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A Modern-Day Heroine From the Late Eighteen Hundreds
"This manuscript won the Association of Jewish Libraries tenth annual Sydney Taylor Manuscript Competition.We selected this book on the basis of absorbing plot, believable dialogue, accurate historical settings, and exciting characterization, in addition to positive Jewish values."
--Zachary Backer, President, Association of Jewish Libraries
Set in New York City in 1890, After I Said No, by Sheila Golburgh Johnson, is a novel for young adults and mature adults alike. It tells the story of Perele Sokolov's arrival in America from tsarist Russia, and her struggle to find her place in a new world full of opportunity, where she also finds oppression and discrimination.
Brought from Russia by her aunt Heddie, Perele is expected to marry her cousin David, a choice she doesn't make for herself, and doesn't accept. Unable to make peace with her aunt, Perele (now changed to the more American "Pearl") runs away and finds Frieda, a young friend she met on her ocean voyage to America. Frieda lives in a miserable flat of rented rooms, and Pearl joins her there and goes to work with Frieda in a garment district sweatshop.
Pearl has many struggles after this break with her family and the life she's known. She and her coworkers suffer in their living and working conditions and at the mercy of their employer. There are strikes, violent outbreaks, and disappointments as Pearl tries to improve her situation, and she learns from these events.
But Pearl is a talented seamstress, and works hard in the garment industry. Finally, she makes an innovative contribution to the women's garment industry by designing a maternity dress that's attractive, flattering, and practical. With perseverance and good sense, Pearl starts her own business offering women the first ready-to-wear maternity dress, which is a great success. She also meets a suitor she truly admires and likes, and eventually falls in love with him.
Pearl is an early champion of the women's movement not because she is politically motivated or because she sets out to break with tradition or socially accepted oppression, but because her desires and personality aren't in line with society's expectations of her. Pearl won't accept choices that have been made for her, and as a result she changes her life and the lives of those around her. After I Said No gives us a modern heroine from nearly a hundred years ago.
Sheila Golburgh Johnson teaches poetry, and writes poetry, fiction, and reference articles. She has won awards for writing, including a residency at "Cottages of Hedgebrook," a writer's colony on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound, that allowed her to complete her work on this novel. |
