Book Review-Baker Towers

I don't usually read historical fiction, but I picked one up recently called Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh.  It follows the lives of 5 children in Bakerton PA, a small mining town, starting in the 1940s.  At the start of the book Stanley Novak, coal miner and father of 5, dies shortly after returning home from work.  His wife, Rose, is left to raise the children.  George, the oldest, is already away from home serving in the armed forces.  Dorothy is about to graduate from high school, Joyce is a few years younger.  Sandy is in grade school and Lucy is an infant.  Without their father around, Sandy becomes a bit wild and Joyce takes on the role of the second parent-making sure that Sandy and Lucy go to school.  All the children think that they want to move away from Bakerton.  Some move away and then come back.  Some make good choices, others not so much. This was not an edge of your seat type of book.  The story moved at a leisurely pace.  The reader was able to see each child's perspective on living in or away from Bakerton.  I would recommend it to people who like family sagas.

Baker Towers By Haigh, Jennifer 2006-02 - Harper Perennial 9780060509422 Check Our Catalog The author of "Mrs. Kimble" returns with an emotionally rich and evocative exploration of community, love, and family set in a western Pennsylvania coal town in the years following World War II. …More

Other books by the same author.

Heat and Light By Haigh, Jennifer 2016-05 - Ecco Press 9780061763298 Check Our Catalog Acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Haigh returns to the Pennsylvania town at the center of her iconic novel Baker Towers in this ambitious, achingly human story of modern America and the conflicting forces at its heart a bold, moving drama of hope and desperation, greed and power, big business and small-town families. Forty years ago, Bakerton coal fueled the country. Then …More

Mrs. Kimble By Haigh, Jennifer 2005-12 - Harper Perennial 9780060858780 Check Our Catalog In her masterful first novel, Haigh delivers the compelling story of three women who marry the same man--an enigmatic opportunist name Ken Kimble. …More

The Condition By Haigh, Jennifer 2009-06 - Harper Perennial 9780060755799 Check Our Catalog The long-awaited third novel from the bestselling, award-winning author of "Mrs. Kimble" and "Baker Towers" explores the immutable bonds of family witnessed through one turbulent year in the lives of the McKotches. …More

Complimentary Reads

The Secret Wisdom of the Earth By Scotton, Christopher 2015-01 - Grand Central Publishing 9781455551927 Check Our Catalog Timely and timeless, this is a dramatic and deeply moving novel about an act of violence in a small, Southern town and the repercussions that will forever change a young man's view of human cruelty and compassion. After seeing the death of his younger brother in a terrible home accident, fourteen-year-old Kevin and his grieving mother are sent for the summer to live with Kevin's …More

The Hollow Ground By Harnett, Natalie S. 2014-05 - Thomas Dunne Books 9781250041982 Check Our Catalog "A grand achievement, a story fierce in its honesty about family love and betrayal." --Maureen Howard, National Book Critics Circle Award winner …More