Emily-Jane Hills Orford reviews "A Girl Should Be"

A Girl Should Be

by Ruth Latta

Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford

Author Ruth Latta has a passion for the 1920s and 1930s era. She’s particularly interested in the ever-changing role and rights of women in society, which is particularly poignant during this era. Her recent book, A Girl Should Be (Ottawa, Baico: 2021, ISBN 978-1-77216-269-1, $25), follows young Annie Taylor through her teenage, coming-of-age years, as she manoeuvres through loves found and lost, friendships, and finding her place in a world that only expects women to marry and have children.

 Annie, the younger sister of Charlotte, whom we read about in Ruth’s earlier book, Votes, Love and War (Baico: 2019), is more a flapper, one who has passions to exist in both worlds: one with marriage, love and children and the other with a fulfilling career. Although Annie’s biggest passion is women’s fashion and designing clothes, the Depression Era isn’t the most supportive time to entrepreneur one’s talents. She ends up in a small, isolated, rural town in northwestern Ontario, teaching in a one-room schooled. All while one love has married another because he managed to get her in the family way and another love has gone into the ministry.

 The Depression, followed by the rise of Naziism and Communism overseas, led into the Second World War and more separations and hardships ensued. But Ruth has created a strong character in Annie, one who can stand the test of time and come out ahead and above the trials and tribulations she endured.

 The plot revolves around the growing conflicts of the era: the Depression, political unrest, wars and, most significantly, the rights and position of women in society. Ruth has woven an engaging story that will both entertain and educate readers on this very tumultuous time in history. The descriptive narrative sets the stage, allowing the reader to step into the story and feel a part of it. Dialogue is well constructed, paying particular attention to the topics of discussion and the vocabulary relevant to this era. The protagonist, Annie, is a fun-loving young woman with a passion to succeed, to make something of herself, and to follow her dreams.

 As men and women struggled to come to terms with the need to find more equity between the sexes, Ruth struggles with her own sense of purpose and need to be who she wants to be while, at the same time, accepting her place and role in society as a woman. While her older sister stood up with the suffragettes fighting for women’s rights, Annie set her own course, seeking success and, hopefully, a permanent romantic attachment.

 I found the title interesting: A Girl Should Be. Apparently, Ruth adapted it from a quote from the Coco Chanel which reads: “A girl should be anything she wants to be.” It’s very apropos for a story about the changing roles of women in a difficult and, oft-time, unfair society. Annie desperately wants to be a successful fashion designer, but reality and the need to support herself, lead her initially on a slightly different path, one which she inevitably excels.

 The author’s mother and aunts were teachers in rural Ontario schools during the Depression and some of their stories influenced her understanding and appreciation for female teachers living in this era.

 I enjoy Ruth’s books and learning about women’s history in the early part of the twentieth century. The author demonstrates a sound knowledge of history, the ongoing fight for women’s rights and the compelling need to tell a good story. She does it all with a passion for the life and times and the women who made her-story as important and compelling as his-story. Well, done!

 

Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford, award-winning author of Queen Mary’s Daughter (Clean Reads: 2018), and King Henry’s Choice (Clean Reads: 2019).

 

 

    

 

 

  

Review of "A Girl Should Be",

 A Girl Should Be  

by Ruth Latta,

reviewed by Lorna Foreman

        A Girl Should Be (Ottawa, Baico, 2021, info@baico.ca   ISBN: 9781172169,  $30 sc)  is the latest novel by Ottawa author, Ruth Latta. Once again I am enthralled by her ability to take a protagonist through the changing and difficult times of our Canadian history.

        We follow Annie Tyler through some of Canada's tumultuous times, giving us a very personal  view of those periods.  Annie, in the 1920s, was a fun-loving young woman who matured while experiencing the devastating Depression of the 1930s, the rise of Nazi Germany and Soviet Communism and ultimately, World War II.

        I wish I could have learned history in the interesting way that the author presents it to us.  It was even more interesting for me because my mother would have been Annie's age at that time, so I have a much better understanding of what women like my mother lived through.  Women  were attempting to bring more equality to the relationship between men and women, and to play a different role in our society. They were starting to work outside of the home at a volatile period of history.

        The Depression brought enormous changes to women's lives, and men's, too. Annie matured through these years, developing into a more serious young woman trying to support herself while attending university and ultimately finding a job teaching in a remote region.  It is a fascinating read.  Ruth Latta is brilliant in drawing you into the story as though, you too, are living in those times.

    

our new home - hah!

