Anita Diamant
Tonight, Dec. 9 at 7 PM bestselling author and Boston native Anita Diamant will read from and talk about her fifth novel “The Boston Girl“ at the Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street.
It is 1915 in Boston, and American-born Addie Baum is living in a tenement in the North End with her immigrant Mamah and Papa and older sister Celia. Addie’s Mamah—who always insists on talking in Yiddish—favors Celia, a “good girl: modest, obedient” while Addie is “the other one…fifteen years old and still in school. Selfish and lazy; she pretends like she can’t sew.” But Addie loves school, and her passion for learning leads her to The Saturday Club, where working class girls of all ethnicities and religions gather to talk about books, see lectures, and socialize.
Membership in the Saturday Club is just the beginning of Addie’s coming-of-age journey, as she finds herself forming strong bonds with other young women of the Saturday Club, and later, Rockport Lodge, a vacation house for young working women. Addie is wandering farther afield of her stifling tenement and her unhappy, resentful Mamah.
As Addie comes into her own as a modern woman, readers experience the historic events of early twentieth century Boston—from the impassioned speeches of the suffragist movement, to rolling bandages and knitting socks for WWI soldiers, to the horrors of the Influenza Epidemic of 1918, where there were so many fatalities that many of the city’s dead were buried in unmarked graves. Addie witnesses it all, but she also experiences her first kiss, gets her first job taking down orders for her brother-in-law’s shirtwaist factory, meets a famous female gossip columnist, and earns her own byline in an article protesting child labor practices.
I spoke by phone with Anita Diamant about the considerable research that went into writing “The Boston Girl” and the changing role of women in American history and in Jewish life.
Brookline Hub: Why did you choose to tell an American immigrant story? And why did you want Addie to be your narrator?
Anita Diamant: I wrote various iterations of the narrative but Addie’s story appealed to me the most so I wanted to put her front and center and have her tell her story. In some ways Addie’s story is my story, though we lived through different times. I am also the American-born daughter of immigrant parents and I understand the tension of growing up in an immigrant family. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Russian Jew or from India or Africa—there is always going to be tension when you’re growing up in a household with foreign-born parents.
BH: Tell me about the research you did for “The Boston Girl“. For instance, I read in your acknowledgements that the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University cataloged more than fifty boxes of papers related to Rockport Lodge for your use. In the course of your research, what did you learn that particularly struck or surprised you?
AD: It was a lot of fun researching Boston history. Like most people I love the North End and I enjoyed reading about the Saturday Evening Girls and the history of Paul Revere Pottery. People from the BSO archives and Simmons College and were so nice and helpful to me. I learned a lot about Simmons that didn’t make it into the book! Even though I’ve lived in Boston since 1975, it’s interesting to walk around the city and to know its history. There are so many stories of women in Boston—like Helen Storrow, a philanthropist and early leader of the Girl Scouts and the women of the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union in Boston who provided the first hot lunches to public schools. It’s fascinating and affirming to read about these women’s contributions and it makes you proud of your city’s history.
BH: You chose a very simple narrative style to tell Addie’s story. The book opens with Addie as an 85 year-old woman talking to her granddaughter about her history. It made me feel like I was reading an oral history of a real person. Why did you choose this structure for your novel?
AD: At first I fought against it, but then I realized that I wanted Addie’s story to be at the forefront of the book. Writing in first person simplifies things—I did the same when I wrote “The Red Tent.” Of course, the narrator’s perspective is skewed, which is especially true of Addie since she’s 85 and though she’s not untrustworthy, she can’t remember everything well. Choosing this narrative structure was a way for readers to experience those historic days from on the ground.
BH: You have written several books on Jewish life. How do you think life has changed for women in the Jewish community since Addie’s youth?
AD: There have been huge changes—from total disenfranchisement to becoming members of the women’s movement. You see it in the novels characters. Addie’s granddaughter is applying to rabbinical school. Addie’s older sister Betty was a member of Hadassah. Jewish women collected money to found Beth Israel Hospital. Throughout the novel you watch the changes through Addie’s eyes—at one point I write about how her book comes out at the same time as Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique”. The changes in Addie’s life are in a big way the changes in women’s lives, including Jewish women, and I think it has a very positive ending.
BH: Your bestselling novel “The Red Tent” was recently made into a mini-series starring Minnie Driver that aired on Lifetime this past weekend. What was it like having your book turned into a movie?
AD: Well the book was published 17 years ago and was optioned for film but that never went anywhere. Lifetime contacted us 2 ½ years ago wanting to do a movie. At first I thought this wouldn’t go anywhere either but it was a real passion project for Lifetime’s Nancy Bennett. I have a lot of respect for her. I never dreamed the book would be made into a movie. I know some authors imagine who they might cast in the film version of their book but I honestly don’t do that. I DO enjoy when I’m at readings and the audience tells me whom they would cast to play characters in my book!
BH: What genres do you enjoy reading? What book have you read lately that you really loved?
AD: I tend to read books that friends tell me I HAVE to read. Five of my friends told me I should read “Americanah” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I really enjoyed that book.
I read a lot of poetry—it slows me down. I like contemporary poets, like Billy Collins and Mary Oliver. I’m very excited that they’re coming out with a new collection of poems by Pablo Neruda. I love his odes; they’re very earthy—like his ode to salt. I like M.F.K. Fisher’s food writing. She’s a beautiful stylist. And I try to read every article in the New Yorker!
—By Jennifer Campaniolo
