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Hutch effectively engages the reader with the story of Molly O'Sullivan, a sassy young redhead immigrating from Ireland to America during the Civil War. As the book opens, Molly dances barefoot in the moonlight around a broom, spinning and whirring. Then she leaves, having been warned, "There's no future in Ireland for the young." She is sent against her will to live with her mother's brother in New York. She is to secure employment upon arrival and help with household finances and chores. The village throws her a wake.
Desperately clinging to her Saint Michael's medal, she boards the ship. Nausea, sickness, and dead bodies on board are some of the early problems she faces. As the parents of a young girl are thrown overboard at sea, she adopts the child. In New York, the streets are hardly paved with gold: "Dirty children lounged in alleyways…. Muck clung to her shoes as she walked. Manure, rotten vegetables, and garbage covered the streets." She saw women propositioning men, unaware she would have the child stolen from her arms and become a prostitute herself, living a life on the run—with charges for arson and murder—leading to a house of ill repute in New Orleans.
Hutch deftly weaves into the action's narrative Molly's thoughts about what she is experiencing, creating an insightful style. For example, she carefully depicts Molly's memories coming up while caring for the girl she will eventually lose. The author conveys compassion in non-judgmental prose for a character who can sing but who is asked to bare her teeth and take off her clothes when interviewing for a job. Although Molly is smart, the book presents a cameo of challenges to a woman's dreams. Her story will keep readers turning the pages, hoping the plot will somehow shift in her favor.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review