Customer Reviews

Baker Towers

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I picked up this book after reading several excellent reviews in various publications. Now that I've finished reading it, I'm going to add my own "excellent review" to the list!

This novel is so well written, there is something for everyone inside. The book follows the lives of a single family living in a small town in Pennsylvania from the 1940's through the 60's. Each chapter singles out one member of the family, telling the story from that character's perspective. We see how each family member grows and matures, and how the ever changing world around them effects each one, and the direction that their life takes.

There's the oldest son, Georgie who goes off to war & then rushes into an unhappy marriage, Dorothy who moves to Washington to escape the "traditional" job of a woman in the dress factory of Bakerton, Joyce who becomes the "parent" to the rest of the family, including her own mother, Sandy the rebellious son, who follows his own path without ever looking back, and the "baby" of the family Lucy, who observes the older members of her family and decides early on which paths in life she definitely does not want to take.

The author has done a wonderful job keeping the readers guessing, and turning the pages to find out what happens next. Nothing is predictable, and there are many "surprises" along the way. I've read some reviews here, where readers have criticized the "jump" from time to time - I didn't find this distracting at all, and actually thought it kept the story moving along at an excellent pace. The story's not dragged out, and time isn't wasted on insignificant events. My only "complaint" (if you even want to call it that) is that there are times in the story where a character will refer to a future event that hasn't happened yet, and as the chapter progresses, the story actually moves backwards, as if the character is reminiscing. The times that this happens, however, are done very subtly - sometimes the reader may not even realize that a future event has been given away!

There are also many nostalgic references made throughout the book - everything from radio shows to early TV to the kinds of cars the characters drive and the clothing they wear. I'm sure many will find the story a "step back in time" which is certain to bring back many happy (or not so happy) memories!

While it's still early in the year, I'd have to say that BAKER TOWERS is probably one of the best books of 2005! If you haven't read it yet, please pick it up, and if you have already finished it, I urge you to recommend it to all of your friends. I haven't been as excited about a book since I read the LOVELY BONES back in 2002! With the right kind of "word of mouth" publicity, I can easily see this one becoming just as popular!

This book concentrates on the lives of five children of a mine worker in a small Pennsylvania town peopled by descendents of immigrants from Poland, living on Polish Hill, and Italy, who live in Little Italy, at a time when such distinctions mattered. It opens just before the US entered World War II and follows their lives into the Vietnam era. With unblinking eyes, Haigh shows us a world far removed from the myth of the fifties as the idyllic American decade.

Each child, as he and she grows, simultaneously despises and loves the company house in the company town that they all call home. One by one the siblings make their bid for life away from the little town but each is drawn back by obligation, necessity or love. Each struggles to understand their place in the world and to make the best of it. They are pulled between the traditions of their Catholic parents and community and the call of the exciting, growing world of the mid-twentieth century.

Haigh's style is what sets this book apart. With just a few simple words she can paint portraits of the town and its people that are rich with depth. Her characters are more than real as she takes you into their lives and makes you cheer with their successes and ache with their defeats. With love and honesty for her subject, Haigh creates a world that both tests and rewards in its starkness leaving the reader with is a breathtaking look at life - beautiful and terrible at the same time.

The Novak Family lives on Polish Hill in Bakerton. The city has other ethnic neighborhoods, and all the men work in the coal mines and life revolves around this. The two black piles of mine dirt rise high and symbolize good union jobs that keep food on the table and presents under the Christmas tree. These towers are viewed not so much as an eyesore but as a proof that the town thrives thanks to the mines.

There are five Novak children and as the reader follows each one's life, a picture of a family some might call typical and others might call dysfunctional emerges. The story begins when the father comes home from the Hoot Owl shift and drops dead most unexpectedly. Rose rears her children alone and they each have a story to tell.

The eldest, George, serves in the military and is exposed to what life beyond Bakerton is like. He marries well and forsakes the old neighborhood. His sister Dorothy, a bit unbalanced, works in Washington, D.C. but runs back to the comfort of home to be taken care of by her family. Joyce, the strong and brilliant sister, becomes the family's caregiver, looking after the mother and the other children and putting everyone else's needs above her own. Sandy, the younger son, is blessed with good lucks and unlimited charm. He disappears to exotic places like California and always seems to have plenty of money and a flashy car though he claims to be only a fry cook or some other menial laborer. Lucy, the baby of the family, is the only one who seems content with life in Bakerton, but is the one for whom a better life is possible and she is handed the opportunity to become a professional.

If you enjoy family sagas filled with diverse personalities, love stories, hardships and triumphs, you will revel in this nostalgic look back to what life was like in 1950's and 1960's America.

Baker Towers is the story of the five Novak children, growing up in Bakerton Pennsylvania, a small town where coal mining is the only thing that really matters. The book opens during WWII but spans several decades.

