R E K. (bigstone) - , reviewed on + 1438 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
"If you leave Opi you'll die with strangers," said her mother to Irma Vitale. Yet she leaves Opi, not when her brother does, but later upon the advice of Father Anselmo and Zia Carmela, her aunt. Afraid to go and afraid to stay after her father made sexual advances, Irma takes the dowry her father gives her and gold from Zia and begins her trip to America.
For a naive peasant girl, the trip holds many experiences. She is robbed, losing the gold, and what little she has, but she gets to Cleveland where her brother, Carlos, said he would be. Finding no Carlos, she takes a job sewing collars, saves her money, and sets off for Chicago only to be robbed again. Returning to that job, she finds it difficult to save because many of her collars are taken or refused by the boss. When she has an opportunity to steal from the boss, she does so, heading for Chicago fearfully, sure that around every corner is a policeman ready to arrest her.
At last she can fulfill her dream of becoming a dressmaker of fine clothing but she runs out of money and, at last, desperate, mends a woman's plaid dress in the park and finds herself pleading to be hired by the woman's dressmaker. Although the exchange is demeaning and painful, eventually she is hired by the French woman who makes the woman's clothing. But Chicago holds more trauma and Irma is brutally raped. When she finds herself pregnant, she goes to a woman for an abortion. That woman, Sophia, becomes a friend and Irma discovers that helping others with medical problems is more fulfilling than dressmaking. The story, takes another turn when Sophia woman dies. Devastated and grief stricken, Irma leaves for San Francisco hoping to study to become a nurse, another difficult endeaver.
Sad or happy, Irma's story tugs at the heart as the reader finds oneself identifying with her experiences, good and bad. This is a wonderful, realistic and inspiring tale. I loved it.
For a naive peasant girl, the trip holds many experiences. She is robbed, losing the gold, and what little she has, but she gets to Cleveland where her brother, Carlos, said he would be. Finding no Carlos, she takes a job sewing collars, saves her money, and sets off for Chicago only to be robbed again. Returning to that job, she finds it difficult to save because many of her collars are taken or refused by the boss. When she has an opportunity to steal from the boss, she does so, heading for Chicago fearfully, sure that around every corner is a policeman ready to arrest her.
At last she can fulfill her dream of becoming a dressmaker of fine clothing but she runs out of money and, at last, desperate, mends a woman's plaid dress in the park and finds herself pleading to be hired by the woman's dressmaker. Although the exchange is demeaning and painful, eventually she is hired by the French woman who makes the woman's clothing. But Chicago holds more trauma and Irma is brutally raped. When she finds herself pregnant, she goes to a woman for an abortion. That woman, Sophia, becomes a friend and Irma discovers that helping others with medical problems is more fulfilling than dressmaking. The story, takes another turn when Sophia woman dies. Devastated and grief stricken, Irma leaves for San Francisco hoping to study to become a nurse, another difficult endeaver.
Sad or happy, Irma's story tugs at the heart as the reader finds oneself identifying with her experiences, good and bad. This is a wonderful, realistic and inspiring tale. I loved it.
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