Customer Reviews:
Really makes you think about home!.......2007-09-27
JD Mason has done it again. This book was a great read. I have read others by her and she never fails.
Not my cup of tea..........2007-09-20
I liked the book as far as the writing goes, but the plot was limited. In a nutshell it was ONLY about cheating! I was expecting more of Waiting to Exhale meets the church. I just wished the book had given me more subjects to read about instead of cheating...that's not the only drama-filled topic. Reality has enough of that as is!
Good Read - Highly Recommended.......2007-09-17
I enjoyed this book. It goes to show that no one is perfect and even Christians make mistakes. You have to put your faith in God and lean on him when things get tough!!!! Keep up the good work. I
Too Much Profanity.......2007-09-06
As a rule of thumb, I read good Christian fiction and very clean romance stories. I purchased this book thinking that it was on the clean side. Sad to say it is filthy and I cannot read it...What a disappointment, in order to express oneself why do we have to use 4 letter words. I gave this book to one of my co--workers. Please be aware this book contains a lot of profanity. Can I get a refund?
Always something going on..........2007-08-14
I really enjoyed this book. I liked that there were so many different characters with different but similar stories going on. There was one couple's story that I felt was unnecessary but it didn't drag on too much where I was bored with it. I recommend this book and I hope there will be a sequel.
Book Description
On a beautiful spring day, March 25, 1911, workers were preparing to leave the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York's Greenwich Village when a fire started. Within minutes it consumed the building's upper three stories. Firemen who arrived at the scene were unable to rescue those trapped inside. The final toll was 146—123 of them women. It was the worst disaster in New York City history until September 11, 2001. Harrowing yet compulsively readable, Triangle is both a chronicle of the fire and a vibrant portrait of an entire age. Waves of Jewish and Italian immigrants inundated New York in the early years of the century, filling its slums and supplying its garment factories with cheap, mostly female labor. Protesting their Dickensian work conditions, forty thousand women bravely participated in a massive shirtwaist workers' strike that brought together an unlikely coalition of socialists, socialites, and suffragettes. Von Drehle orchestrates these events into a drama rich in suspense and filled with memorable characters. Most powerfully, he puts a human face on the men and women who died, and shows how the fire dramatically transformed politics and gave rise to urban liberalism.
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding Read about 20th Century Fire.......2007-08-30
This is a great book about the economics and history of twentieth century America and how the sweatshops were a big part of immigrant life in New York. The Triangle Factory disaster still has a message for those modern day factory shops in other parts of the world who continue to ignore safety laws and concerns. as a similar tragedy could easily happen again. This book uncovers those safety issues, that today should be standard in all factories across the globe. Of the 250 workers in the building, only a little more than 100 survived the fire. The death toll marked 140 people dead (123 of them women, of which about a hundred jumped or fell to their death). It is shocking to know that the owners were found not guilty, and even collected $60,000 in insurance payments. I pray that this tragedy will continue to arouse public action and continued lobbying for workplace safety. This is an excellent book!
The Disaster and the Era.......2007-07-23
The New York Triangle fire of 3-25-1911 was the deadliest workplace disaster until 9-11-2001. About 100 workers died every day in the nation's workplaces then (p.3). Workplace safety was still a goal. Chapter 1 tells about that era. Tammany Hall was founded to support the Revolution against British rule, and the large landholders (p.21). Their function was to help people, and they collected from governmental operations (p.23). By the late 19th century they worked for the moneyed interests (p.24). William R. Hearst pushed municipal ownership (p.31). The immigrants made New York the ready-made clothes manufacturing capital. New loft buildings were an improvement over sweatshops and allowed improved productivity.
Changes began with the November 1909 election. All Tammany candidates lost to progressive candidates. The garment workers all went out on strike November 23, 1909 and soon won a pay raise, a 52-hour week, and a closed union shop from some manufacturers. Most factory owners formed an association to resist the workers. The help of rich society women was invaluable (their interest was in woman suffrage). Conflicts among the groups appeared (p.79). The workers wanted a union shop (p.81). The settlement saw higher wages and shorter hours, union membership was no longer prohibited (p.86). Chapter 4 has the history of that era, and tells why immigrants came to the golden land of America. The clothing trade was better than laundry or being a sales clerk (pp.113-114).
Chapter 5 tells about the fire. Scraps of cotton and tissue paper were very flammable (p.119). The water pails could not extinguish the fire. The water tank on the roof had no water (p.121). The scrap under the cutter's tables spread the fire rapidly (p.138). Fire-safe factories had existed for decades (p.160). The moneyed classes of New York did not choose sprinkler systems, fire-walls, fire doors, enclosed fire stairways as in other cities. Insurance companies made money selling policies, the higher the risk the more they made (p.161)! The Triangle Waist Company had repeated fires. A fire allowed them to collect on unsold inventory (p.162). Fashion changes resulted in arson. There were other fires at shirtwaist factories in 1911 (p.163). Why did some factories carry excess insurance? The fire was under control in just over 30 minutes (p.166).
