I love reading historical fiction and typically take the story with a grain of salt; however, a few books have piqued my interest, like Ashes Of Roses. Below are my thoughts about MJ Auch’s work. She has a special knack for making the reader feel a part of the story, and this is one of the few books I have actually cried over. I hope this review encourages you to pick up this book and look into it this time.
Published by Macmillan Publishing group
Ashes Of Roses by MJ Auch. Pictures, bibliography. $10.99 (paper), ISBN 978-0-312-53580-3 Publisher
MJ Auch is a children’s book author who writes various books for youth. In her historical fiction work Ashes of Roses, she writes of a young Irish girl (Rose) who immigrants with her family to the United States. Auch shows the struggles and harsh truths of the past into reality through her writing. Most historical fiction works focus more on dramatizing or idealizing versions of history, but Auch maintains a firm grasp on fact while personalizing this fictional work. Through this book, youth and adult readers can enjoy a beautifully written story with educational benefits that will stick with the reader months after reading it.
Auch begins her book with the Nolan family arriving at Ellis Island from Ireland. Right at the beginning, readers start to see the sad truth of the United States’ immigration standards as all six members of the Nolan family are separated and put into lines by age and gender, “We were given numbered tags and split into long lines. They separated the men from the women, and then the women with small children” (pp. 12). After everyone was separated, next was to be a physical examination, which determined if an individual would be allowed entry into the country. Auch touches on the gravity of this situation through a scene where the infant and sole boy child of the Nolan’s (Joseph) was turned down because of a suspected eye disease, “It’s his eyes. They’re sayin’ he has some sort of infection. They told me the name. Nobody with the disease is allowed in the country” (pp. 16). Unfortunately, this was the reality for many individuals. The United States policy was strict in its acceptance of individuals as the United States wanted to increase the number of working-class individuals in the country. “Of more than 25 million arriving immigrants inspected by the Public Health Service from 1891 to 1930, only some 700,000 were medically certified as being diseased or defective in some way”. However, this is not a large percentage of people who tried to enter the country. This inspection process would have impacted many families (Barde pp. 1). Through the United States’ immigration policies, many families were split up and had to find their way back home if they could afford to do so, as many families spent most of their finances to reach America. The trip to The United States was a financial risk for many families; they also had to worry about the emotional toll resulting from this drastic movement. The Nolans in Auch’s story face emotional struggles when Joseph is not allowed in the country. Da (the Father) had to take the infant back to Ireland because the family did not have enough money to transport everyone back to Ireland. Ma (the mother) was utterly distraught about being separated from her son. No matter the age, the reader can see how complicated this risk of moving to the United States was for families who migrated to America in the early 1900s.
Auch covers multiple issues resulting from immigration apart from the coming to The United States. For example, finding work, living arrangements, and raising children in new communities would be necessary while navigating a new country’s customs and laws. Fortunately, Rose and the other Nolan girls have a place to live in the United States with Uncle Patrick. However, this comes with some struggles as their family faced a great deal of conflict since the primary breadwinner had to travel back to Ireland, and rent still must be paid. Although Ma and Rose can take in sewing, there is little cliental. With the lack of money and sewing, Rose takes it on herself to get a job to get out of the house to provide for her family. As Rose asks around for work, she finds it difficult to find employment since she lacks high-level skills. It is not until Rose meets Mr. Moscovitz that she is offered a job as a rose maker for him (pp. 75). Excitedly Rose accepts the job, but Mr. Moscovitz is not hiring girls around Rose’s age solely for cheap labor; he also sexually abuses them. For example, when Rose comes to Mr. Moscovitz to deliver the roses she has made for him, he forces himself on her (pp. 134-135). Auch does keep the sexual abuse manageable for young readers but brings out the abuse many children face due to immigration costs (leaving most families poor) and racial and religious ridicule. Through Auch touching on such topics as abuse from business owners, she sheds light on the realities of people who migrated to the United States in the 1900s.
While figuring out where to live, employment, and in some cases finding a way to cope with the abuse they received from others, many had to learn new skills or how to use new technologies from the industrial revolution for factory work. Auch includes this in her book nicely, as Rose’s family was able to give her contact with an employer at the Tringle Shirtwaist factory. Still, she needed to know how to use a sewing machine. Rose had always sewn by hand, so this would be a new experience for her. Fortunately, she could practice with a machine before working in the factory because of the kindness of her cousin (pp. 150). However, most girls would not have this opportunity. They would have to learn on the job with very little training, which would have resulted in injuries during factory life, especially as child labor laws and working hours were not as they are today. Auch plays well on the dangers of working in a factory and chooses the Tringle Shirtwaist factory as here setting for the employment of Rose and uses the fire that breaks out at this factory to briefly show the conditions of factory life and how such fires as at the famous Tringle Shirtwaist factory began. Auch also does a beautiful job of including methods of rescuing people from burning buildings in the early 1900s. She describes how the firefighters were helping people out of the building but ended up leading many to their deaths by jumping out of windows onto improper equipment (pp. 207). Auch displays the consequences of such working conditions and the lack of safety protocol for migrants and workers during this time in history.
Ultimately, this migration story shows the great disaster and loss many immigrants faced as they moved to the United States. Although this is a fictional tale, Auch brings up many of the troubles one had to face through this time of great migration into the United States. The reader gets invested within the story, making one mourn the loss of lives that were taken during tragic events such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. In the last few pages of the book, Auch memorizes those lost in the fire, brings the reader out of the fictional world she created and gives pictures and names of those who died, bringing one into reality this time.
Barde, Robert. “Reviews: ‘Science at the Borders: Immigrant Medical Inspection and the Shaping of the Modern Industrial Labor Force,’ by Amy L. Fairchild.” Journal of American ethnic history 23, no. 3 (2004): 106–107.
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