heaven: The Bakerton Stories.
Jennifer Haigh - image from Patch.
Haigh brings to life diverse aspects of Bakerton life, from the drudgery of factory work to ethnic and religious divisions, from union elections to the plague of black lung, from young love to adult desires, from a wedding with old-world elements to a town dance that summons an image of the Kaaba in Mecca. Haigh looks beyond the town for a bit, describing the experience of single women in DC during the war, and one woman’s post-war experience in the military. But mostly she concentrates on changes in the town and in her characters as the outside world evolves and time marches on. Cars and telephones become ubiquitous. Presidents are elected; one is murdered. But to the citizens of Bakerton, and the Novak family, the world seems distant, an echo over a far hill. But no matter how insulated or isolated they are in this close-knit small town, change seeps into their lives, shaping them in unexpected ways. Haigh offers us temporal touchstones in each chapter, helping orient us in US history.
As might be expected in any tale of a small town, there is much here about longing, but not nearly so much about escape as one might expect. The yearning for fulfillment is at the center of her characters’ lives, along with the fear that this small place may never offer a way to satisfy wants and needs, and might even extinguish hope.
Bakerton did this to people: slowly, invisibly, it made them smaller, compressed by living where little was possible, and where the ceiling was very low.Not only are opportunities limited in the world of work, the range of the possible in romance is likewise narrow:
It was, she reflected, a dangerous pastime, mooning over the handsome, clever men on the screen. It doomed you to disappointment; it made you expect too much. [She] had never been in love, but felt herself capable of it. She could love Fred Astaire or Clark Gable or Errol Flynn, an elegant, cultivated fellow who wore wonderful clothes and possessed all sorts of hidden talents, who sang and danced and even fought in a way that looked beautiful; who even when he drank was witty and articulate and gentle and wise. The harder job was loving what men really were—soldiers and miners, gruff and ignorant; louts who communicated mainly by cursing, who couldn’t tell you anything about life that you didn’t already know.The strength of the novel, only Haigh’s second, is her characters. Male and female (well, mostly female), these people are made real. Their desires are made as clear to us as they are to themselves, and we feel an investment in how things turn out for them. Like moviegoers loudly telling the little girl in the horror movie not to go back for her dropped teddy bear. (No, no, don’t do that. He’ll get you!) Or cheering when something right wins out over the opposition of time. (You go, girl!)
Haigh was born and raised in the great metropolis of Barnsboro, PA, a mining town that provided the model for Bakerton. Her grandfathers were miners. I have a bit of an in-house expert to consult on this. My wife was born and raised in Wilkes-Barre, PA, a more easterly version of Bakerton, a place with street names like Carbon Lane and Anthracite Street, and public spaces like Coal Street Park and Miner’s Park. She tells me that when she read this book some years back she felt as if Haigh had been writing about her town. So we can take it from a local that Haigh nailed it.
One caveat is that there are a lot of characters in this book. While one might be tempted to keep track of them all, to do so might induce madness. Stick to keeping up with the Novaks.
Baker Towers opens with coal cars heading in to town and ends, decades later, with Amish buggies. New, plain residents have emerged, and while they begin to re-green the land, the history that lies beneath remains. Lives go on, or don’t. Directions change, or don’t. Hopes are realized and dreams are dashed. Love is found and squandered. There are satisfactions and regrets. As Haigh makes clear, where you are from may not determine what your life will be, but it has an indelible impact on the person you will ultimately become
PS – I must add that in a rare exception to my usual strictly solo practice, I called on my
PPS – Haigh, eight years after Baker Towers was published, wrote a follow up, News from Heaven: The Bakerton Stories.
July 30, 2016
I wanted to give this book five stars, I really did. Ms. Haigh beautifully recreates life in a Pennsylvania coal town from the end of Word War II to the end of the Viet Nam Era. She's spot on with so many details such as being able to know who died by which family's hearse is parked in front of a house. She paints an exquisite picture of coming over a hill and having the valley open up before you with its company-built houses huddling an arms-length apart. There used to be a sulfur hill that glowed blue in the dark on "the old road to Scranton" just like the Baker Towers. The mines in NEPA where I am from were shut down like those in SEPA as a result of the change to oil. I remember January 22, 1959, when the Susquehanna River that flowed three doors from my house burst through and drowned 12 miners.
As in real life, when tragedy strikes in a mine, everyone prays to St. Ann. There is a basilica dedicated to her in Scranton and her feast day, July 26, is a major day of celebration and prayer. The Italian church had an annual commemorative parade in thanksgiving for lives saved in a mining town in Sicily, complete with dollars pinned to the Virgin's cloak (you can check the veracity of this by watching "The Sopranos" ;-).
Where I ran into difficulty was with the accuracy. Even the Western Branch of the Susquehanna River doesn't flow near Pittsburgh. Glen Echo park is on the Northwestern edge of The District of Columbia, not forty miles south. Little Polish pillows filled with potatoes are called piErogis not pirogis. St. Casimir is the patron saint of Lithuania. NOBODY but the deceased rides in a hearse during a funeral. The family rides in The First Car.
And I still haven't gotten used to the Iowa Writer's Workshop's approval of "lay" for "lie."
I'd give it a 4 2/3 or 4.75 if I had the option. I loved the book and am starting its sequel this afternoon.
As in real life, when tragedy strikes in a mine, everyone prays to St. Ann. There is a basilica dedicated to her in Scranton and her feast day, July 26, is a major day of celebration and prayer. The Italian church had an annual commemorative parade in thanksgiving for lives saved in a mining town in Sicily, complete with dollars pinned to the Virgin's cloak (you can check the veracity of this by watching "The Sopranos" ;-).
Where I ran into difficulty was with the accuracy. Even the Western Branch of the Susquehanna River doesn't flow near Pittsburgh. Glen Echo park is on the Northwestern edge of The District of Columbia, not forty miles south. Little Polish pillows filled with potatoes are called piErogis not pirogis. St. Casimir is the patron saint of Lithuania. NOBODY but the deceased rides in a hearse during a funeral. The family rides in The First Car.
And I still haven't gotten used to the Iowa Writer's Workshop's approval of "lay" for "lie."
I'd give it a 4 2/3 or 4.75 if I had the option. I loved the book and am starting its sequel this afternoon.