In the aftermath everyone pointed the blame at someone else (pp.184-185). New laws for better fire escapes, enclosed fireproof stairways, automatic sprinklers, and fire drills were suggested. Pages 189-191 explain how Tammany Hall worked; also pages 198-199. The strength of the Socialist Party changed Tammany's policies (p.213). A series of new laws in 1913 remade NY labor law (p.215). Page 216 explains the legislator's trick of stalling a bill. In 1913 Tammany Hall chose a workingman-friendly platform and won its greatest statewide victory (pp.217-218). Locking factory doors during working hours was a misdemeanor. If this resulted in death it was manslaughter (p.220). Blanck and Harris were arrested and tried. Max Steuer was the greatest lawyer in New York. Did Judge Crain fix the trial (p.235)? Lawyer Steuer asked Kate Alterman to repeat her story so it seemed rehearsed and deceitful (p.249). Yet it was all true (p.250)! Many witnesses told of the movement of people during that day which implies unlocked doors (p.251). The judge's instructions were overwhelmingly favorable to the defense (p.255). There was conflict, but the jury heeded the judge's instructions. There was a secret in Judge Crain's life (p.257). His bias was with the defendants (p.258). The `Epilogue' tells what happened afterwards. The owners collected a huge amount over their actual losses (p.264)! Blanck was arrested and fined in 1913 for locked doors (p.265).
Heartrending, but change is overstated.......2007-02-12
In America it is assumed that market forces and the moral character of business owners will operate to protect workers from egregious safety issues. Of course, that defies historical fact. It has only been via government regulation that workers have ever achieved even a modicum of safety, and then only if government regulators do not turn a blind eye towards obvious problems. In the New York City of 1910 it was well known that factory lofts at the top of multi-story buildings, at a minimum, needed sprinkler systems, firewalls, access to stairways, functional fire escapes, smoking bans, unlocked doors, and periodic fire drills.
Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, the owners of the Triangle Waist Company and makers of women's shirtwaists, ignored every one of those measures, which resulted in the horrific death of 146 mostly Jewish and Italian immigrant women on Mar 25, 1911 when a discarded cigarette started a fire in cloth scraps on the eighth floor of their factory. The fire consumed that story and the two above it, consisting of 27,000 sq feet, in about 15 mins. The warning to the sewing machine operators on the ninth floor was delayed and then a locked stairway door was encountered. Over fifty leapt to their death; others fell down a shaft when the overloaded fire escape tore loose, and the remaining died on the floor, blocked from escape. Miraculously, about 350 escaped, some via the roof. Spectators watched in horror as the ladders of the NYFD fell short by thirty feet of rescuing those standing on the ledges.
The author makes the claim that this fire changed America, initiating a period of reform and ushering in urban liberalism, which is even today the basis of the Democratic Party. Actually, it was already an era of change and turmoil. The Progressive era of reform had started during Theodore Roosevelt's presidency, due in large part to labor strife that had been occurring over several decades. The author begins the book by following Clara Lemlich, the firebrand leader of recently formed Local 25 of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), in her very public efforts in trying to organize a strike among all shirtwaist workers and in being stalked by thugs hired to harm her sufficiently to stop her organizing. As a testimony to her resiliency, she overcame the beating to lead 20,000 workers out on strike in Nov, 1909.
Tammany Hall, the longstanding Democratic political machine in New York, was interdependent with the working class - especially in NYC; jobs and other benefits were exchanged for votes. But Tammany was not reformist; it generally supported businessmen and the status quo. The police department was a prime enforcer of their program including the harassment, if not brutal put down, of labor agitators. Tammany-beholden judges were more than willing to send picketers to the city workhouse for offences no greater than holding a sign. But many of NYC's newest immigrants, who were mostly Jewish, had been radicalized by being subjected to and escaping pogroms in Russia. Furthermore, upper-middle-class society matrons were aghast at the living and working conditions for these workers, and lent considerable support to those situations. Charles Murphy, the low-profile leader of Tammany, knew that this segment of the voting public would move in the direction of socialism if Tammany did not support reform.
In what is definitely its strongest part, the author devotes about one-third of the book to recapitulating what happened inside the factory as well as the public official response once the fire started. Though the fire consumed the factory in about 15 mins, the action the author describes among both the survivors and the doomed was fast and furious. Primarily from the testimony at the ensuing trial of the owners and from interviews of survivors by Leon Stein years later, he is able to personalize what happened in the factory on that fateful day. In addition, the author supplies in an appendix the most up-to-date listing of those who died in the fire. Six remain unidentified.
The owners of the factory retained prestigious lawyer Max Steuer to represent them against charges of manslaughter, based on illegally locking a stairway door. Steuer simply overmatched both the prosecutor and the immigrant women witnesses, easily finding holes in their stories and planting doubts. In addition, the author contends that the judge Thomas Crain conducted the trail in a highly prejudicial manner by disallowing much of the grim facts to be presented and instructing the jury that conviction was permitted only if the evidence could show that the owners specifically knew that the door in question was locked on that day at the time of the fire. The fact that there was evidence that the door was invariably locked at that time of day and that the bolted lock was found in the charred remains apparently carried no weight. Both Steuer and Crain had for many years supported Tammany constituents as the owners of Triangle Waist Company were.
Though the owners were acquitted, Tammany did not ignore the public clamor for some sort of reform. Tammany's chief representatives in the New York legislature, Robert F. Wagner in the Senate and Alfred E. Smith in the Assembly, were instrumental in forming the Factory Investigating Commission only three months after the Triangle fire, which embarked on passing sweeping safety legislation. That commission also included college-educated Frances Perkins, FDR's future Secretary of Labor and key player in the New Deal along with Robert Wagner.
Although reform measures were inspired by the Triangle fire, the author admits that the fire did recede from public memory fairly quickly. The author's claim that the strike "changed America" is certainly overstated. In 1912, not more than a year later, Lawrence, Mass was the scene of a huge textile workers strike led by the IWW in which local policemen resorted to clubbing children as striking parents attempted to put them on trains to Philadelphia. Though not the same deadly scenario as the Triangle fire, the overreaction of public officials towards striking workers was perhaps more egregious. A year after that, the striking silk workers in Paterson, NJ were subjected to massive arrests, which killed the strike. The huge reaction against labor unions after WWI, which decimated membership, undoubtedly was a major factor in the Great Depression as workers simply lacked the buying power to sustain the economy.