Roger and I, posed in front of the children's playhouse at my niece's home in Englehart, ON. July 14, 2021
 

A GIRL SHOULD BE

A Girl Should Be  is the title of my new book, to be published later in 2021 by Baico Publishing of Ottawa. It's a stand-alone sequel to my novel, 

Votes, Love and War, published by Baico in 2019.  Votes is about the Manitoba Women's Suffrage movement and the First World War. It centred on a fictional character, a farm girl named Charlotte, but brought in historical figures such as the Beynon sisters, Nellie McClung, and other pioneers of the 20th century women's suffrage movement.

Charlotte was of a generation that came of age just before or during the First World War.  I am particularly interested in the history of the 1920s and 1930s, and decided to write another novel, focusing on Charlotte's younger sister, Annie.  Annie is as much of a "flapper" as she can be in rural and small town Manitoba in the 1920s.  Then, with the onset of the Great Depression, starting with the stock market crash in 1929, Annie's life changes.

Although Annie's chief interest is in fashion, she qualifies as a teacher and finds a job at a remote school in Northwestern Ontario, where she makes a success of a difficult job - but not so much in her personal life.

The title A Girl Should Be, is from a quote attributed to Coco Chanel, who is reported to have said, 

"A girl should be anything she wants to be."  The novel is about women's changing roles and the various social expectations of women at that time  (many of them unfair.)

In writing about Ontario backwoods schools of the 1930s I was inspired by the experiences of my mother and three of her sisters who were rural teachers during the Depression years and afterwards.  I hasten to add that none of these ladies was the real Annie, who is a fictional creation.

 

review of Closer to Fine

Here is my review of Jodi S. Rosenfeld's novel, Closer to Fine :

	8:03 AM (1 hour ago)

  http://www.compulsivereader.com/2021/05/15/a-review-of-closer-to-fine-by-jodi-s-rosenfeld/

my review of "Sylvia Pankhurst" by Rachel Holmes

Here is my "Compulsive Reader" review of "Sylvia Pankhurst:Natural Born Rebel", by Rachel Holmes 

 http://www.compulsivereader.com/2021/04/08/a-review-of-sylvia-pankhurst-natural-born-rebel-by-rachel-holmes/

Sylvia Pankhurst is mentioned in my novel, "Votes, Love and War" (Ottawa, Baico, 2019, info@baico.ca)

ISBN 978-1-77216-191-5

Cover of "A Girl Should Be"

 This is the cover of my novel, A Girl Should Be, which will be published later in 2021.

The painting, "Sunrise" is by my husband, Roger Latta.

A Girl Should Be

 "Write what you like to read" is a time-honoured principle for novelists. I've always liked historical novels, with an elementary school favourite being "Rebels Ride at Night", about the 1837 Rebellion in Upper Canada.  More recently, I've enjoyed historical fiction by Paula Maclean, Paulette Jiles, Isabelle Allende, Sofia Segovia - to name just a few authors. I'm particularly interested in the history of the Left, in Canada and elsewhere.

Having studied history, (Ruth "Olson", M.A., Queen's University, 1973) I've decided to blend his my interest in the past and in fiction into novels of my own. I've written seven so far. Six  are in print, and available through libraries or from me, and a seventh, called "A Girl Should Be" is now at Baico Publishing (info@baico.ca) and may be in print in the fall of 2021. All of these novels are published by Baico Publishing of Ottawa, Canada

Before telling you about "A Girl Should Be", I'll say a few words about my first six historicals.

"The Secret of White Birch Road", 2005, is a girls' mystery set in the 1950s.   

"The Songcatcher and Me", 2013, involves folk song collecting in Ontario in the 1950s and has a co-protagonist loosely based on the Canadian folk song collector, Edith Fowke.

The two Grace books are about Grace Woodsworth, (1905-1991), later Grace MacInnis,  a democratic socialist, Canadian Parliamentarian and women's advocate. "Grace and the Secret Vault", 2017, is a young adult novel about Grace and her family in 1919 at the time of the Winnipeg General Strike.  "Grace in Love", 2018, is about Grace's  life and emotions in Paris and then in Ottawa, between 1928 and 1933.

"Votes, Love and War", 2019, takes readers back to Manitoba women's suffrage movement in the teens of the 20th century, and to the First World War, from the perspective of  Charlotte, a young Winnipeg housemaid who became a teacher. Real people mix with fictional characters in this novel, as in the Grace novels. In "Votes, Love and War" we meet two sisters, Lillian Beynon Thomas and Francis Marion Beynon, who in real life played crucial roles in Western Canada's women's suffrage movement.