March 27, 2017
'Baker Towers' by Jennifer Haigh is a family story... the story of the Novak family of Bakerton, Pennsylvania. The Novaks are a 'mixed' family of sorts, begun by the marriage between a Polish father and an Italian mother which in the 1940s when this story begins is not particularly looked upon with favor by the community. But 'Baker Towers' is NOT just the story of the Novak family. In a broader sense, it is the story of a Pennsylvania coal mining town. Bakerton is fictional but in my opinion it is a wonderfully assembled amalgamation of all Pennsylvania mining towns of the 1940s.
The Novak family story begins with a death.. the death of its patriarch, Stanley.Stanley and his wife, Rose had been married since he had returned from serving in World War I and had also been working in the Bakerton mine since his return as well. The couple quickly began having children after marrying... Georgie, Dorothy, Joyce, Sandy and finally, Lucy, an unexpected 'change of life' baby who would grow up with no memories of her father. Although you might expect that Stanley's death occurred while working in the mine, he actually suddenly and unexpectedly died while preparing for work in his basement. It was quickly obvious in the story that all the families of Bakerton were always acutely aware of the dangers faced by the men entering the mines each day and seemed always alert and preparing for a disaster which could strike at any moment.
'Baker Towers' spans decades and follows each member of the Novak family as they carry on with their lives after Stanley's death. But the story also spans decades in the life of the town and its residents. It's clear that even when the mine is prospering for its owners, the workers... who live in 'company houses' and shop in 'company stores'... are never really sharing in that prosperity. Their lives are characterized by dread and fear because of the danger and uncertainty that comes along with the mining of coal and the day-to-day scrabble of just getting by. Each of the Novak children, upon finishing school, set out to make a life elsewhere... away from the mine and from the daily struggles. Some of the children DO make lives elsewhere...in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia; but some can't escape the pull of Bakerton and end up returning to their hometown to make a life.. a life which feels familiar,despite its difficulties.
As a native Pennsylvanian, I felt a sense of familiarity as well as unease with the residents of Bakerton. I grew up in a town made up of ethnic groups and Catholic churches built to cater to the needs and cultures of these groups... just as described in the fictional Bakerton. And although coal mining was in serious decline by the time I was born,I was familiar with mining as a way of life. My great-grandfather had been a coal miner. He was a man whose hands seemed to always be caked with coal dust, no matter how much he scrubbed them and who, later in life, struggled to breathe when his lungs were ravaged by 'black lung disease'. Although I am not personally saddened by the disappearance of coal mining from Pennsylvania (as well as other states) as I hate the damage and scars mining has inflicted on the environment, this story,'Baker Towers' reminded me of my great-grandfather and I can't help but experience empathy for the residents of Bakerton. It isn't lost on me that the scars inflicted by coal mining are also illustrative of the way in which my great-grandfather had of taking care of his family. The residents of Bakerton reminded me that even the miners and their families didn't LOVE coal mining; but they DID love their families and providing for them. This story was a powerful reminder to me that every now and then I need to think about history and put aside my feelings of indignation and self-righteousness and just remember the past.....
Ultimately to me, 'Baker Towers' is an acknowledgement or homage paid to a mining and industrial past.. a time after World War II, when communities felt good about contributing to a common purpose. As the author stated at the beginning of the book... "The mines were not named for Bakerton; Bakerton was named for the mines. This is an important distinction. It explains the order of things." 'Baker Towers' is a story which inspired a peculiar mixture of feelings in me.. sadness for the people of the little towns and all they have lost over the years; frustration for the way these communities have been ignored but also for their inability to let go of the past and move on; but also a feeling of profound gratitude toward my great-grandfather (and all of the men like him), who performed this thankless, filthy, dangerous job to take care of his daughter (my grandmother) who could then take care of HER daughter (my mother) who one day took care of me. And ultimately, I suppose that is really what this story and the stories of all mining families are about... being able to care for the people who are most important.
The Novak family story begins with a death.. the death of its patriarch, Stanley.Stanley and his wife, Rose had been married since he had returned from serving in World War I and had also been working in the Bakerton mine since his return as well. The couple quickly began having children after marrying... Georgie, Dorothy, Joyce, Sandy and finally, Lucy, an unexpected 'change of life' baby who would grow up with no memories of her father. Although you might expect that Stanley's death occurred while working in the mine, he actually suddenly and unexpectedly died while preparing for work in his basement. It was quickly obvious in the story that all the families of Bakerton were always acutely aware of the dangers faced by the men entering the mines each day and seemed always alert and preparing for a disaster which could strike at any moment.
'Baker Towers' spans decades and follows each member of the Novak family as they carry on with their lives after Stanley's death. But the story also spans decades in the life of the town and its residents. It's clear that even when the mine is prospering for its owners, the workers... who live in 'company houses' and shop in 'company stores'... are never really sharing in that prosperity. Their lives are characterized by dread and fear because of the danger and uncertainty that comes along with the mining of coal and the day-to-day scrabble of just getting by. Each of the Novak children, upon finishing school, set out to make a life elsewhere... away from the mine and from the daily struggles. Some of the children DO make lives elsewhere...in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia; but some can't escape the pull of Bakerton and end up returning to their hometown to make a life.. a life which feels familiar,despite its difficulties.
As a native Pennsylvanian, I felt a sense of familiarity as well as unease with the residents of Bakerton. I grew up in a town made up of ethnic groups and Catholic churches built to cater to the needs and cultures of these groups... just as described in the fictional Bakerton. And although coal mining was in serious decline by the time I was born,I was familiar with mining as a way of life. My great-grandfather had been a coal miner. He was a man whose hands seemed to always be caked with coal dust, no matter how much he scrubbed them and who, later in life, struggled to breathe when his lungs were ravaged by 'black lung disease'. Although I am not personally saddened by the disappearance of coal mining from Pennsylvania (as well as other states) as I hate the damage and scars mining has inflicted on the environment, this story,'Baker Towers' reminded me of my great-grandfather and I can't help but experience empathy for the residents of Bakerton. It isn't lost on me that the scars inflicted by coal mining are also illustrative of the way in which my great-grandfather had of taking care of his family. The residents of Bakerton reminded me that even the miners and their families didn't LOVE coal mining; but they DID love their families and providing for them. This story was a powerful reminder to me that every now and then I need to think about history and put aside my feelings of indignation and self-righteousness and just remember the past.....