The author does not define "urban liberalism." It is clear that liberalism in all of its reformist variants has been severely rolled back over the last thirty years in the US. Median wages have been virtually flat throughout that time. Less than nine percent of US private sector workers are now represented by unions. More realistic statements can be made concerning the standing of workers and unions in the US. First, worker reforms are sporadic in nature, are often subject to rollback at some time, and are often unenforced. Second, the business class ultimately prevails in confrontations with workers; controlling information flow through media ownership is a huge advantage. Even if employment in the 21st century does not bring with it the same hazards as 100 years before, the world of work can still be highly contentious and difficult for employees.
The book is heartrending. It gives a flavor of the times: the immigration wave, the difficult living and working conditions, the forces arrayed against change, etc. But it is a snapshot. As those issues have unfolded over time, the story is often far more complex than the author intimates, and is not on a progressive climb.
a good story that was forgotten about.......2007-02-10
This is a very good story that was basicaly forgotten about (before the book). It tells the details of a horrific fire that killed scores of immigrant factory workers (mostly women). It also, touches upon the early suffrogett women's movement along with other political issues that went on in the early 20th century. It brings the reader to a time and a fire that seems to be forgotten
Triangle: The Fire That Changed America.......2006-11-11
The star rating that I have assigned the book is based on your customer service. I have not had an opportunity to read the book as yet. I purchased the book based on an interview that I heard on a C-Span Book TV program.
Average customer rating:
- Triangle
- If you missed it the first two times, let me repeat....
- Pretentious and annoying, albeit occasionally absorbing
- Could have been much, much better
- The tragedy that reformed working America...
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Triangle: A Novel
Katharine Weber
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Triangle: The Fire That Changed America
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ASIN: 0374281424
Release Date: 2006-06-13 |
Book Description
Esther Gottesfeld is the last living survivor of the notorious 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire and has told her story countless times in the span of her lifetime. Even so, her death at the age of 106 leaves unanswered many questions about what happened that fateful day. How did she manage to survive the fire when at least 146 workers, most of them women, her sister and fiancé among them, burned or jumped to their deaths from the sweatshop inferno? Are the discrepancies in her various accounts over the years just ordinary human fallacy, or is there a hidden story in Esther’s recollections of that terrible day?
Esther’s granddaughter Rebecca Gottesfeld, with her partner George Botkin, an ingenious composer, seek to unravel the facts of the matter while Ruth Zion, a zealous feminist historian of the fire, bores in on them with her own mole-like agenda. A brilliant, haunting novel about one of the most terrible tragedies in early-twentieth-century America, Triangle forces us to consider how we tell our stories, how we hear them, and how history is forged from unverifiable truths.
Customer Reviews:
Triangle.......2007-09-08
Prior to my reading TRIANGLE, which is a fictional account of the Triangle Fire of 1911, I read TRIANGLE,THE FIRE THAT CHANGED AMERICA, by David von Drehle. Given the precise facts of this horrific event, TRIANGLE is a beautiful story which captures the essence of that terrible day. It may be confusing to some readers who cannot understand the repetitive questions of the journalist but this is a reflection of an attempt to discredit the primary witness at the actual trial of the factory owners by repeatedly asking her to tell the story of the fire, subtley suggesting the similarities in her testimony proved it to be rehearsed.
As an amateur pianist, I found the musical descriptions fascinating but I can certainly understand that for someone with no knowledge of music theory that this could become tedious (hence my 4 star vs. 5 star rating). The sequential development of Botkin's music is an integral part of the book's finale; the reader can feel the tension created in "Triangle Oratorio" and although Douglas Moore is quoted in his discussion of music as saying "....a thing which only exists in sound..." the reader hears and feels this amazing piece of music.
I highly recommend TRIANGLE and suggest also reading about this time in our country's history as this event caused tremendous change in America.
If you missed it the first two times, let me repeat...........2007-08-30
A young woman's quite elderly grandmother is the last survivor of the infamous "Triangle" shirtwaist factory fire in 1911, and as she enters her final illness, the granddaughter and a journalist both get involved in the past and the grandmother's shifting accounts of what happened on the tragic day she lost her sister and fiancé in the fire. The granddaughter and her composer boyfriend defend and protect the grandmother while the nosy journalist worms her way into their lives and starts poking holes in discrepancies she has found in transcripts and former testimony. Except for the pages (too many) devoted to Grandma Esther's retelling the same story, with only subtle changes one might catch, this is a good read. Characters are well drawn and the mystery of what Esther really went through is gradually and satisfyingly revealed (albeit not surprising by the time it's told).
Pretentious and annoying, albeit occasionally absorbing.......2007-07-16
A rather flawed work. The aspects that I found the most annoying were:
1. The endlessly pretentious descriptions of character George Botkins' brilliant musicianship! Weber came across as a musician wannabe trying to show off her in-depth knowledge. I would have quit reading the book midway through Chapter 2 - the first one focused on Botkins' career - if it weren't for the fact that my long-time friend had urged me to read this book.
2. At the end, character Rebecca Gottesfeld has suddenly given up a rewarding career in the medical field after 20+ years so she can be a stay-at-home mom, all with absolutely no explanation for her major change of heart.
3. There were many incomplete story lines. Where did the $20,000 come from? Why was it accepted? What was the connection (if any) between the Triangle fire and the death via car accident of Esther's son and his wife fifty years later? Did her son know his father's identity? Did Rebecca learn her grandfather's identity? Who was the common ancestor three generations back that George Botkins and Rebecca shared?
