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lazygal's review against another edition
3.0
Family saga set in Pennsylvania mining country? Sorry, that doesn't equate (as the blurbage suggests) to a new Mysteries of Pittsburg. Nor is it an American Penmarric. Instead, Baker Towers takes the Novak family, already an anomaly thanks to their Italian mother/Polish father in a town where people simply don't marry outside ethnic lines, from World War II through a vaguely modern era. The five children are all in some way flawed, each attempting to escape their impoverished small-town roots and each failing. As we move through the decades, smaller moments are intermixed with big ones; some of the bigger moments, like Rose's death, happen off stage.
Overall this feels like it should have been a much larger book, rather than the fewer than 400 that it is. Belva Plain couldn't have done this in fewer than 700! That's actually a good thing, because the author's choices of what to include, what to leave out, and what to elide make this a less exhausting read.
Copy provided by publisher.
Overall this feels like it should have been a much larger book, rather than the fewer than 400 that it is. Belva Plain couldn't have done this in fewer than 700! That's actually a good thing, because the author's choices of what to include, what to leave out, and what to elide make this a less exhausting read.
Copy provided by publisher.
hexie88's review
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
melissafirman's review
3.5
Baker Towers is the sort of novel that is often described as a "sweeping family saga," one spanning an entire generation in the life of a family. In this case, the reader follows the Novak clan from 1944, beginning with the sudden death of patriarch Stanley Novak, into the 1970s.
The Novak family (widow Rose and her five children: George, Dorothy, Joyce, Sandy, and Lucy) live in Bakerton, Pennsylvania
"a company town built on coal, a town of church festivals and ethnic neighborhoods ..... Its children are raised in company houses - three rooms upstairs, three rooms downstairs, Its ball club leads the coal company league. The twelve Baker mines offer good union jobs, and the looming black piles of mine dirt don't bother anyone. Called Baker Towers, they are local landmarks, clear evidence that the mines are booming. Baker towers mean good wages and meat on the table, two weeks' paid vacation and presents under the Christmas tree." (from the book jacket)
Like the Towers themselves, the people in Bakerton are akin to local landmarks too. Many seldom leave - but when they do, there's something about Bakerton and the small town way of life there that calls them back. It's in your bones, in your blood, it's not unlike the black lung disease that would eventually claim many of the town's men who worked in the coal mines. It's the close-knit nature of the town, family, and the way everyone knows everybody else.
"You knew Randazzo from the Knights, Kukla and Stusick from St. Casimir's. You'd seen Quinn and Kelly playing cards at the Vets, the Yurkovich twins at the firehall dances, walking the Bakerton Circle. Kovac's wife ran a press iron at the dress factory. Angie's uncle had buried yours. You knew them from the Legion, the ball field. There was no escaping all the ways you knew them. The ways they were just like you." (pg. 307)
I'll admit, Baker Towers started off a bit slow for me - but as the narrative delved more and more into the minds and lives of the individual characters, the choices they made and the consequences and sacrifices they faced, I found myself becoming more drawn into the story. (Jennifer Haigh's The Condition was a DNF book for me; I briefly thought Baker Towers might meet the same fate, but I was glad to be proven wrong.)
For the most part, Haigh gives her reader memorable and realistic characters, defining them well. Of all of them, my absolute favorite was Joyce, one of the five Novak children. An academically promising student, Joyce enlists in the Air Force after high school. She's a woman born a generation too early, as one discovers while reading of her struggles to get a job after returning home to Bakerton after her voluntary discharge from the military. She knows she's being sexually discriminated against, but this was in an era where women's rights weren't what they are today. (Well, for now, anyway.) I would have liked to have seen Joyce become more involved in the women's rights movement of the day. (The time that Haigh spent on the character of Sandy could have been used for this, as he didn't add much to the novel, in my opinion.)
Jennifer Haigh does an excellent job of taking her reader back to a different era, one that in many cases has been somewhat forgotten. It's easy to forget that there was a time not all that long ago when treatment for conditions such as diabetes and postpartum depression were simply not what they are today; we take this for granted now when that was very much not the case just a few decades ago. Baker Towers, then, looks at the question of how the era in which we live shapes us, but in what ways does the actual town where we grow up mold us too? More importantly, what impact do the people of our hometown have on who we become and is it ever possible to truly "go home again"?
As an audiobook, I thought Baker Towers worked well. I liked Anna Fields's narration and thought that she did a good job keeping all the multiple voices distinct and consistent. (However, one of my pet peeves with audiobooks was evidenced here. I don't like when females lower their voices to portray male characters. It drives me crazy because it sounds so fake and I cannot stand it. There are quite a few male characters in Baker Towers so if you share this pet peeve of mine, you might be better served reading this one in print form.)
Ms. Fields's narration is also a bit monotone, which takes some adjustment at first, but in a way it does kind of fit the tone of the novel. There were boom times in Bakerton, but overall, this isn't a cheerful tale. These people aren't overly happy with their lot in life. They're wishing for more - and those who do finally attain more wind up wishing for what was left behind in Bakerton all along.
If I could, I would have given it 3.5 for the excellent characterization of Joyce. I really thought Jennifer Haigh did such an excellent job with that character. She also made the town itself a character, which I also really liked. Still, there were other characters (like Sandy) who I thought were unnecessary to the plot and others who weren't as developed as they could have been. There was also the feeling that something was missing in this book, but that flatness might be intentional. It's a quick read (or listen, in my case) and could very well be the sort of book that grows on you as time passes.
