Red Mansions

May 1, 2014
The lively sequel to City of Slaughter (2012) picks up the life of milliner Carsie Akselrod Nussbaum, who has made what seems a stable life for herself, her two daughters, and her successful lawyer husband in 1920s New York City. But life's disconcerting vagaries shake them all with a diverting series of challenging yet possibly bolstering events. Estelle, Carsie's difficult mother-in-law, serves as a sharp thorn, reminding Carsie of who and what proper Jewish women of the time should be. Rival daughters Sophia and Sarit face their own tribulations and consequence-filled choices. When Carsie's first husband, presumed killed in WWI, shows up very much alive, his presence threatens not only Carsie's happiness but also, perhaps, his own. Historical figures and events such as Margaret Sanger, Georgia O'Keeffe, Alfred Stieglitz, and the Lindbergh baby kidnapping are scattered throughout the pages as the narrative reaches 1940. A multicharacter lens offers a broad yet detailed story of intertwining lives, dangling hopes, and hard-won dreams of people making their waysor notthrough an early-twentieth-century big city.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)