This is a story of life not turning out the way you hope and to that effect, it's rather gloomy. In the entire book, there is not one scene of happiness or joy or humor. I felt like I was plodding along with the Novaks, desperately trying to finish it as they desperately tried to survive. Haigh is a gifted writer and she seamlessly weaves the stories of the five main characters together - though I wish she hadn't left Sandy hanging at the end. Her considerable narrative skill is the only thing that kept me from giving the book a lower rating. Once you start reading, it's almost impossible to stop, you feel compelled to find out what happens next. But be warned, it's a depressing read.

now lookit: this isn't the sort of book i should adore, let alone read compulsively in two days. but i did. i can't quite explain its hypnotic effect, but it has something to do with haigh's quiet lyricism, her dogged investigation of how the life of a family proceeds. a truly stunning achievement.

I must confess that I don't usually care for the "domestic drama" genre of literature, which makes Jennifer Haigh's accomplishment with "Baker Towers" all the more impressive. I found her novel to be intensely powerful in a quiet, subtle, honest way that seems organic beyond any author's ability to construct. Her characters are so compellingly multifaceted that the reader feels an irresistible empathy, almost as though you are reading your own family's story.

Her novel begins with the life of a widow in a small Pennsylvania coal town and works its way outward, adding layer upon layer to each character as the years carry them forward. The ties of family, the shaping of individuals by both inherent traits and life experiences, and the continuity of the generations are recurring themes in Haigh's work.

But even that description is too clinical, too removed to properly express the wonder of this beautiful novel. I recommend it with the most heartfelt endorsement, and I look forward to reading Ms. Haigh's next novel in the not-too-distant future.

BAKER TOWERS by Jennifer Haigh is a good, old-fashioned family saga, the kind you don't seem to find anymore. Even the cover looks like that of an "old" book. The impoverished Novak family and its five children struggle to get by in a coal mining town in Pennsylvania during World War II. As the war changes the world, we see how it changes the town and each member of the family.

The award-winning author has created a definite sense of time and place in this highly readable story. She writes beautifully and thoughtfully: "His old buddy seemed to him a kind of bookmark, holding his place in a life he himself had started but decided not to finish," says the book. And later, "Each disappointment had weakened her; losing hope was like losing blood. She could not survive another failure. Already she was hemorrhaging from regret." Ooh. Powerful language.

I'm happy to report that the women in the book are not just cardboard cutouts; they're complex and very real and reflect the changing roles of women. It isn't a perfect book, and it's sometimes sad, but it makes a very good read.

One of the real pleasures of reading is seeing the coming of new writers to the scene. Jennifer Haigh has to be near the top of any listing of novelists who will dominate the next few decades. After the great success (for a first novel) of Mrs. Kimble she has topped that one with Baker Towers.

As with most great novels, the story is not one of excitement like a mystery depends upon, instead it is a snapshot of life in a family. It's a dysfunctional family (but aren't they all). The story is told from the view of five siblings in a hard scrabble coal town as the coal mining world disappeared in the years after World War II. It's a story of small town life, perhaps a life that never really existed, but that's what a novel is supposed to do.

This book is even better than Mrs. Kimble and is a good milestone in the development of a rising author.

I just finished Baker Towers this morning and have felt an emptiness in my heart since putting it down. I miss Dorothy, Lucy and Joyce! Jennifer Haigh knows how to write a character better than any modern author I have read in a long time. She draws you in to each of their lives, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary with her unpretentious prose. I really cared what happened to the Novak family and felt a sense of having been a fly on the wall watching a poignant family history unfold. Thank you Jennifer, and please hurry up with the next one!

For this reader Baker Towers held a very personal message. It reversed the passage of time and took me on a vicarious trip back to the small town of my youth. In describing Bakerton, Jennifer Haigh accurately captured the essence of small town America in the 1940's , 50's and 60's where parents from the "old country" worked hard in an attempt to ensure that their offspring would have a chance at the American Dream. Haigh's Bakerton could easily have been the small, predominently Polish, steel-mill town I grew up in on the South Side of Chicago. Its Baker Towers definietly brought back memories of steel waste poured down the hill adjacent to the mills that became the "slag heaps" that burned brightly and lit the night sky.

As for the members of the Novak family, they could have been the my cousins, or the kids next door, or some of my school chums.......all bent on leading more fulfilling lives than their parents. Like the Novaks, some stayed to live and work among parents, family and friends while others pursued other avenues and a life away from the mills. Yet no matter how far away they traveled or what their accomplishments, that small town would always welcome them home.

This bittersweet tale of our industrial past evokes not only feelings of nostalgia, but vividly presents us with an intimate look at a time in our history when family and friends worked together toward a common goal. This was the time before our manufacturing cities became known as "The Rust Belt" and we actually employed people to produced more than hamburgers, and finally it was a time when folks had a genuine love and pride in this country.