The Novak family (widow Rose and her five children: George, Dorothy, Joyce, Sandy, and Lucy) live in Bakerton, Pennsylvania
"a company town built on coal, a town of church festivals and ethnic neighborhoods ..... Its children are raised in company houses - three rooms upstairs, three rooms downstairs, Its ball club leads the coal company league. The twelve Baker mines offer good union jobs, and the looming black piles of mine dirt don't bother anyone. Called Baker Towers, they are local landmarks, clear evidence that the mines are booming. Baker towers mean good wages and meat on the table, two weeks' paid vacation and presents under the Christmas tree." (from the book jacket)
Like the Towers themselves, the people in Bakerton are akin to local landmarks too. Many seldom leave - but when they do, there's something about Bakerton and the small town way of life there that calls them back. It's in your bones, in your blood, it's not unlike the black lung disease that would eventually claim many of the town's men who worked in the coal mines. It's the close-knit nature of the town, family, and the way everyone knows everybody else.
"You knew Randazzo from the Knights, Kukla and Stusick from St. Casimir's. You'd seen Quinn and Kelly playing cards at the Vets, the Yurkovich twins at the firehall dances, walking the Bakerton Circle. Kovac's wife ran a press iron at the dress factory. Angie's uncle had buried yours. You knew them from the Legion, the ball field. There was no escaping all the ways you knew them. The ways they were just like you." (pg. 307)
I'll admit, Baker Towers started off a bit slow for me - but as the narrative delved more and more into the minds and lives of the individual characters, the choices they made and the consequences and sacrifices they faced, I found myself becoming more drawn into the story. (Jennifer Haigh's The Condition was a DNF book for me; I briefly thought Baker Towers might meet the same fate, but I was glad to be proven wrong.)
For the most part, Haigh gives her reader memorable and realistic characters, defining them well. Of all of them, my absolute favorite was Joyce, one of the five Novak children. An academically promising student, Joyce enlists in the Air Force after high school. She's a woman born a generation too early, as one discovers while reading of her struggles to get a job after returning home to Bakerton after her voluntary discharge from the military. She knows she's being sexually discriminated against, but this was in an era where women's rights weren't what they are today. (Well, for now, anyway.) I would have liked to have seen Joyce become more involved in the women's rights movement of the day. (The time that Haigh spent on the character of Sandy could have been used for this, as he didn't add much to the novel, in my opinion.)
Jennifer Haigh does an excellent job of taking her reader back to a different era, one that in many cases has been somewhat forgotten. It's easy to forget that there was a time not all that long ago when treatment for conditions such as diabetes and postpartum depression were simply not what they are today; we take this for granted now when that was very much not the case just a few decades ago. Baker Towers, then, looks at the question of how the era in which we live shapes us, but in what ways does the actual town where we grow up mold us too? More importantly, what impact do the people of our hometown have on who we become and is it ever possible to truly "go home again"?
As an audiobook, I thought Baker Towers worked well. I liked Anna Fields's narration and thought that she did a good job keeping all the multiple voices distinct and consistent. (However, one of my pet peeves with audiobooks was evidenced here. I don't like when females lower their voices to portray male characters. It drives me crazy because it sounds so fake and I cannot stand it. There are quite a few male characters in Baker Towers so if you share this pet peeve of mine, you might be better served reading this one in print form.)
Ms. Fields's narration is also a bit monotone, which takes some adjustment at first, but in a way it does kind of fit the tone of the novel. There were boom times in Bakerton, but overall, this isn't a cheerful tale. These people aren't overly happy with their lot in life. They're wishing for more - and those who do finally attain more wind up wishing for what was left behind in Bakerton all along.
If I could, I would have given it 3.5 for the excellent characterization of Joyce. I really thought Jennifer Haigh did such an excellent job with that character. She also made the town itself a character, which I also really liked. Still, there were other characters (like Sandy) who I thought were unnecessary to the plot and others who weren't as developed as they could have been. There was also the feeling that something was missing in this book, but that flatness might be intentional. It's a quick read (or listen, in my case) and could very well be the sort of book that grows on you as time passes.
bibliovore's review against another edition
4.0
Having enjoyed Haigh's previous novel Mrs. Kimble, as well as her later book The Condition, it was natural that this would end up on my TBR shelf. It sat there for quite a while before I picked it up, but I'm not sorry that I hung onto it. As with her other books, Baker Towers is character driven and thoughtful, a family saga that also tells the story of a town's rise and decline. I thoroughly enjoyed this and look forward to more from Jennifer Haigh!
mycouscous's review against another edition
3.0
Straightforward prose lacking in embellishment still manages to create a whole world of a working class PA town. Having lived in a Pgh for a short while, I could easily imagine what life in this small, mining town looked like. Haigh is not prone to poetic turns of phrase, but she deliberately and carefully crafts her setting and characters. Bakerton is the backdrop for a generation of the Novak family, coming of age during WWII. Her characters are precisely rendered, matter-of-factly and are sometimes maddening people that struggle to live beyond the grasp of the town that keeps its hold on them. Underneath it all is a sense of desperation and yearning while trying to be content with the hand one's been dealt.
kathycz's review
Jennifer Haigh's command of characterization is second to none. These characters, all of whom get their own moments on the page, seem every bit as real as the people with whom we cross paths every day. This novel is also full of rich "historical" (not so very old) details of everyday life in a 1940s and '50s Pennsylvania mining town. A rich, compelling read.
lauraramsborg's review
4.0
I really liked the story in this book and the characters. The story is centered around the 1930s and 1940s time period. My grandma told me she thought this book was boring (after I had raved about it to her). Since she lived during those times, maybe she wasn't interested in rehashing them. Or maybe I like boring books! LOL.
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