Ultimately to me, 'Baker Towers' is an acknowledgement or homage paid to a mining and industrial past.. a time after World War II, when communities felt good about contributing to a common purpose. As the author stated at the beginning of the book... "The mines were not named for Bakerton; Bakerton was named for the mines. This is an important distinction. It explains the order of things." 'Baker Towers' is a story which inspired a peculiar mixture of feelings in me.. sadness for the people of the little towns and all they have lost over the years; frustration for the way these communities have been ignored but also for their inability to let go of the past and move on; but also a feeling of profound gratitude toward my great-grandfather (and all of the men like him), who performed this thankless, filthy, dangerous job to take care of his daughter (my grandmother) who could then take care of HER daughter (my mother) who one day took care of me. And ultimately, I suppose that is really what this story and the stories of all mining families are about... being able to care for the people who are most important.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 11, 2013
I was well satisfied with the page-by-page flow of the narrative but came away with only a limited emotional engagement in the characters and community portrayed. The story concerns a family in the coal-mining town of Bakerton, Pennsylvania, whose Polish father dies, leaving the Italian mother, Rose Novak, to raise the five kids. Each makes an escape from the hardscrabble life in the economically declining town, but four find their way back, drawn paradoxically by a sense of home they never did quite realize when they were there. The divergence and evolution in the lives of the siblings is realistic and my interest was drawn to their fate. But we can only get vignettes in this short book, and the experience of coal mining itself really doesn’t come into play in the story.
I am a big fan of old-fashioned family sagas evocative of place. I want to feel like a member of such a family and be moved to tears by the drama, laugh with their lively antics, and love their community. This story makes Bakerton a character and has a compelling family, but it was too impressionistic to fully satisfy my old fashioned interest. It’s no wonder Haigh’s sequel volume was one of short stories.
I am a big fan of old-fashioned family sagas evocative of place. I want to feel like a member of such a family and be moved to tears by the drama, laugh with their lively antics, and love their community. This story makes Bakerton a character and has a compelling family, but it was too impressionistic to fully satisfy my old fashioned interest. It’s no wonder Haigh’s sequel volume was one of short stories.
June 29, 2012
In this character driven story, author Jennifer Haigh paints a dramatic picture of life in a small coal mining town in the years following World War II. As the young men who survived the war come home, jobs are scarce for men and women alike. Working in the coal mines or the dress factory is about all that is available, and the men know where their destiny lies. But mining is hard, dangerous work, and the thought of pending tragedy is never far from people’s minds. Against this backdrop, Haigh has placed an Italian/Polish family who struggle to provide for their children. They have little time and even less money for leisure activities. As the children grow up to seek a better life for themselves, they find themselves at odds with each other. Can they put aside hurt feelings and resentment to revive familial ties? Can past mistakes be righted? Or is it too late? When tragedy does strike, will it bind together a town that is on the verge of collapse? These seemingly real characters and their story will stay with you long after you finish the book.
July 15, 2008
For this reader Baker Towers held a very personal message. It reversed the passage of time and took me on a vicarious trip back to the small town of my youth. In describing Bakerton, Jennifer Haigh accurately captured the essence of small town America in the 1940's , 50's and 60's where parents from the "old country" worked hard in an attempt to ensure that their offspring would have a chance at the American Dream. Haigh's Bakerton could easily have been the small, predominently Polish, steel-mill town I grew up in on the South Side of Chicago. Its Baker Towers definietly brought back memories of steel waste poured down the hill adjacent to the mills that became the "slag heaps" that burned brightly and lit the night sky.
As for the members of the Novak family, they could have been the my cousins, or the kids next door, or some of my school chums.......all bent on leading more fulfilling lives than their parents. Like the Novaks, some stayed to live and work among parents, family and friends while others pursued other avenues and a life away from the mills. Yet no matter how far away they traveled or what their accomplishments, that small town would always welcome them home.
This bittersweet tale of our industrial past evokes not only feelings of nostalgia, but vividly presents us with an intimate look at a time in our history when family and friends worked together toward a common goal. This was the time before our manufacturing cities became known as "The Rust Belt" and we actually employed people to produced more than hamburgers, and finally it was a time when folks had a genuine love and pride in this country.
As for the members of the Novak family, they could have been the my cousins, or the kids next door, or some of my school chums.......all bent on leading more fulfilling lives than their parents. Like the Novaks, some stayed to live and work among parents, family and friends while others pursued other avenues and a life away from the mills. Yet no matter how far away they traveled or what their accomplishments, that small town would always welcome them home.
This bittersweet tale of our industrial past evokes not only feelings of nostalgia, but vividly presents us with an intimate look at a time in our history when family and friends worked together toward a common goal. This was the time before our manufacturing cities became known as "The Rust Belt" and we actually employed people to produced more than hamburgers, and finally it was a time when folks had a genuine love and pride in this country.
July 24, 2008
I found this book at the Pittsburgh airport two years ago while traveling for work. I loved her previous book, Mrs. Kimble. Little did I know until Baker Heights that the author grew up less than 20 miles from where I did. She knows that area -- impoverished and spirit-broken. Baker Heights told the story of the real Barnsboro-area coal mines. My grandfather lost his arm in a mining accident not far from there.
March 1, 2011
Baker Towers begins with the death of Stanley Novak and then follows the five Novak Children, George, Dorothy, Joyce, Sandy, and Lucy through almost three decades of events. The story takes place in Bakerton, a town built on the coal mining industry and founded by the Baker brothers - owners of twelve separate mines that employ almost the entire town.
I enjoyed reading about a small town and the unique life led by those who live in company houses, shop at the company store, and basically live and die by the company.
The main problem with Baker Towers is that Haigh seems to take on more than can be handled in a 330 page novel. She jumps through time and narrative point of view without grounding the reader. Within the first 50 pages although I knew Lucy was born in 1942, when George comes back into town driving his 1948 Cadillac, she is only four years old - this was an oversight that bothered me through the rest of the book. Although I never bothered to check on the math again, I was increasingly frustrated by the large chunks of time that were simply skipped over.
Haigh didn't spend enough time with a single character to make the reader engaged in their story. Just as I was interested in what was happening to the character of focus, the chapter abruptly ended, the time jumped anywhere from two to ten years, and I was seeing through the eyes of an entirely different Novak sibling. The jumps left some narrative themes or facts completely uncovered and baffling.
