The Bohemians by Jasmin Darznik

What struck me most about San Francisco so far wasn't the newness of the place--that I'd expected--as the absence of the past.~ from The Bohemians by Jasmin Darznik

In 1918, Dorothea Lange set out to travel the country when she became stranded in San Francisco. She meets the Bohemians of Monkey Block, artists and photographers and actors who don't fit into mainstream society. It is where Lange belongs, and she settles in with hopes to open her own photography studio.

Her entree into this world is through a beautiful Chinese woman with green eyes; as a Chinese person she is reviled and harassed; as a person of mixed race she has no people--except for the Bohemians. Based on references to Lange's Chinese 'Mission girl' assistant, her affecting story weaves through the novel.

Jasmin Darznik uses the story of Lange's early life and career as the skeleton of her novel, but the city itself is the star: it is a place of great beauty with a history of horror and disaster; a place of hate and corruption and a haven for artists; the home of the nouveau riche and dire poverty. 

When Lange arrives, the city still bore the scars of the devastating earthquake of 1906, but on the ruins a new city has spring up. Including Chinatown, the only place the Chinese are allowed to live, slums run by wealthy and powerful white people.

Darznik writes about the waves of Spanish Influenza, the collapse of Lange's business, and the subsequent anti-Chinese and anti-immigrant fervor that arose in the aftermath.

Readers will follow Lange's love affair and unhappy marriage with the artist Maynard Dixon and her work for the WPA that brought her fame. The final chapter gives closure to all the story threads. 

Readers who enjoy historic fiction with strong female characters and who appreciate historic parallels to contemporary problems will enjoy this novel. 

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

See Lange's most famous photographs here.

The Bohemians: A Novel
by Jasmin Darznik
Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine
Pub Date Aprril 6, 2021 

ISBN: 9780593129425
hardcover $28.00 (USD)

from the publisher

A dazzling novel of one of America’s most celebrated photographers, Dorothea Lange, exploring the wild years in San Francisco that awakened her career-defining grit, compassion, and daring.

“Jasmin Darznik expertly delivers an intriguing glimpse into the woman behind those unforgettable photographs of the Great Depression, and their impact on humanity.”—Susan Meissner, bestselling author of The Nature of Fragile Things

In 1918, a young and bright-eyed Dorothea Lange steps off the train in San Francisco, where a disaster kick-starts a new life. Her friendship with Caroline Lee, a vivacious, straight-talking Chinese American with a complicated past, gives Dorothea entrée into Monkey Block, an artists’ colony and the bohemian heart of the city. Dazzled by Caroline and her friends, Dorothea is catapulted into a heady new world of freedom, art, and politics. She also finds herself unexpectedly falling in love with the brilliant but troubled painter Maynard Dixon. Dorothea and Caroline eventually create a flourishing portrait studio, but a devastating betrayal pushes their friendship to the breaking point and alters the course of their lives.

The Bohemians captures a glittering and gritty 1920s San Francisco, with a cast of unforgettable characters, including cameos from such legendary figures as Mabel Dodge Luhan, Frida Kahlo, Ansel Adams, and D. H. Lawrence. A vivid and absorbing portrait of the past, it is also eerily resonant with contemporary themes, as anti-immigration sentiment, corrupt politicians, and a devastating pandemic bring tumult to the city—and the gift of friendship and the possibility of self-invention persist against the ferocious pull of history.

As Dorothea sheds her innocence, her purpose is awakened and she grows into the figure we know from history—the artist whose iconic Depression-era photographs like “Migrant Mother” broke the hearts and opened the eyes of a nation.

Dear Miss Kopp by Amy Stewart

 

Amy Stewart is back with a SIXTH installment of the Miss Kopp series! Girl Waits With Gun was published in 2015 and Stewart has given us a sequel every year since. 

If you have not read any of the series you won't know that the main characters are based on real people. 

Constance Kopp was one of the first lady cops. She had a sister Norma, and 'sister' Fleurette who is really Constance's child, the result of being seduced by a door-to-door Singer salesman when she was a teenager. Stewart has delved into the newspaper files to resurrect the Kopp girls, fictionalizing freely to fill in the blanks left in their histories.

The series begins in 1914, and this installment brings us to WWI.

Constance has been recruited by Washington, DC to spy on American Germans aiding the enemy. Fleurette is entertaining the stateside troops as part of a song and dance troupe. And Norma has enlisted to help the Army develop a pigeon messenger program in France where she rooms with a nurse.

Between the three Kopps, readers see the war from many fronts.

The novel is totally epistolary, comprised of the letters between the sisters, their bosses, and family and friends.

As in all the book in the series, a major focus in on the role of women in society, their contributions and the limitations society places on them. Norma fights for her work to be taken seriously and solves the problem of missing medical supplies. Fleurette is arrest under The American Plan which locked up women suspected of sexual promiscuity and corrupting the troops. Constance goes undercover as a spy.

The crimes that the Kopps solve are based on actual crimes. One act of sabotage mentioned took place at the Curtiss North Elmwood plant in Buffalo, NY. It was the world's largest airplane factory when it was built, located just down the road from where I grew up. (My grandfather was an engineer at a later Curtiss plant operating during WWII.) 

Fans will enjoy the book. Newbies may want to start with the first in the series. Once you fall for the Kopps there is no turning back. We will read to the very end of the series!

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Read about the other books in the series:

https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2019/05/catching-up-with-miss-kopp.html

https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2019/09/kopp-sisters-on-march-by-amy-stewart.html

Dear Miss Kopp
by Amy Stewart
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/ Mariner Books
Historical Fiction
Pub Date:  January 21, 2021   
ISBN: 9780358093121
paperback $15.99 (USD)

from the publisher

The indomitable Kopp sisters are tested at home and abroad in this warm and witty tale of wartime courage and camaraderie.

The U.S. has finally entered World War I is and Constance is chasing down suspected German saboteurs and spies for the Bureau of Investigation while Fleurette is traveling across the country entertaining troops with song and dance. Meanwhile, at an undisclosed location in France, Norma is overseeing her thwarted pigeon project for the Army Signal Corps. When Aggie, a nurse at the American field hospital, is accused of stealing essential medical supplies, the intrepid Norma is on the case to find the true culprit.

The far-flung sisters—separated for the first time in their lives—correspond with news of their days. The world has irrevocably changed—will the sisters be content to return to the New Jersey farm when the war is over?

Told through letters, Dear Miss Kopp weaves the stories of real life women into a rich fiction brimming with the historical detail and humor that are hallmarks of the series, proving once again that “any novel that features the Kopp Sisters is going to be a riotous, unforgettable adventure” (Bustle).