Weber weaves an esoteric musical theme through her novel of the last survivor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy of 1911, the improbable romance of two unusual people, composer George Botkin and geneticist Rebecca Gottesfeld. George's music explores "all sorts of formations found in nature for their musical possibilities, especially genetic codes and cell structures." His long-time paramour, Rebecca, is the granddaughter of Esther Gottesfeld, now one-hundred-six-years old and dying of natural causes, the last human archive of one of the most shocking exposes in the garment industry of the early 1900's. Esther's world is clouded with the painful images of the fire that took the lives of 146 people, including her fiancé and sister, Pauline, leaving Esther to raise her unborn child without the comfort of family. When Esther's son and his wife are killed in an automobile accident, it is she who raises Rebecca, her darling granddaughter.
Esther's narrow escape from the Triangle fire is told through a series of court documents and personal interviews with Ruth Zion, a woman's rights advocate, compiling what she believes will be the definitive "herstory" of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and the patriarchy that allowed it to happen. Ruth fails to penetrate Esther's painful secrets, knowledge the old woman has kept to herself for all the years of her long life. Hoping to uncover discrepancies in Esther's account of the fire, Ruth interviews Esther as often as circumstances permit, repeating the same questions over and over, but the wily old woman remains vigilant, sensing the ill-intentions of the researcher. After Esther's death, Ruth hopes to find more fertile ground in her granddaughter in Rebecca, who is grieving Esther's loss when first she meets the intrusive and insensitive Ruth Zion, clearly a woman with an agenda of her own.
Esther's account of the fire is harrowing: the helpless terror of women trapped in a burning building, blindly heaving themselves from the windows to avoid the flames, the cotton garments they have sewn fueling the pyre. That Esther escapes at all is exceptional, her actions driven by instinct. Esther dies a few days prior to 9/11, adding a subtle tension to Rebecca and Ruth's unfolding drama, the images of bodies falling to their deaths now embedded in the national consciousness of a more recent horror. The author skillfully manages the historical perspective with an unusual love story, Esther's survival a testament to the extraordinary spirit of the immigrants who fled a hostile Europe for the opportunities of a new country. Luan Gaines/ 2006.