In the end I wasn't invested enough in any of the characters to really know what sort of development the characters made or to understand why they would have changed. The book either should have been much longer or simply tried to tell a smaller story.
Read my review on a book blog here: http://abookofadifferentcolor.blogspo...
I enjoyed reading about a small town and the unique life led by those who live in company houses, shop at the company store, and basically live and die by the company.
The main problem with Baker Towers is that Haigh seems to take on more than can be handled in a 330 page novel. She jumps through time and narrative point of view without grounding the reader. Within the first 50 pages although I knew Lucy was born in 1942, when George comes back into town driving his 1948 Cadillac, she is only four years old - this was an oversight that bothered me through the rest of the book. Although I never bothered to check on the math again, I was increasingly frustrated by the large chunks of time that were simply skipped over.
Haigh didn't spend enough time with a single character to make the reader engaged in their story. Just as I was interested in what was happening to the character of focus, the chapter abruptly ended, the time jumped anywhere from two to ten years, and I was seeing through the eyes of an entirely different Novak sibling. The jumps left some narrative themes or facts completely uncovered and baffling.
In the end I wasn't invested enough in any of the characters to really know what sort of development the characters made or to understand why they would have changed. The book either should have been much longer or simply tried to tell a smaller story.
Read my review on a book blog here: http://abookofadifferentcolor.blogspo...
January 18, 2013
Coming from a small town and one-time mining town, I found myself completely enamored with BAKER TOWERS, and those little idiosyncrasies that define small town life: the unwillingness to escape, the focus on comfort and the familiar, the constantly churning gossip mill, the quaint downtown, the neat little streets, and the emphasis on family. Had this been the only endearing part of the novel, it still would have been a worthwhile read. But Jennifer Haigh offers her readers so much more. She takes an intricate look at the Novak family and their five children, and she tackles issues like love and loss, success and failure, and greed and generosity with a stealth pen and attention to detail. It is her attention to detail that really brings out the hearts and souls of these characters, transforming them from what in many cases could have been static characters to giving them multi-dimensional appeal.
Like Bakerton, Georgie, Dorothy, Joyce, Lucy, and Sandy are defined by more than the twin stacks of mine waste that come to represent the town. While all five children have grown up within the walls of the Novak household, each proves as unique as snowflakes and as fragile in many respects as the morning dew. It’s this fragility that brings fullness and richness to the characters, and the lives of those they interact with. And ultimately it defines the pull of home, whether they reach out and grab it, or do whatever they can to run from it. That is the true definition of small town life, and it’s a message that resonates throughout this novel’s pages.
Like Bakerton, Georgie, Dorothy, Joyce, Lucy, and Sandy are defined by more than the twin stacks of mine waste that come to represent the town. While all five children have grown up within the walls of the Novak household, each proves as unique as snowflakes and as fragile in many respects as the morning dew. It’s this fragility that brings fullness and richness to the characters, and the lives of those they interact with. And ultimately it defines the pull of home, whether they reach out and grab it, or do whatever they can to run from it. That is the true definition of small town life, and it’s a message that resonates throughout this novel’s pages.
March 21, 2014
The 1940s in the mythical town of Bakerton, PA, is similar to what I imagine what many small mining towns in Pennsylvania and neighboring West Virginia were like. Slower paced, small town life where everyone knows you, your family, and everything that everyone does. The “have-nots” outnumber the “haves”, and chances are – if you are a teenage male, you have a relative working in the mines, and you’ve probably worked there a summer or two yourself. There is a comfort in knowing that you are welcomed wherever you go.
That’s what reading Baker Towers is like. It’s like comfort food for your soul. There’s an occasional surprise on the menu, but it’s pure and warms your insides and makes you glad you came home to visit, but not to stay.
"Bakerton did this to people: slowly, invisibly, it made them smaller, compressed by living where little was possible, where the ceiling was so very low."
That’s what reading Baker Towers is like. It’s like comfort food for your soul. There’s an occasional surprise on the menu, but it’s pure and warms your insides and makes you glad you came home to visit, but not to stay.
"Bakerton did this to people: slowly, invisibly, it made them smaller, compressed by living where little was possible, where the ceiling was so very low."
August 20, 2020
Jennifer Haigh is a wonderful storyteller! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
July 18, 2007
I really enjoyed Jennifer Haighs first book, "Mrs. Kimble" and was looking forward to her second novel. This book did not disappoint. Instead of following three wives, as her previous novel, this book traces the lives of a family (specially the relationship between siblings) dealing with tragedy, changing economics and different personalities. It wasn't quite five stars but definitely a book I'd recommend.
July 26, 2017
Audio book performed by Anna Fields.
3.5*** rounded up to 4****
Adapted from the book jacket: Bakerton is a company town built on coal, a town of church festivals and ethnic neighborhoods, hunters’ breakfasts and firemen’s parades. The looming black piles of mine dirt (are called) Baker Towers; they are local landmarks, clear evidence that the mines are booming. The mines were not named for Bakerton; Bakerton was named for the mines. This is an important distinction. It explains the order of things. Born and raised on Bakerton’s Polish Hill, the five Novak children come of age during wartime.
My reaction:
This is the kind of character-driven literary fiction that I love to read and discuss with my F2F book club. Haigh focuses on the Novak family to tell the story of America in the years following World War II. It’s a microcosm of American life, that encompasses many of the issues faced by the nation during the 1930s through 1970s.
The five Novaks are as different as night and day. The oldest, Georgie, serves in the Pacific during World War II, but after the war he moves away with his new wife, rarely returning home. Next is Dorothy, a pretty but insecure young woman who takes a job in Washington D.C., but falters. Joyce is the middle child, smart and driven, always helping out and taking charge of the household when her widowed mother is unable to cope. Sandy is the family charmer, relying on his good looks and smooth talk to get by in life; like his older brother, he leaves home and rarely returns. And finally, there is Lucy, who is showered with affection and seems unable to grow out of her role as the baby of the family.
Through the lens of this family the reader watches the changes in America as the town prospers in the post-war era, deals with changes in American manufacturing, and begins an inevitable decline. The residents face the changing expectations as women get a taste of “important” work during the war and chafe against restrictions when the men return. Haigh mentions the changes outside Bakerton – the death of FDR, the Eisenhower years, the assassination of President Kennedy, Neil Armstrong’s historic walk on the moon, etc – but the changes within the town have greater impact, from getting a phone or car, to a long strike for better conditions and wages at the mine.