4. The author didn't seem to have enough of a story to fill even a slim volume so she had Esther repeat her story about the day of the fire many times. In Chapter 10, a "transcription" of her testimony at a 1911 trial, she is asked to repeat the story *three* times, all three recitations of which appear word for word! No explanation is given as to why the lawyer had asked her to repeat her testimony three times, leaving this reader with the idea that the author needed "filler." And Chapter 10 is not the only one in which Esther recites her memories of the fire.
5. The author's depiction of the feminist "herstorian" was way more of a caricature than a portait. As someone who once did a short stint of historical research into a feminist topic, I winced at the shabby treatment accorded this character by the other characters and the author.
So, why did I give this book 2 stars instead of 1?
1. The author gave Esther quite a beautiful death, both in terms of the physical environment in which it occurred, and Esther's last thoughts.
2. Parts of the book were absorbing.
3. Most importantly, it actually motivated me to go looking for a non-fiction book on the Triangle Shirtwaist fire to learn more.
Could have been much, much better.......2007-04-14
This is a good but often annoying book. Parts of it are fascinating (George's lengthy discursions into the theory of musical composition), but parts of it have nothing whatever to do with the main narrative (the lengthy discursions into musical composition). Esther's constant recitation of the facts of her escape from the fire is unnecessarily repetitive, even when you know to look for disconnects in what she purports to remember. The reader is left to wonder whether Esther did, in fact, take a $20,000 bribe from the management of Triangle Shirtwaist (there are numerous other possibilities for the money's origins), and the last-minute revelation that, apparently, Rebecca and George, are related three generations back doesn't seem to have anything to do with anything. (Or maybe I just missed something, I dunno.) The characterization is generally quite good, though Ruth Zion comes across as more of a pastiche of a feminist scholar. This novel needed a much more rigorous editor.
The tragedy that reformed working America..........2007-03-06
I had read about the Triangle fire of 1911 many years ago, so when this book popped up and was recommended by amazon.com I could not resist. This was an interesting book in more ways than one. It centers on the last living survivor of that disaster, who is now dying from natural causes of old age. She had apparently given numerous interviews to reporters concerning what she remembered about the fire, but as an old curmudgeon she really knew how to put reporters with inappropriate suggestions in their place (and shut them up!) To bad, we can't all take lessons on how to deal with such annoying people, whether reporters, nosy neighbors, invasive bosses, etc.
Anyway, the story of the fire is intertwined with the current day through the old lady's granddaughter who she raised by herself after her only child died in a car accident. Of course, she spoke to her granddaughter about that time period, and about the loss of her beloved sister and her fiance. This woman did the smart thing, and did not lose her cool under pressure, maybe partly because she was bearing a child. So instead of screaming and running for the main door which would only open inward instead of outward, she headed toward the dooor the bosses used.
In reading the nonfictional accounts of this disaster, it becomes all too clear that there were those men and women who showed bravery in the face of danger, and then there were those whose only thought was for themselves. To make matters worse, there were young children involved who sewed by hand, even though by that time, child labor was being banned. The horrendous conditions which made it only a matter of time before a disaster of this proportion occurred, were once again done at risk of lives just to make a profit. Sound familiar? Think about the recent mining 'accidents' in West Virginia, as well as the ongoing fight against pharmaceutical companies who push their medications for things those medicines were not intended for and whose contents had not been analyzed.
This book followed a current fad in 'stream of consiousness' in which the older woman who is dying is rambling and her thoughts run into one another, similar to how we think without placing periods or commas at the end of one sentence and one idea, then immediately going on to another topic. This alternated with regular and descriptive chapters dealing with the granddaughter of this dying woman, who is trying to best handle her grandmother's wishes, while trying to stave off the reporter 'vultures' who are circling to get that lst piece of information that will mean a best-seller (even if the ideas are slightly less than truthful or a bit scandalouse in order to attract readers).
This isn't my usual reading fare, but it was a good, fast-paced and well written book. It did not dwell too much on the fire, but focused instead on the heroics of many, and the continued lives of those who survived the fire. Life did go on, though many lives were forever changed because of the fire. And ultimately, the fire did lead to changes in rules, changes in how the rickety outer stairs were built, changes in fire departments and their equipment to make it more likely to save more lives. It also brought back the disaster of the Challenger, which was similar to the Triangle Fire in the push for necessary corrections. It still bothers me to this day, that those responsible for the Triangle fire, the Challenger fiasco, and other such catastrophes such as the Johnstown flood would never face real prison time. Instead they were able to buy themselves out of their predicaments. One can only hope that their memories and happy times were forever altered becauseof the lives they took.
This story would make a good movie...
Karen L. Sadler
Average customer rating:
- really like Nicholas Evans
- Compelled to write a review A +
- Awesome Book! Nicholas Evans Can Write! A++++
- Hearts of Fire
- The most absorbing novel I have ever read
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The Smoke Jumper
Nicholas Evans
Manufacturer: Delacorte Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0385334036
Release Date: 2001-08-21 |
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
New York born and bred, Julia Bishop has no warning that spending the summer counseling troubled teens in Montana will change her life forever. Happily in love with smoke jumper and musician Ed Tully, she looks forward to spending the summer weekends with him in Missoula and is stunned and disturbed by the instant connection she feels to his best friend, Connor Ford. Connor, a Montana rancher and smoke jumper, loves fighting fires almost as much as he loves photography, and before the summer is barely started, he loves Julia Bishop just as deeply. The bond between the three is strong but the work of a smoke jumper is fraught with danger and the trio soon face death by fire. Survival changes their lives forever and places them on paths that divide Julia, Ed, and Connor just as surely as their individual journeys bind them irrevocably together. The Smoke Jumper is a tale of loyalty and guilt, honor and selfless love, and the human cost of choices made. --Lois Faye Dyer
Book Description
The fire that was to change so many lives so utterly started with a single shaft of lightning. It struck a mountain ridge on a still and moonless night and nestled like a pupa of death in the desiccated heart of an ancient pine. There were witnesses no doubt to this sudden splintering of air and wood, but none that was human. The woman, camped nearby with her group of troubled teenagers, slept on and heard nothing.
