Genre: Book
Grade: A-
Notable People: Jeanine Cummins
Title: The Crooked Branch
Review: after two books, Cummins is fast becoming one of my favorite new wave of young American authors. Following up the brilliant “American Dirt” with this powerful novel about two women related by blood, and separated by an ocean and two hundred years; one in County Mayo, Ireland during the great potato famine, and her great, great, great granddaughter in contemporary Queens, NY. Cummins continues her in depth portrayal of the live of “immigrants in one form or another (the modern woman has immigrated from a trendy Manhattan life to what she calls the hell of suburban queens after the birth of a first child, which may be no less an immigration than that of her ancestors). The modern tales of angst and post-partum depression wore a bit thin on me over the course of the book, but were still quite compelling, and the alternating chapters focused on mid-19th century Ireland were just plan riveting. Get characters, great storytelling, powerful messages about love, fear, survival, intimacy, trust and class. Great stuff.