I do not usually round up when awarding half-stars, but I will in this case because it’s a discussion-worthy book.
Anna Fields does a fine job performing the audio book. She has a good pace and enough skill as a voice artist to differentiate the many characters.
3.5*** rounded up to 4****
Adapted from the book jacket: Bakerton is a company town built on coal, a town of church festivals and ethnic neighborhoods, hunters’ breakfasts and firemen’s parades. The looming black piles of mine dirt (are called) Baker Towers; they are local landmarks, clear evidence that the mines are booming. The mines were not named for Bakerton; Bakerton was named for the mines. This is an important distinction. It explains the order of things. Born and raised on Bakerton’s Polish Hill, the five Novak children come of age during wartime.
My reaction:
This is the kind of character-driven literary fiction that I love to read and discuss with my F2F book club. Haigh focuses on the Novak family to tell the story of America in the years following World War II. It’s a microcosm of American life, that encompasses many of the issues faced by the nation during the 1930s through 1970s.
The five Novaks are as different as night and day. The oldest, Georgie, serves in the Pacific during World War II, but after the war he moves away with his new wife, rarely returning home. Next is Dorothy, a pretty but insecure young woman who takes a job in Washington D.C., but falters. Joyce is the middle child, smart and driven, always helping out and taking charge of the household when her widowed mother is unable to cope. Sandy is the family charmer, relying on his good looks and smooth talk to get by in life; like his older brother, he leaves home and rarely returns. And finally, there is Lucy, who is showered with affection and seems unable to grow out of her role as the baby of the family.
Through the lens of this family the reader watches the changes in America as the town prospers in the post-war era, deals with changes in American manufacturing, and begins an inevitable decline. The residents face the changing expectations as women get a taste of “important” work during the war and chafe against restrictions when the men return. Haigh mentions the changes outside Bakerton – the death of FDR, the Eisenhower years, the assassination of President Kennedy, Neil Armstrong’s historic walk on the moon, etc – but the changes within the town have greater impact, from getting a phone or car, to a long strike for better conditions and wages at the mine.
I do not usually round up when awarding half-stars, but I will in this case because it’s a discussion-worthy book.
Anna Fields does a fine job performing the audio book. She has a good pace and enough skill as a voice artist to differentiate the many characters.
October 5, 2009
If I were to title this book, I'd call it "Drowning"
Life in a small industrial town isn't heaven as novelists have told us before. Haigh tells an interesting story involving the members of a Italian/Polish family from the WWII years into the 1960's. Her characters, particularly those who are female, are well developed and the events are quite believable. Literally or figuratively no one escapes alive.
A sense of rootedness covers everyone like a blanket of coal dust covers the town. All success is only temporary. If you like looking in on suffering and disappointment, can identify with those whose horizons are limited and find defeat always waiting, believe that external forces are more important in determining the course of life than individual effort and that life is just one damn thing after another, this is a book for you.
A good antidote to anything written by Ayn Rand.
Life in a small industrial town isn't heaven as novelists have told us before. Haigh tells an interesting story involving the members of a Italian/Polish family from the WWII years into the 1960's. Her characters, particularly those who are female, are well developed and the events are quite believable. Literally or figuratively no one escapes alive.
A sense of rootedness covers everyone like a blanket of coal dust covers the town. All success is only temporary. If you like looking in on suffering and disappointment, can identify with those whose horizons are limited and find defeat always waiting, believe that external forces are more important in determining the course of life than individual effort and that life is just one damn thing after another, this is a book for you.
A good antidote to anything written by Ayn Rand.
March 7, 2009
This book is character-driven, not plot-driven. The author does a wonderful job of sucking me into the book and wondering what happens next with each person, and thankfully doesn't leave a lot of random chapters in between big events, which seems to happen a lot in books I read (which prompts me to skip ahead and then ruin the book). The only problem is that it might not be that memorable. It was very good, but not full of sparkles and something I will necessarily remember reading later.
It turned out to be not memorable at all, as I decided to read it after finishing The Condition, not realizing I already had until about twenty pages in. Oh well.
It turned out to be not memorable at all, as I decided to read it after finishing The Condition, not realizing I already had until about twenty pages in. Oh well.
August 19, 2020
Baker Towers is a family saga, set against the backdrop of a Pennsylvania mining town. The book begins during WWII and follows members of the Novak family at different points in their lives. It illustrates the impact of mining on the town's inhabitants, a source of income to support families and a risky profession that ultimately ends in poor health for the majority of miners. The mine is the community as the book begins, that will change as time moves on.
I enjoy family sagas, what was missing for me in this book was balance. There is an understated melancholy to these lives, happiness or the ability to experience happiness seems to be out of the characters' reach. Emotionally distant, they were unknowable.
I enjoy family sagas, what was missing for me in this book was balance. There is an understated melancholy to these lives, happiness or the ability to experience happiness seems to be out of the characters' reach. Emotionally distant, they were unknowable.
November 28, 2011
Bakerton, Pennsylvania is a mining town. It's a town of company houses and union jobs, of church and family. Bakerton is a town that depends on its coal mines and, in the years during and after World War II, those mines are doing raging business. Baker Towers is the story of those years, told from the perspective of the Novak family: widowed Rose Novak and her five children, Georgie, Dorothy, Joyce, Sandy and Lucy. Georgie and Dorothy escape their small-town childhoods, Georgie for the Navy and Dorothy for a wartime clerical job in Washington, D.C. Joyce joins the service as well but returns to care for her ailing mother and watch opportunities to do something important pass her by. Joyce dedicates herself to her mother and her younger brother and sister, a sacrifice which goes un-thanked. When Dorothy has a breakdown, Joyce takes responsibility for her elder sister as well. Meanwhile, Georgie has "made good" in Philadelphia but remains haunted by what could have been his life, had he stayed home and married his small-town sweetheart, and Lucy struggles with her sense of self and perspective after being spoiled by her mother all her childhood. Each of the Novaks wrestles, in his or her own way, with the legacy of growing up in the shadow of Baker Towers, two massive piles of mine refuse that serve as the town's most commanding landmark.
