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The Crooked Branch (2013)

by Jeanine Cummins(Favorite Author)

4.09 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0451239245 (ISBN13: 9780451239242)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

NAL Trade

review 1: This novel is a tale of two worlds. One is in 1846 -47, Ireland, during the potato famine. It features Ginny Doyle and her family. The second is set in New York City, the time is now. It involves Majella, her husband, Leo, and their new baby Emma. Ginny is an ancestor of Majella. Ginny experiences extreme trauma as her husband sets off to America while she struggles to feed her four kids. Majella has postpartum depression. After finding Ginny's diary in the attic of her parent's house, Majella imagines that she has inherited a mental defect: she feels she is a terrible mother and is going nuts: hearing crunching noises where no noise exists. This same crunching is described in Ginny's diary. The chapters trade off between the time periods. The author does a good job of ... moremaking each time and culture feel real. The Irish part of the story is very engrossing. It is a bit harder to relate to Majella after reading about starvation in the prior chapter.
review 2: How much sympathy can one really have for a young urban mother who really 'has nothing to complain about'? By contrasting Majella's 'pampered' lifestyle to the bitter hardships of the 1847 Irish peasants, Cummins could easily have made Majella's post-partum depression seem a case of extreme self-indulgence. However, through deft storytelling Cummins weaves the tales of modern and ancestral motherhood to compliment each other and create a lovely balance. Majella's ghosts are laid to rest, and this reader was left with an understanding of two very different mothers and the overwhelming love that they held in common. less

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