eileen_loves_books 's review for:

Bittersweet Brooklyn by Thelma Adams

4.0

---

Bittersweet Brooklyn by Thelma Adams opens on a scene as horrific as might be imagined. A young widow stumbles on a 1935 mob murder and is made its scrubwoman. The rest of the story tells how Thelma Lorber came to such a sorry place. It’s a grim portrait of a woman whose life is plagued by misery and abuse from her earliest memories. A vibrant being who tries to dance away her troubled life, she finds allies in her Italian immigrant neighbors, two brothers and finds a beautiful, troubled man for a husband. But both her past and present dogged loyalty to her mobster brother conspire to degrade. At her lowest point, she finds strength in providing for a son who seems destined for her path. A vivid and often heartrending tale, beautifully told.