I read Faith, Jennifer Haigh's most recent book, earlier in the summer and was captivated by her wonderful writing and her ability to take the reader into the innermost thoughts and emotions of her characters. So I sought out some of her earlier work and Baker Towers immediately jumped out at me as a book I knew I'd love. I love reading about the time period around World War II, when the book starts, and I've always been fascinated by industrial America. (After all, I majored in Industrial and Labor Relations.) And wow, I was not disappointed. From the very first page, I couldn't put Baker Towers down. I was pulled bodily into the loves and struggles of the Novak family and found myself relating to Georgie and Joyce in particular. The strong desire to escape a small town - I know that. And the equally strong compulsion to be the good child, the steady child, the child who holds it together even if it means getting nothing back - I know that too. But beyond just Georgie and Joyce, thanks to Jennifer Haigh, I feel as if I know all of the Novaks.
The fact that I majored in Industrial and Labor Relations probably did add something to my considerable enjoyment of the book. I could read between the lines and understand what the families suffered during the miners' strike, and the economic implications of the mines' business (or lack thereof) in the 1970s and 1980s. But you don't need to have a labor background to enjoy Baker Towers. All you need is to enjoy a good family saga, great characters and wonderful writing. If you do, I promise you will enjoy this book - because it has all that and more. Highly recommended.
I read Faith, Jennifer Haigh's most recent book, earlier in the summer and was captivated by her wonderful writing and her ability to take the reader into the innermost thoughts and emotions of her characters. So I sought out some of her earlier work and Baker Towers immediately jumped out at me as a book I knew I'd love. I love reading about the time period around World War II, when the book starts, and I've always been fascinated by industrial America. (After all, I majored in Industrial and Labor Relations.) And wow, I was not disappointed. From the very first page, I couldn't put Baker Towers down. I was pulled bodily into the loves and struggles of the Novak family and found myself relating to Georgie and Joyce in particular. The strong desire to escape a small town - I know that. And the equally strong compulsion to be the good child, the steady child, the child who holds it together even if it means getting nothing back - I know that too. But beyond just Georgie and Joyce, thanks to Jennifer Haigh, I feel as if I know all of the Novaks.
The fact that I majored in Industrial and Labor Relations probably did add something to my considerable enjoyment of the book. I could read between the lines and understand what the families suffered during the miners' strike, and the economic implications of the mines' business (or lack thereof) in the 1970s and 1980s. But you don't need to have a labor background to enjoy Baker Towers. All you need is to enjoy a good family saga, great characters and wonderful writing. If you do, I promise you will enjoy this book - because it has all that and more. Highly recommended.
February 6, 2012
For my full review, click here: http://www.coffeeandabookchick.com/20...
...Bakerton, Pennsylvania is made up of residents who are Swedish, Polish, and Italian immigrants, with the coal mine employing a good majority. In the Novak family, the home is traditional to the time and place. Rose and Stanley, first-generations to America, live in Polish Hill in company-owned housing. Rose, an Italian wife and mother, remains at home to take care of their five children, and her Polish husband, Stanley, works every day in the coal mine. It was never expected that he, provider of the family and gentle disciplinarian, would suffer a fatal heart attack leaving too early his wife and five children to make a place for themselves in a town and in a world that is rapidly changing.
This is the story of the five children who would be members of the Greatest Generation, living in a town whose existence thrives off the hulking mass of coal mined daily from deep in the mountain, resulting in Black Lung for miners and making widows of their wives. Each of the Novak children must find their way through life and whether it's enlisting in the military, or moving to Washington, D.C. and working for the government, or running away with no other goal but to just leave Bakerton, and who cares where you end up, their lives are ultimately filled with family, loss, love, and regrets, and it is a beautiful story with sincere contemplation on the painful choices each of them make. Combined with a glimpse into what life may have been like for those who lived during this time, ignoring the expected vintage nostalgia but instead strongly imbuing the story with remarkable authenticity, Baker Towers captures America during a time that will never be forgotten. The Novaks grow up, marry, and live their lives, and although some escape small-town life, over time they find that their paths invariably meander around and back to the very place that once made them want to flee.
This was impossible to put down, the story weaving between characters and historical events with an efficiency and skill that captured me from the very first page. Quite frankly, it swallowed me up in the time and even made me feel the aesthetics and intangibles; I could see and feel the outfits the characters wore, the jobs they took, and the cars they drove. I also could easily see this as a movie, and with all of HBO's recent endeavors into successful adaptations to the small screen, I think it would follow up quite nicely after their expert remake of Mildred Pierce this past summer, starring Kate Winslet.
Jennifer Haigh is just brilliant with her storytelling, and I decided that she is now one of my favorite authors. Her writing is expressive, moving, and thoughtful, and she has an astounding way to take tough subjects and events and turn them into the most painfully memorable moments of reading that I've had in the past year. I've enjoyed it all and can't wait to read Mrs. Kimble and The Condition next.
...Bakerton, Pennsylvania is made up of residents who are Swedish, Polish, and Italian immigrants, with the coal mine employing a good majority. In the Novak family, the home is traditional to the time and place. Rose and Stanley, first-generations to America, live in Polish Hill in company-owned housing. Rose, an Italian wife and mother, remains at home to take care of their five children, and her Polish husband, Stanley, works every day in the coal mine. It was never expected that he, provider of the family and gentle disciplinarian, would suffer a fatal heart attack leaving too early his wife and five children to make a place for themselves in a town and in a world that is rapidly changing.
This is the story of the five children who would be members of the Greatest Generation, living in a town whose existence thrives off the hulking mass of coal mined daily from deep in the mountain, resulting in Black Lung for miners and making widows of their wives. Each of the Novak children must find their way through life and whether it's enlisting in the military, or moving to Washington, D.C. and working for the government, or running away with no other goal but to just leave Bakerton, and who cares where you end up, their lives are ultimately filled with family, loss, love, and regrets, and it is a beautiful story with sincere contemplation on the painful choices each of them make. Combined with a glimpse into what life may have been like for those who lived during this time, ignoring the expected vintage nostalgia but instead strongly imbuing the story with remarkable authenticity, Baker Towers captures America during a time that will never be forgotten. The Novaks grow up, marry, and live their lives, and although some escape small-town life, over time they find that their paths invariably meander around and back to the very place that once made them want to flee.