In "A Girl Should Be", the novel I recently mailed to Ray Coderre of Baico Publishing, I've taken a minor character from "Votes, Love and War" (Charlotte's little sister, Annie) and set the novel in the late 1920s and early 1930s. 

The title, "A Girl Should Be", is from a quote from Coco Chanel: "A girl should be who and what she wants." It fits my novel, since Annie, my central character, is affected by the fierce debate and ever-changing attitudes of the day about what a woman's role should be.

 Also, there's a saying, "I'd rather be a human be-ing than a human doing." What Annie wants is to find herself and be that self - a challenge in the late 1920s and early years of the Great Depression.

"A Girl Should Be", won't be out until later in 2021. If you would like a copy of any of my other books, email Ray at Baico Publishing (info@baico.ca) and ask him for my telephone number and/or email address, and we'll talk arrangements.

My cat, Lily, likes my birthday balloon.

 

A Covid-19 Tale

 A COVID-19 TALE

This joke was sent to me by a friend. I don't know the original author.

Please be careful, because people are going crazy from being locked down at home. I was just talking about this with the microwave and the toaster while drinking my coffee, and we all agreed that things are getting bad.

I didn't mention any of this  to the washing machine because she puts a different spin on everything. Certainly I didn't share it with the fridge, because he's been acting cold. The iron tried to straighten me out. She said the situation isn't all that pressing and that all the wrinkles will soon get ironed out.

The vacuum, however, was very unsympathetic and told me to suck it up. But the fan was very optimistic and gave me hope that it will soon blow over.

The toilet looked a bit flushed but didn't say anything when I asked its opinion, but the front door said I was becoming unhinged, and the doorknob told me to get a grip.

You can guess what the curtains told me. They told me to "pull myself together."

Link to my review of "The Lying Life of Adults" in "Compulsive Reader"

http://www.compulsivereader.com/2021/02/08/a-review-of-the-lying-life-of-adults-by-elena-ferrante/

Above is the link.

Reading and writing my way through a shut-down

 Reading and writing have been important to me during the shut-down. Both allow one to escape thoughts of the pandemic for  a little while.

Writing?  I'm revising a stand-alone sequel to my 2019 novel, Votes, Love and War (Ottawa, Baico, info@baico.ca) The new novel takes place in the late 1920s and early 1930s and centres on Annie, the younger sister of Charlotte, who was the protagonist of V,L and W.  Annie is the quintessential flapper girl, to the extent that one could be a flapper in rural and small town Manitoba. With the 1929 stock market crash and the start of the Great Depression, life becomes more serious.

My favourite genre is historical novels, and I've come upon some great ones during these months at home. Thank goodness the Ottawa Public Library is providing at-the-door pick-ups and drop-offs. 

Here are some novels I recommend to those who like to travel back in time and learn a little about the past while being entertained.

Isabel Allende's A Long Petal of the Sea,  follows some compelling characters who are involved with the anti-fascist side in the Spanish Civil War, and then cross the ocean to settle in Chile, where they are caught up in the 1976 U.S.-supported coup of the military, which overthrew the liberal/leftwing government of Salvador Allende (Isabel's cousin.)

Sofia Segovia, the Mexican author who wrote The Murmur of Bees, has a new novel coming out in the spring.. Tears of Amber, her new novel, which I obtained as a review copy from Compulsive Reader, is inspired by a true story. Segovia traces the lives of two rural children growing up in rural East Prussia during the Nazi period, and their struggle to survive. Their flight from the invading Soviet forces in 1945 is gripping and gruesome.  

The novel focuses on the impact of war upon women and children.  East Prussia is no longer an entity on the map. After the First World War it became part of Poland, but when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939 this area, which was disputed for centuries, went under German control again.  After World War II it was divided up among Poland, Lithuania and the U.S.S.R. Segovia's writing is poetic and evocative, and her research extensive.

I love Italian author Elena Ferrante's novels that comprise the Neopolitan Quartet. Her new novel, The Lying Lives of Adults, a coming-of-age story, is set in late 20th century Naples. Unlike the novels in the Quartet, which are about two girls who take two different routes in an effort to escape their impoverished  beginnings, the central character in The Lying Lives comes from a middle-class professional family.  Her interest in tracing her working class roots on one side of her family is educative in many ways.

Another recent novel, Writers and Lovers by American author Lily King, struck a chord with me because the central character is an aspiring writer. Her writing makes her life meaningful in a tough world.  She puts up belittling, nay-saying reactions to her vocation, the sort of crap that gets slung at all writers. All of this is presented in a humorous way. Since reading this novel I have requested several more of her books.