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Overview
During World War I, seventeen-year-old Frieda Mintz secures a job at a Boston department store and strikes out on her own, escaping her repressive Jewish mother and marriage to a wealthy widower twice her age. Determined to find love on her own terms, she is intoxicated by her newfound freedom and the patriotic fervor of the day. That is, until a soldier reports her as his last sexual contact, sweeping her up in the government’s wartime crusade against venereal disease. Quarantined in a detention center, Frieda finds in the Home’s confines a group of brash, unforgettable women who help her see the way to a new kind of independence.
Charity Girl is based on a little-known chapter in American history that saw fifteen thousand women across the nation incarcerated. Like When the Emperor Was Divine, Lowenthal’s poignant, provocative novel will leave readers moved - and astonished by the shameful facts that inspired it.
Synopsis
During World War I, seventeen-year-old Frieda Mintz secures a job at a Boston department store and strikes out on her own, escaping her repressive Jewish mother and marriage to a wealthy widower twice her age. Determined to find love on her own terms, she is intoxicated by her newfound freedom and the patriotic fervor of the day. That is, until her soldier beau reports her as his last sexual contact, sweeping her up in the government s wartime crusade against venereal disease. Quarantined in a detention center, Frieda finds within the Home's confines a group of brash, unforgettable women who help her see the way to a new kind of independence.
Charity Girl is based on a little-known chapter in American history that saw fifteen thousand women across the nation incarcerated. Lowenthal s poignant, provocative novel will leave readers moved — and astonished by the shameful facts that inspired it.
The Washington Post - Anita Shreve
That few readers of Lowenthal's deserving novel will ever have heard of the detention of the "charity girls" is astonishing. That Lowenthal has made us aware of them is nothing short of a gift.
Editorials
From the Publisher
“Lively and illuminating . . . marr[ies] the facts of history with the details that make a fictional life come alive.”—Anita Shreve The Washington Post“Even while capturing the great sweep of the period, Charity Girl celebrates most the depth of the characters’ lives.”—Matthew Pearl
William Gaffney
Lowenthal’s narrative style is perfect for a heroine who suffers but remains a survivor, striking just the right mix of dark and light, worldly and innocent. Providing Frieda with flickers of humor and joy, he guarantees her our sympathy.— The New York Times
Anita Shreve
That few readers of Lowenthal's deserving novel will ever have heard of the detention of the "charity girls" is astonishing. That Lowenthal has made us aware of them is nothing short of a gift.— The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
Focusing on a little-known WWI-era government campaign to imprison women who'd contracted "social diseases," Lowenthal (The Same Embrace; Avoidance) follows the travails of a 17-year-old Boston girl as she's put through the system's wringer. Frieda Mintz is a bundle wrapper at a department store living on her own when she meets Felix Morse, an army private. After a date at a Red Sox game, they sleep together. Not long after, Mrs. Sprague from the "Committee on Prevention of Social Evils Surrounding Military Camps," hounds Frieda at her workplace because Felix, during an inspection that uncovers he has an infection, names Frieda as his "last contact." After her case of "the whites" flares up and she loses her job, Frieda follows Felix to Camp Devens, where she's arrested and put into quarantine. Behind bars, she befriends Flossie Collins, and the two are sent to a detention camp, where they undergo crude medical treatment and perform mandatory manual labor alongside a host of other quarantined women. As her body heals and conditions worsen at the detention center, tensions rise to a wrenching climax. Lowenthal ably captures the transformation of a na ve adolescent into a woman in his provocative story. (Jan.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.KLIATT -
Frieda Mintz is a young teenage girl looking for a way to grow up and away from her strict mother, especially after her butcher father dies from a knife cut her mother blames Frieda for. She gets a job at a nice department store and starts to go with older girls to dances where she meets soldiers on their way to combat in WW I. Her mother tries to marry her off to an older widower with children, and when Frieda meets a young soldier, she sees him both as a love and an escape. Unfortunately, he infects her with a venereal disease and reports her as his last conquest. This leads to her to be quarantined in a government detention center until she has recovered, along with many other girls. This was the fate of 15,000 girls during this time period who were punished for their boyfriends' indiscretions. Frieda uses this time to grow up, learn from the other girls and discover the true nature of her wealthy boyfriend and his family. Not only is this a well-written coming-of-age story, it also explores an interesting time in our history and its attitudes about the status of women and the vast differences between the poor and the wealthy. Reviewer: Nola TheissLibrary Journal
In his third novel (after Avoidanceand The Same Embrace), Lowenthal creates a captivating fictional account of the U.S. government's forced quarantine of thousands of young women who were found near military bases and suspected of having venereal disease during World War I. Seventeen-year-old Frieda Mintz, who has fled her family's home, works as a shop girl by day and often dances in the Boston ballrooms at night. It is when Frieda meets and spends the night with a young soldier, Felix Morse, with whom she becomes smitten, that the trouble begins. While trying to visit him at his military camp, Frieda is picked up and sent to a detention home, where she tests positive for VD. Quarantined and placed under treatment, Frieda hopes Felix will come to her aid. Her growing compassion and gradual awakening in the midst of a situation where humiliation and shame conspire to degrade these young women forms the core of this story. Several of the novel's other characters are equally memorable, and Lowenthal writes in a tempo that keeps this a spirited and exciting story. Recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ9/15/06.]—Maureen Neville