This was impossible to put down, the story weaving between characters and historical events with an efficiency and skill that captured me from the very first page. Quite frankly, it swallowed me up in the time and even made me feel the aesthetics and intangibles; I could see and feel the outfits the characters wore, the jobs they took, and the cars they drove. I also could easily see this as a movie, and with all of HBO's recent endeavors into successful adaptations to the small screen, I think it would follow up quite nicely after their expert remake of Mildred Pierce this past summer, starring Kate Winslet.
Jennifer Haigh is just brilliant with her storytelling, and I decided that she is now one of my favorite authors. Her writing is expressive, moving, and thoughtful, and she has an astounding way to take tough subjects and events and turn them into the most painfully memorable moments of reading that I've had in the past year. I've enjoyed it all and can't wait to read Mrs. Kimble and The Condition next.
February 26, 2018
I had a lot of feelings reading this book. I grew up in Western PA's coal country, where "Baker Towers" is set, and had uncles and paps who worked the mines. I grew up around places like "Coal Town" and "Tin Town" and "Tunnelton." I watched industry dry up and small towns become irrelevant, main street businesses close and people lose their livelihoods.
Basically, I experienced "Baker Towers" firsthand, but a generation later.
Reading this book was like reading about my grandparents' lives, and I at times became overwhelmed with an ache for them that almost made me cry. I remembered the stories about getting by on next to nothing, how important the coal league baseball teams were to everyone in town. (Before he died, my pap would STILL talk about the young men from his little town who played coal league ball.) I remembered stories about firehall dances. The segregation between Italians and everyone else in town. I remembered my other grandpap's story about traveling to West Virginia to rescue miners trapped underground, and how I quickly realized not every story has a happy ending.
(This book also catches simple details that are completely true to life, like people getting diabetes and not realizing starch was killing them. "I feel so sick," my diabetic grandma would tell us. "I don't know why. I only ate six apples.")
If you don't know anything about Western PA coal country, read this book. It closely mirrors the stories I heard growing up there, and what the region went through as coal thrived and died. Its characters are complex and believable. Maybe not always likeable, but that's true of life, right?
This book kind of broke my heart. Then patched it up again. I really really really enjoyed it.
Basically, I experienced "Baker Towers" firsthand, but a generation later.
Reading this book was like reading about my grandparents' lives, and I at times became overwhelmed with an ache for them that almost made me cry. I remembered the stories about getting by on next to nothing, how important the coal league baseball teams were to everyone in town. (Before he died, my pap would STILL talk about the young men from his little town who played coal league ball.) I remembered stories about firehall dances. The segregation between Italians and everyone else in town. I remembered my other grandpap's story about traveling to West Virginia to rescue miners trapped underground, and how I quickly realized not every story has a happy ending.
(This book also catches simple details that are completely true to life, like people getting diabetes and not realizing starch was killing them. "I feel so sick," my diabetic grandma would tell us. "I don't know why. I only ate six apples.")
If you don't know anything about Western PA coal country, read this book. It closely mirrors the stories I heard growing up there, and what the region went through as coal thrived and died. Its characters are complex and believable. Maybe not always likeable, but that's true of life, right?
This book kind of broke my heart. Then patched it up again. I really really really enjoyed it.
July 4, 2011
So interesting how I came to read THIS novel by Jennifer Haigh. Katie recommended "Faith," which was out in the library. However, as I searched for it, I found "Baker Towers" and "The Condition." "The Condition" sounded better to me, but then I thought, "Oh maybe Mom would like 'Baker Towers'." So I took out both. Coincidently, when I next checked my emails, I somehow stumbled upon Katie's positive review of "Baker Towers." I loved it for many reasons. Let me count the ways:
1. It's a good family story.
2. The characters are thoroughly drawn; I cared about all the characters. The characters are very
ethnic: no Irish :[, but Italian [cannot relate], and Polish [which I married into].
3. The pace of the narrative was good; short chapters help.
4. The setting is the coal regions of PA. OMG! I didn't exactly picture Mahanoy Plane, PA, the
"town" my mother grew up in, but I could easily picture a composite of Mahanoy Plane,
Girardville, Watertown, and parts of Wilkes Barre leading up to the cemetery where Bob's parents
are buried. My relatives were not, thank God, coal miners, but they lived in that region and
their neighbors were. both the physical setting and the people were familiar to me.
September 11, 2013
I had read Jennifer Haigh’s later book, FAITH and found it moving and memorable. This earlier book is a family saga that follows the five siblings of a Polish/Italian couple from World War II up to the Vietnam War. Baker Towers is just as deserving of high praise. The setting is a fictional mining town (Bakerton) in central Pennsylvania that mirrors the significant pace of change during these years in the Novak family. The roles and relationships or the brothers and sisters as they experience and triumph over tragic events, poor choices or lost opportunities is the true focus of the author. Wonderful character development and she uses the voices of each sibling to tell their version of the family story in a compelling and moving way.
Wonderful book club recommendation since it opens up discussion of social norms, gender-linked roles and limitations for women in the 20th century. Each character richly contributes to the story of this complex family and each has their own flaws and weaknesses. In the final scenes you feel they are all more than mere survivors.
Wonderful book club recommendation since it opens up discussion of social norms, gender-linked roles and limitations for women in the 20th century. Each character richly contributes to the story of this complex family and each has their own flaws and weaknesses. In the final scenes you feel they are all more than mere survivors.
May 5, 2022
2022 - 5 STARS
I reread this novel as we are reading the lasted book in the series for my book club. It has been years since I first read it so I wanted to get back into the Bakerton and it's people. I also rated it 5 stars and recommend this book, so I should finally do a reread lol. I knew I would like this book, rating it so high before, but I still wowed on my second reading. Haigh is a master at writing characters and bringing them all to life. I still cried as I read this novel, even knowing what was coming this time. I am so happy I read this one again, as I can keep recommending it.
2009 - 5 STARS
Just a lovely novel! Haigh is fabulous at giving each character a voice and personality. This novel aspires every emotion and makes you feel like you are looking into a family's personal life.
I reread this novel as we are reading the lasted book in the series for my book club. It has been years since I first read it so I wanted to get back into the Bakerton and it's people. I also rated it 5 stars and recommend this book, so I should finally do a reread lol. I knew I would like this book, rating it so high before, but I still wowed on my second reading. Haigh is a master at writing characters and bringing them all to life. I still cried as I read this novel, even knowing what was coming this time. I am so happy I read this one again, as I can keep recommending it.