She has brought them here by court order on a youth program to help them find themselves. But one among them will be lost forever. For soon the cocoon of fire will hatch to engulf the entire mountain and exact its deadly toll. And into this inferno will come ...
The Smoke Jumper.
His name is Connor Ford and he falls like an angel of mercy from the sky, braving the flames to save the woman he loves but knows he cannot have. For Julia Bishop is the partner of his closest friend, Ed Tully, an ambitious young musician. Julia loves them both but the tragedy on Snake Mountain forces her to choose between them and burns a brand on all their hearts.
With his blond, blue-eyed looks and laconic cowboy charm, Connor is the only child of a Montana rancher and a rodeo queen. Until that fateful day, he has been happy to spend his winters nurturing a career as a photographer and his summer vacations with Ed, “smoke jumping” — being dropped by parachute to fight remote forest fires.
In the wake of the fire, he embarks on a journey to the dark heart of human suffering, traveling the world’s worst wars and disasters to take photographs that find him fame but never happiness. Reckless of a life he no longer wants, again and again he dares death to take him, until another fateful day on another continent, he must walk through fire once more....
After his two international bestsellers,
The Horse Whisperer and
The Loop, Nicholas Evans returns with an epic novel of love and loyalty, of guilt and honor. Moving from the towering wilds of the American West to the killing fields of Africa,
The Smoke Jumper is the story of three people’s quest for happiness and self-fulfillment, played out against the heroism of fire fighting in the wilderness and photojournalism at the edge of human experience — a mesmerizing adventure for the spirit, told in the grandest tradition.
Customer Reviews:
really like Nicholas Evans.......2007-04-02
The Smoke Jumper is another one by this author that keeps you on the edge of your chair, wondering how it will end. Its another stay up until 2 a.m. to finish it-type book. I have read 2 of his other books and really liked them as well.
Compelled to write a review A +.......2006-05-23
I read this book over 2 years ago. It is by far the best book I have ever read. I can still think back on the book as if it was a movie. If anyone is considering reading this book, I urge you to do so.
This is the kind of book that you will never forget!
Awesome Book! Nicholas Evans Can Write! A++++.......2006-04-15
I enjoyed this book from the first page until the last of it. Ed, Connor, and Julia were the three musketeers that made up the story. Ed met Julia early on in the book, and the two fell in love and planned to marry. Julia was a child psychologist, and Ed a musician. Ed always had serious diabetes problems, and throughout this book events will change their lives. Connor was a photographer, and interestingly, when he and Julia meet after she and Ed travel to Missoula Montana, Connor and Julia find an instant attraction to one another.
One of the saddest events of this book was about a child, Skye McReedie, who is lost, and her stepdad is very abusive to her. So she is a runaway, and gets into trouble with the law. Skye is then placed into a program called the WAY, for disturbed youngsters, or those that have been in trouble. Julia runs this group and does wonders with these kids. Skye is a bitter angry person, but Julia is finally able to reach out to her. Then something happens with one of the boys there on the campsite and Skye, and this frightens Skye and makes her run away again. But not without danger. A big fire starts there on a hot day in the campsite, and Julia tries to run after Skye and rescue her, knowing she is in danger with the fire. And unfortunately, as she tried to rescue her, or herself, Skye burns away. This was about the saddest part of the story, and Julia carries the guilt forever.
Life goes on though of course with the three of them, and Ed is sadly blinded after this horrible fire takes place. But that is not all coincidental; his diabetes played a big role in this. In spite of his blindness though, Ed is a happy man. He and Julia want a child of theirs after this happens with Ed, but of course, he is unable to biologically be a father. This is where Connor steps in, and after much careful thought, they have him be the sperm donor for their child. Julia finds herself pregnant shortly, and 9 months later she has Amy, a beautiful girl.
Amy is a delightful child who brings them a lot of joy, and loves Ed dearly. Ed's health continues declining as he goes into kidney failure and needs dialysis. This continues through the story.
Connor withdraws more and more, especially after making Amy possible, as he feels like he doesn't want to interfere and is not comfortable. So the friendship with he and Ed falls apart there. Connor goes over to Africa to be a smoke jumper there, mainly rescuing kids that were injured and held hostage there.
Sadly, Ed has a major heart attack, and he dies later in the story. Julia has an ambition to travel to Africa, so after she finds work there as a teacher for underprivleged children, she and Amy leave. They know Connor is there, and he doesn't even realize that Ed has passed on. her real motive is to try and find him there, which she does. And it is in the middle of a huge fire that they cross paths again. Connor rescues many people there, but unfortunately many die.
Julia and Amy along with Connor return to the states. Amy is traumatized for many months. Julia and Connor try to pick up the pieces and move on, which in time they do, and have the romance that was so meant to be.
This book would make a great movie no doubt. It is one of the best books I have read to date.
Hearts of Fire.......2006-02-18
Connor Ford is a beautiful loner with an enchanting talent for photography.
Ed Tully is an exburent musician with dreams of fame and fortune.
They're best friends and every summer they smoke jump with an elite group from Missoula,Montana. This one summer shall be one that either of them won't forget.
