I really enjoyed this book! I’m not gonna lie, I knew absolutely nothing about the any of the people or events mentioned in this book going in. I was flying fully by the vibes of the cover and the summary. The writing was lovely, and it’s very clear that Prendergast did an amazing amount of research, especially considering how poorly documented women of the gilded age are.
My only nitpick would be that there was perhaps a bit too much supposition on the feelings of Nora May and Carrie. The author points that we must fill in the blanks of under documented lives and events, and I can agree to an extent. There are certain conclusions we can draw based on the accounts of others in the same or similar situations. However, I find the very detailed statements of action or thought or feeling - especially feeling - to be a bit of a stretch. It’s easy to superimpose our own reactions and emotions onto others, which can be pretty detrimental to the painting of one’s character. We tend to be sympathetic to those we can compare to us, but without facts backing these feelings, we are simply making these women into what we want of them, and does that not make us just as bad as the bohemian men that used and then slandered them?
For me, it places this book in a weird middle ground where it’s not completely non-fiction, but it’s not historical fiction either. It’s some highbreed that makes the book very readable, but it also makes me a bit hesitant to accept some of the statements made. Often, Predergast will later reveal that there is in fact outside information supporting what initially may have first read as a supposition, which can relieve some of the uncertainty but has also left me even more confused as to what is and is not ture.
Regardless, this book is so very clearly chock full of information that can’t be found by a casual (or not so casual, if you have a tendency to hyper focus like moi) Google search. I have to 1000% recommend this book. It is so clearly a labor of love on Prendergast’s part. And make no mistake - it was clearly what anyone would consider a labor. She describes the different libraries and archives she visited; the transcripts she had to make of documents when photographs of documents had a limit placed on them and the frustration of having to dig through collections of papers by men whose names are memorialized despite their work being no more known than women’s.
4.5 rounded up to 5 for GoodReads because I honestly adored this read and my only nitpick was also one that honestly served the book's readability and reminded me that these long(ish) dead people were in fact that - people. Not characters. Can’t wait to purchase a physical copy for my personal collection.