2009 - 5 STARS
Just a lovely novel! Haigh is fabulous at giving each character a voice and personality. This novel aspires every emotion and makes you feel like you are looking into a family's personal life.
December 10, 2020
It felt like another book that gets written because a mortgage needs to be paid.
It felt like the author cut some corners. "Let's just dip a toe into lots of lives, less research!" and "Writing an Italian American childhood is going to be so difficult. How much Italian do I put in? What did they eat for breakfast? Oh god. But Polish is difficult too! How can I make it so that they're interestingly ethnic but talk in the home exactly like I do now? A mixed marriage!"
And bits of it didn't feel very fresh ... "old maid school teacher" .... "educated woman likes having sex, so she's neurotic and ends up a zombie on pills" ... "Italian stallion with jewellery, hairy chest" ... "one day the big unpopular girl takes her glasses off and swishes her hair and suddenly she's sexy and giving the captain of the baseball team a handjob" ....
If you want bleak American families and collapsing American industries, it's got to be American Pastoral
It felt like the author cut some corners. "Let's just dip a toe into lots of lives, less research!" and "Writing an Italian American childhood is going to be so difficult. How much Italian do I put in? What did they eat for breakfast? Oh god. But Polish is difficult too! How can I make it so that they're interestingly ethnic but talk in the home exactly like I do now? A mixed marriage!"
And bits of it didn't feel very fresh ... "old maid school teacher" .... "educated woman likes having sex, so she's neurotic and ends up a zombie on pills" ... "Italian stallion with jewellery, hairy chest" ... "one day the big unpopular girl takes her glasses off and swishes her hair and suddenly she's sexy and giving the captain of the baseball team a handjob" ....
If you want bleak American families and collapsing American industries, it's got to be American Pastoral
January 7, 2016
I don't usually read historical fiction, but I picked one up recently called Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh. It follows the lives of 5 children in Bakerton PA, a small mining town, starting in the 1940s. At the start of the book Stanley Novak, coal miner and father of 5, dies shortly after returning home from work. His wife, Rose, is left to raise the children. George, the oldest, is already away from home serving in the armed forces. Dorothy is about to graduate from high school, Joyce is a few years younger. Sandy is in grade school and Lucy is an infant. Without their father around, Sandy becomes a bit wild and Joyce takes on the role of the second parent-making sure that Sandy and Lucy go to school. All the children think that they want to move away from Bakerton. Some move away and then come back. Some make good choices, others not so much.
This was not an edge of your seat type of book. The story moved at a leisurely pace. The reader was able to see each child's perspective on living in or away from Bakerton. I would recommend it to people who like family sagas.
This was not an edge of your seat type of book. The story moved at a leisurely pace. The reader was able to see each child's perspective on living in or away from Bakerton. I would recommend it to people who like family sagas.
January 6, 2009
Baker Towers,is a story of a Polish-Italian family, the Novaks, with five children who come of age in a Pennsylvania coal-mining town during and after WWII. Head of the household Stanley Novak drops dead one afternoon after returning from the mines, leaving his Italian wife, Rose, to struggle on her own to feed her children and maintain the household. The book follows the life of each of the family members who take some interestng twists and turns as they grow up.
In describing Bakerton, Haigh accurately portrays so many of those small American towns that struggled with changing times, from the ‘40s and ‘50s through the present day. Many readers will recognize their own hometowns in the pages of this book, as well as the many social changes one town and family endure through the years. While Haigh’s characters could be more fully realized, Baker Towers is still a very good read.
In describing Bakerton, Haigh accurately portrays so many of those small American towns that struggled with changing times, from the ‘40s and ‘50s through the present day. Many readers will recognize their own hometowns in the pages of this book, as well as the many social changes one town and family endure through the years. While Haigh’s characters could be more fully realized, Baker Towers is still a very good read.
February 23, 2012
This is the author's second novel and I did recommend this one to bookclub. Very good and fast read. Good descriptions of life in a coal mining community in the 1940's through the 60's. Was quite accurate in my mind about the way the family hierarchy can work from the mother (Rose) being the head and completely in charge until she becomes ill and aged and someone has to take over her position. There is always one in a group of siblings that ends up taking care of all the family's problems. There are those who are just there and then there is usually one who is "trouble" but the most "fun".
It was a nice family saga that she brought full circle and pretty much tied up loose ends.
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."
Cato the Elder (234 BC - 149 BC), from Plutarch, Lives
It was a nice family saga that she brought full circle and pretty much tied up loose ends.
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."
Cato the Elder (234 BC - 149 BC), from Plutarch, Lives
December 30, 2010
I really enjoyed this book, and altho this story was character driven with no real plot it's a realistic story about the basics of life and family. Baker towers refer to the 80 foot coal tipples that were created from collected waste in the small Pennsylvania coal-mining town of Bakerton. Beyond the descriptions of life in Bakerton during and after WWII, it's about the five Novak children - Georgie, Dorothy, Joyce, Sandy, and Lucy. It shows how they are each were affected by the changing economic times, the relationship between siblings, how they each deal with love and tragedy, their different personalities, and how all of this affected their lives and their children's lives. A great story of America's industrial past - "a crisp, insightful snapshot of a particular place and time".
March 20, 2012
3.5 I really identified quite a bit with this novel. Reminded me so much of my neighborhood in Chicago, how everyone knew each other and knew everyone else's business as well. This is about a mining town and the book follows a particular family, headed by Rose, who I really liked. She was an Italian but marries a Polish man. They have five children and her husband works in the mines. It is also about the death of a town and a way of life, when the mine fails things in town start closing down and soon enough everyone moves away. Except for Lucy and Rose I didn't really care for any of the other family members but it was very interesting reading and I did enjoy it.
April 15, 2015
I really like Haigh's books and her characters. She's obviously fond of them and the reader grows to thoroughly understand each one, likeable or not. This family centered-book explores the part accident of birth order, appearance, gender, the setting of the childhood home, presence (and absence) of parents all play in how one "turns out". While it will not answer the "nature vs nurture" discussion, the exploration resulted in a lovely book.
February 20, 2010
This book depicts the rise and fall of a western Pennsylvania coal town in the years following World War II. I thoroughly enjoyed following the characters & was very sorry when I reached the end. This book somehow "hit the spot". I even searched to see if there was a sequel. The narrator is one of my favorites, Anna Fields.
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