I loved the book so much. I felt like I was really seeing Montana,Bosnia,and the many reaches of Africa. Nicholas Evans used so much imagery that I actually felt like I was seeing the suffering that Connor photographed. All of the characters were well written and I felt that I was friends with them as well. I could almost hear Ed's laughter and bad jokes,see into Connor's pale blue eyes,and see the determination across Julia's face. The one thing that bothered me was the death of Ed. Why did he have to die? Every scene he was in almost made me laugh out loud. I loved him so much but I had a huge crush on Connor. I loved this book and I highly recommend it.
The most absorbing novel I have ever read.......2005-10-27
I have read this book several times and i have to say I dont ever get bored by it. One of the many things I find appealing about this book is the way you can relate to the characters on a personal level. The emotions are so vivid that when you read the book, you find feeling what the charcters feel. The stories depth holds no boundries. The author is not afraid to get a little sappy at times, most authors I find try to avoid this and I think it robs the characters of personality and even the readers sympathy towards the characters.
My favorite aspect about the book is that it is extremely easy to follow and read. I hate it when authors try to impress you by using uselessly big words and complex structure. Not that this makes the story uninteresting, but that I find them exhausting to read. You find yourself stopping on a regular basis to figure out what the hell is going on, but not in this book. Evans is able to draw a picture with crystal clear detail, so much so that you could believe your are there. At the same time, he is able to say what he needs to say without wasting time with complex language.
The first time I read the book I got so absorbed that I read it in two days. The book is filled with twists and turns that leave you itching for more. Ranging in settings that take you from the mountains of Montana to the jungles of Africa, this story will leave no reader disapointed.
Average customer rating:
- This book takes you "into" the fire!! Great!
- Great historical account of a true American disaster
- Gripping account of a horrific and completely preventable event
- Half-Baked
- The First Comprehensive Telling of the Tale
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The Triangle Fire
Leon Stein
Manufacturer: ILR Press
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Binding: Paperback
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Triangle: The Fire That Changed America
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ASIN: 0801487145 |
Customer Reviews:
This book takes you "into" the fire!! Great!.......2007-08-23
A must read for those that like to read about true U.S., non-military history. This fire was HOORRIFIC! The death of so MANY young girls is sickening - how the city officials handled this case will make you mad!
Must read book, I have kept mine for many more readings.
Great historical account of a true American disaster.......2007-05-13
As a Professor of Fire Science I am constantly seeking out books having to do with great historical fires in American. These books are to be used as course research papers by my students and typically are not available via the library network. I trust many of my students are buying their copies from Amazon.com a name that can be trusted.
Gripping account of a horrific and completely preventable event.......2007-04-23
This book is a very personal and gripping account of the fire on March 25, 1911, at the Triangle Shirtwaist company located on the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of the Asch building in New York adjacent to Washington Square Park, where 146 young immigrant women were either burned to death or leapt from the ledges of the building. The author had a personal involvement in this event, as he joined the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union in 1928 as a garment cutter before joining the staff of their publication Justice. The book is based primarily on newspaper accounts and interviews of many who experienced that horrific event.
The book is written as if the author was there. The horror of sixty-some people jumping, sometimes in twos. The messiness at the bottom. What befell those caught on the overloaded fire escape as it ripped from the building. He captures the anguish of those identifying bodies at the improvised morgue, those continually walking in the streets - some silently, some crying out - at the scene of the disaster trying to make sense of it all, the huge funeral processions, etc. He tells the remarkable story of the aid rendered by the Red Cross to surviving family members, many of whom as recent arrivees had no place to turn.
He tells the dismal story of ineffectual building code standards and enforcement. The strident efforts of all to avoid blame, especially the factory owners. He tells of the ineffectualness of the shirtwaist makers themselves in trying to improve their working conditions, especially safety concerns, which included a huge city-wide strike at the end of 1909. And then there was the courtroom fiasco - where a shrewd attorney representing the owners implanted the notion that the irrational behavior of the girls during the fire had more to do with their deaths than the narrow escape stairways, the locked doors blocking access, the lack of properly constructed fire escapes, and most importantly the lack of a sprinkler system - a sad day for American justice. Both the insurance industry and owners preferred a system whereby high premiums were paid instead of requiring safety provisions and paying lower premiums. The Triangle owners did collect a large sum of money from the fire.
This book and the notes of the author were also prime material for a book written forty years later, Triangle, The Fire That Changed America by David Von Drehle. That book is better organized and puts the fire into the context of the times, including overall living conditions of immigrants, the political dominance of Tammany Hall, the Democratic machine, and reform efforts in the New York legislature. But that book lacks the emotional appeal of this work. It was moving to read of the Fiftieth Anniversary Memorial Meeting sponsored by the ILGWU, NYU, and the NYFD on March 25, 1961, with special guests Eleanor Roosevelt, Frances Perkins (FDR's Sec of Labor), and Rose Schneiderman (labor activist at the time of the fire), where 14 survivors attended including three who saved themselves by leaping down an elevator shaft on that fateful day, but had not seen each other since then. The author dedicated his book to the unidentified in coffins numbered 46, 50, 61, 95, 103, 115, and 127.
Half-Baked.......2006-12-04
The 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire killed 146 young women, mostly immigrant girls, in one of the worst factory fire disasters in American history. (Of course, as the book points out, this sort of thing still occurs all the time, it just happens in Thailand, China, Korea, Hong Kong, etc. and we don't care about it.) Anyway, this book was okay... The first part, about the actual fire itself and how the design of the building (with exit doors that pushed inward, locked exits, one inferior fire escape, and narrow stairways) created a firetrap that resulted in numerous women (and some men too) plunging to their deaths onto the New York sidewalk below, is a compelling read. However, I just couldn't get in to the second section of the book at all, which deals with the prosecution of the company owner's for contributing to the deaths through their negligence, the protests and unions that formed in the aftermath, and the new laws that were enacted to protect others. That part had me yawning nearly non-stop. But that's just me... Perhaps you might find all that very interesting as well.
