For a well-bred young lady in 1900, the path to a comfortable life was clear: marry a wealthy gentleman. But what happens when that path clashes with a woman’s own burgeoning sense of justice and morality? This central question lies at the heart of Jennifer L. Wright’s Last Light Over Galveston, my book review choice for this month.
Kathleen, a fictional eighteen-year-old from the Hudson Valley north of New York city, returns home with a new perspective on life after two years at a European finishing school. This creates a major conflict with her father, Lawrence, who raised her to become a genteel wealthy lady.
Kathleen’s presence at both the Croton Dam strike in the spring of 1900 and the Galveston, TX, hurricane of 1900, forces her to choose between her father’s values and her own, changing the direction of her life.
Major Characters:
- Kathleen McDaniel—protagonist, young woman seeking her identity; she struggles to reconcile her privileged upbringing with the needy people and world she encounters
- Lawrence McDaniel—father of Kathleen, wealthy farmer who hoped to secure his wealth by building a major dam on his land
- Wesley Odell—impoverished young man, photographer and first love of Kathleen
- Matthew Richter—young meteorologist protégé of Isaac Cline, befriended Kathleen
- Theodore Walsh—Businessman recruited by Lawrence McDaniel to help fund dam construction and marry Kathleen
- Isaac Cline—Galveston celebrity meteorologist and leading U.S. expert on storms who badly erred in his assessment of Galveston’s hurricane risk
- Joseph Cline—brother of Isaac, also a meteorologist who never admitted any role in the Galveston disaster
- Mother Camillus Tracy—strict but loving head of St. Mary’s orphanage; she took in Kathleen, in spite of her advanced age for placement in an orphanage
- Emily—Kathleen’s roommate at St. Mary’s orphanage; an aspiring nun and inspiration to Kathleen
- Maggie—lonely young girl in St. Mary’s orphanage; Kathleen took her under her wing
Strengths:
This novel presents fascinating portrayals of Kathleen’s personal development and the backgrounds of the Croton Dam strike and the Galveston hurricane
Weakness:
Alternating chapters—between Kathleen’s lives in a manor house in New York’s Hudson Valley and in Galveston—may cause confusion for readers
Content review:
Descriptions of the casualties of both the Croton Dam strike violence and the Galveston hurricane are appropriate for mature readers
My Recommendation:
Last Light over Galveston is a powerful reminder of the significant storms that rage within us. It masterfully weaves together the Croton Dam strike and the cataclysmic Galveston hurricane of 1900 with the internal turmoil of a young woman fighting to define her own identity in a world that has already prescribed it for her. I recommend this novel to readers who enjoy coming of age stories, especially with inspirational themes, set within the context of historical events.
Reader, can you recommend a book, non-fiction or fiction, about a natural disaster and its impact on individuals?