The First Comprehensive Telling of the Tale.......2006-01-25
Leon Stein had the advantage of speaking with some of the survivors, and he is an excellent conduit through which they tell their story. The strike is covered briefly, but Stein concentrates on the fire and its aftermath, including the gruesome task of identifying the bodies and the mournful series of funerals, culminating in the procession for the unknowns. Read this volume in tandem with David von Drehle's "Triangle: The Fire that Changed America," as they complement each other perfectly.
Book Description
America searched for an answer to "The Labor Question" during the Progressive Era in an effort to avoid the unrest and violence that flared so often in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In the ladies' garment industry, a unique experiment in industrial democracy brought together labor, management, and the public. As Richard Greenwald explains, it was an attempt to "square free market capitalism with ideals of democracy to provide a fair and just workplace." Led by Louis Brandeis, this group negotiated the "Protocols of Peace." But in the midst of this experiment, 146 mostly young, immigrant women died in the Triangle Factory Fire of 1911. As a result of the fire, a second, interrelated experiment, New York's Factory Investigating Commission (FIC)—led by Robert Wagner and Al Smith—created one of the largest reform successes of the period.
The Triangle Fire, the Protocols of Peace, and Industrial Democracy in Progressive Era New York uses these linked episodes to show the increasing interdependence of labor, industry, and the state. Greenwald explains how the Protocols and the FIC best illustrate the transformation of industrial democracy and the struggle for political and economic justice.
Customer Reviews:
First attempts at tri-partite industrial democracy.......2007-05-09
The working lives of garment workers in NYC in the early 20th century were horrendous: working conditions were miserable, unsafe, and unhealthful with autocratic employers subjecting employees to abuses and arbitrary rules, like having to pay for needles and thread, which was a not subtle way of cheating workers out of their already meager pay. This book is about the Progressive era reaction and solution to that workplace regime involving the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), middle class reformers and experts, the Factory Investigating Commission (FIC), an arm of the NY legislature, and the garment workers themselves. The fire at the Triangle Company, located in the upper floors of the Asch Building in NYC and devoid of fire safety measures, where 146 shirtwaist-making women were trapped in a fire either burning or leaping to their death on March 25, 1911, served as a catalyst for the solidification of reform measures.
The book begins with the Uprising of Twenty Thousand, an industry-wide strike coordinated by the shirtwaist makers' union (a division of the ILGWU) in 1909. The owners and other forces of reaction overplayed their hands, as middle class society of NYC was aghast at the abuse that young striking women were subjected to on picket lines by thugs and policemen and by officers of the legal system. That public focus facilitated settlements with some improved working conditions, although Triangle workers returned to work with no new settlement with fatal consequences.
However the Great Revolt the next year involving 75 thousand cloak-makers (also a division of the ILGWU) finally achieved what Progressive reformers wanted: the clipping of the wings of unfettered business with tri-partite oversight involving the public, business, and workers represented by a union. The Protocols of Peace was a private agreement between the cloak-makers business association and the ILGWU that sought to define nearly all facets of the cloak-making business involving labor. No longer could workers simply walk off the job over a dispute. Instead all grievances had to be tendered to a multi-step grievance process while work continued. Union workers also gained the right of preferential hiring. Piece rates were now subject to joint consultation via shop committees. While the Protocols was a private agreement, designated neutral public members sat on boards at the highest levels.
Industrial democracy is a concept that gets considerable attention in this book and apparently had some resonance in that era. But its meaning is disputed. For many, industrial democracy may conjure a direct role for workers, perhaps through worker bodies, of defining and controlling most all aspects of work and directly negotiating compensation. Yet that is hardly what the "peacemakers,' that is the reformers, had in mind. The ILGWU's role was more to discipline workers and enforce the agreement than empower workers. Those different perspectives did clash. Workers became unhappy with such issues as the slow process of grievance settlement, the setting of piece rates, and employers ignoring union preferential hiring. Workers inevitably engaged in wildcat strikes to force resolutions, which were violations of the no-strike provisions of the Protocol.
Both the shortcomings of Protocolism and the tragic, yet highly preventable, deaths of over one-hundred workers in the Triangle fire spurred the formation of the FIC in June, 1911. In addition, Tammany Hall, the Democratic political machine in NY and dependent on working class voters, realized the necessity and opportunity to be pro-active concerning working conditions for their supporters. Two Tammany politicians, Al Smith and Robert Wagner, later of national stature, led the efforts to create the FIC to propose and enact pro-worker legislation. The FIC paralleled the Protocols in many ways as many reformers, intellectuals, etc worked with both bodies and addressed many of the same issues. Frances Perkins, a social worker later to become FDR's labor secretary, was a key figure in both bodies. The actions of the FIC advanced notions initiated by the Protocols with the difference being that legislation applied to all targeted citizens of the legislation with at least the possibility of state-led enforcement. Fire safety and sanitation issues were first on the FIC agenda followed by gender- and age-based legislation designed to protect the health of the targeted workers by limiting hours and night work. Non-gendered legislation, like minimum wage laws, proved to be fatally divisive to the FIC.
Both the Protocols and the FIC had either dissolved or lost effectiveness by 1916, though most of the FIC legislation remained in place. The idea of tripartite regulation of business had lost credence by the early 1920s, only to be revived in the New Deal by many of those individuals involved in the NYC garment wars. The book only covers a few years in one state - mostly one city, though the largest in the US - in an experiment in a nebulously defined industrial democracy. One is struck by the difficulty that workers had then and now in establishing humane and just workplaces and the fragility in maintaining any gains.
The book is definitely an insider labor relations book with assumptions being made about labor movement organization and labor terminology. The book proceeds first on the Protocol track and then secondly on the FIC track. Though occurring during the same time frame, the interactions and cross-impacts between the two are barely described. So many individuals and formal organizations, like boards, are named that at times maintaining continuity is difficult. For example, what "Board" is being discussed? Secondly, the author declines to offer much in the greater significance of the events and actions discussed. For example, where do garment workers of today stand? Is there the equivalent of the Protocols? How is industrial democracy viewed today by workers? By business? By the state? However, the book is a worthwhile contribution to the history of labor in America. It provides better context than most books that are concerned only with the Triangle fire.
Book Description
The honest and compelling story of a young girl's newfound independence, from her entrance into a new country to her frightening involvement in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911.My heart filled with fear and hope at the same time. I had the feeling that I was brought to America for a purpose. Something important would happen to me here.I remembered the words of the poem, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses . . .""Here we are, America," I whispered. "We're just exactly what you ordered."When she arrives on Ellis Island as a seventeen-year-old Irish immigrant, Rose Nolan is looking for a land of opportunities; what she finds is far from all she'd dreamed. Stubborn and tenacious, she refuses to give up. Left alone to fend for herself and her younger sister, Rose is thrust into a hard-knock life of tenements and factory work.When the devastating Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 rushes into Rose's life, her confusions are brought to an all-too-painful head. To whom and to what can she turn when everything around her is in ashes?
Customer Reviews:
Stimulus for further reading.......2007-06-03
The main reason to read this book would be to pique your interest in the time period. You will learn a lot about immigration in the early 1900's, the Triangle Shirt Waist Fire, sweat shops, life in New York. The story doesn't have much of the ring of emotional authenticity. I don't doubt that the author's facts are true and her topic is well-researched, but I don't get much of a deeper understanding of who these characters are and why they behave the way they do. I have the sense of the author behind the scene pulling the strings to make the story turn out the way it does. The parallels drawn to 9/11 are eerie, but the fire was a very different event.
I Hate Books With History and LOVED This!!!!!.......2006-11-14
In the book Ashes of Roses, by Mary Jane Auch there was a family of six comng to america from ireland in 1911 and when they got to america the youngest of the four children is diagnosed with an eye illness and is not allowed to comce to america, so the father takes him back and the three girls and the mom stay in americ, then the mom get homesick and takes the youngest daughter with her back to ireland and leaves the two oldest girls in america on their own. The two sisters make it through the teriangle waist factory fire and lots of discrimination torwards them. This book is an overall book of loving sisterly kindness, and i would highly reccomend it for readers of all age.
Ashes of Roses.......2006-05-15
Ashes of Roses is a very interesting book. It has lots of historical reference to the Ellis Island immigration period, and is very well written.
The main character, Rose Nolan, makes the long voyage with her family to New York City from Ireland. It is a terrible, harsh voyage, and when they finally arrive, are forsed to make a horrible descision. The baby boy of the family is examined, and found to have a minor disease called Trachoma. Her father must take him back to Ireland, and Rose and her sister and mother are left to fend for themselves in the city.
When they arrive at their uncle's house, it is made very clear that they are unwelcome. His two daughters act snooty and spoilt, and I can feel Rose's anger and pain as if I were actually there with her. She is forsed to maintain a painstaking job making paper flowers for little pay just to help her small family get by.
A very nice book, but it drags on a little in certain parts. Over all, I would reccomend it.
Ashes Of Roses is one of the greatest books out there.......2006-02-04
Rose is the main Character of Ashes Of Rose. Rose is the oldest of 4 kids in her family Maureen, Bridget, and the Baby boy Joseph. Yes of course sense she's the oldest she had to take care of the all of the kids when her parents are gone or even there but and busy. When they get into America they have to go to through test and the baby Joseph has a dieses called Trachoma and Pa has to take him back to Ireland to live with the grandma and when he's better that they can come back and bring him to live in America. Pa and Joseph come back a moth later. Rose is 16 and works at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. She has to have a job to help keep the house and everything they had by getting the money and the family needs. Rose hasn't been living in America for a little while now but still misses everything from Ireland. Just to add on to missing everything and wanting to go back the Triangle Factory catches on fire and everything inside is gone. Rose is strong enough to realize that she couldn't have done anything about it and that she has to go on with her life and just remember all the good things that happened in the time of her life. So Rose goes out and try's to find a new job. Rose and her family are getting back together because her baby brother and dad are back in the United States and back to see them, because when they came to America Joseph couldn't get in because he had a dieses called Trachoma. Realizing it has only been a month they can't wait to see Joseph and Pa. Now knowing that the family can come back together Rose is happy again and is glad to still be living in America. If you want to read a great book and feel like you have gone through and the stuff Rose has then I would recommend the book Ashes of Roses by Mary Jane Auch.
Ashes OF Roses.......2006-01-05
A 16 yr old girl, Rose, faces chalenges in her life, starting with a long jouney to america, then learning to let go of her little brother, who has an eye infection. after a terible time in her uncle's flat, her mother goes back to irland, while Rose and her sister stay behind in america.many other things come up, also.read the book to find out why her only friends in america died.
Customer Reviews:
Great historical read!.......2007-05-13
As a Professor of Fire Science I am constantly seeking out books having to do with great historical fires in American. These books are to be used as course research papers by my students and typically are not available via the library network. I trust many of my students are buying their copies from Amazon.com a name that can be trusted.
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