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WORK TITLE: All Waiting Is Long
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://barbarajtaylor.com/
CITY: Scranton
STATE: PA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY: American
http://www.akashicbooks.com/author/barbara-j-taylor/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:Wilkes University, M.F.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Educator and writer. Pocono Mountain School District, PA, English teacher.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Schoolteacher-turned-novelist Barbara J. Taylor is the author of two novels, Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night and its sequel, All Waiting Is Long. Both stories are set in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and both explore family dynamics.
Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night
Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night takes place in the early 1900s, and begins when a young woman named Daisy is killed by fireworks. Her parents, Grace and Owen Morgan, mourn the loss deeply. While Owen swallows his grief and returns to his work in the mines, Grace is left at home to dwell in her pain. Grace comes to believe that Grief is personified, a haunting figure that follows her wherever she goes. As Grace persists in her delusions, Owen abandons her. He also abandons the church. In the meantime, their surviving children are left to pick up the pieces. Daisy’s younger sister, eight-year-old Violet, begins to cut school. As Grace slowly begins to heal, Owen loses his hand in a mining accident. The amputation serves as a sort of wakeup call, and he and Grace begin to repair their marriage. Just as the Morgan family begins to right itself, the town is beset by two very real threats, a questionable evangelist and a dangerous blizzard.
Sharing her writing process in an online Land of Books interview, Taylor remarked: “I had always wanted to write, but it wasn’t until I was in my forties that I actually got serious about it. Back in 2006, I enrolled in Wilkes University’s Low Residency Creative Writing Graduate Program to learn how to write a novel. Students attend two one-week residencies per year, and the rest of the work is completed online. As part of our second residency, we had to pitch story ideas to potential mentors. While I didn’t have a complete vision for my novel, I knew I wanted to use a variation of a family tragedy as the inciting incident.”
Praising the result on the Story Circle Book Reviews Web site, Ann McCauley declared, “Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night is a story of hope and the joy of survival. A community of well-developed characters, subtle wit, and plot twists create a haunting story that will stay with the reader long after reading this novel.” Online Historical Novel Society correspondent Anne Clinard Barnhill was equally laudatory, asserting: “This story is at once poignant and hopeful,” making for “a rich debut.” As a Publishers Weekly critic put it, Taylor’s book is “an earnest, well-done historical novel that skillfully blends fact and fiction.”
All Waiting Is Long
All Waiting Is Long is set in the 1930s and follows Daisy’s sisters, Violet and Lily Morgan. Violet is in her twenties now, while Lily is only sixteen–so when Lily realizes that she is pregnant, Violet takes her to the Good Shepherd Infant Asylum in Philadelphia. The nuns there will take care of Lily until the baby is born, and then they will find a good family to adopt it. While the nuns mean well, their lead doctor is a eugenicist who is secretly sterilizing the unwed teenage mothers after their children are born. He is also conducting experiments on them. In the wake of the trauma she receives at the doctor’s hands, Violet struggles to return to her home, her family, and her fiancé.
Like its predecessor, All Waiting Is Long fared well with critics. A Publishers Weekly columnist announced that the novel presents “a web of interconnected lives that come together for a breathtaking ending in Taylor’s fine sequel.” In the words of online Book Pleasures correspondent Gordon Osmond: “The theme of the awakening of natural maternal instincts is a potent one and can always be counted upon to cause no end of trouble to those that have settled in to the deception of false or assumed motherhood.” Osmond added: “Ms. Taylor writes with total mastery of her craft. Her similes and metaphors are born of a highly developed abstractive sensitivity, and her dialogues are unerringly true to their respective speakers.” McCauley, writing again in Story Circle Book Reviews, was also impressed. She found, “It is Taylor’s finely honed characters that hold the reader’s attention. Taylor creates a depth rarely seen into the relationship of sisters, neighbors and childhood friendships. These characters thread their way through unexpected plot twists to make All Waiting Is Long another unforgettable novel.” According to Historical Novel Society contributor Kristina Blank Makansi, the characters “reflect the varying pressures and expectations of small-town life with rich, insightful prose and dialogue that rings true to each character’s voice.” Offering further applause in a Booklist assessment, Donna Chavez declared that “the overall result is a thought-provoking book-club-discussion cornucopia.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, June 1, 2016, Donna Chavez, review of All Waiting Is Long, p. 55.
Publishers Weekly, April 7, 2014, review of Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night, p. 40; May 30, 2016, review of All Waiting Is Long, p. 36.
ONLINE
Barbara J. Taylor Home Page, http://barbarajtaylor.com (March 1, 2017).
Book Pleasures, http://www.bookpleasures.com/ (March 1, 2017), Gordon Osmond, review of All Waiting Is Long.
Historical Novel Society Web site, https://historicalnovelsociety.org/ (November 1, 2014), Anne Clinard Barnhill, review of Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night; (August 1, 2016), Kristina Blank Makansi, review of All Waiting Is Long.
Land of Books, https://landofbooks.org/ (April 4, 2015), author interview.
Story Circle Book Reviews, http://www.storycirclebookreviews.org/ (May 28, 2014) Ann McCauley, review of Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night; (April 28, 2016), Ann McCauley, review of All Waiting Is Long.
Barbara J. Taylor
Barbara J. Taylor
BARBARA J. TAYLOR lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania, home of the second-largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the country. She has an MFA in creative writing from Wilkes University and teaches English in the Pocono Mountain School District. She is the author of Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night and All Waiting Is Long.
Barbara J. Taylor
Barbara J. Taylor lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania, home of the second-largest St.Patrick’s Day parade in the country. She has an MFA in creative writing from Wilkes University and teaches English in the Pocono Mountain School District. All Waiting Is Long is the sequel to her debut novel, Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night, named a “Best Book of Summer 2014” by Publishers Weekly.
Barbara J. Taylor on Writing All Waiting Is Long
I wrote All Waiting Is Long because I was curious to see how the tragedy in my first novel, Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night, affected my characters over time, particularly Violet, who was eight years old when her sister’s accident occurred. All Waiting Is Long opens in 1930, and Violet is twenty-five. Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night was loosely based on the death of my great-aunt Pearl. On the day of her baptism, she and her friends were playing with sparklers when Pearl’s dress caught on fire. Her younger sister Janet witnessed the accident, and though she lived into her eighties, she didn’t have the happiest life. I always wondered how much of that stemmed from what she saw that day.
While I can’t answer that question for Janet, I decided to do the next best thing—answer it for my character, Violet, who was with her sister during a similar accident.
As soon as I knew what question I wanted to explore, I started researching the 1920s and ’30s. Along the way, I came across materials advocating “practical eugenics” in America. Medical books focused on “social hygiene,” recommending such ideas as “Eugenic Marriage Licenses” and “Sterilization of the Unfit.” Country fairs held “Fitter Family Contests,” selecting winners based on animal breeding principles, and the American Eugenics Society sponsored sermon competitions, encouraging clergymen to promote the movement through scripture. Much of this material inspired a secondary story line in All Waiting Is Long.
—Barbara J. Taylor
https://landofbooks.org/2015/04/04/barbara-j-taylor-sing-in-the-morning-cry-at-night-took-me-3-4-years/
Barbara J. Taylor is living the dream of a successful debuting author. Her first novel Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night was published in July 2014 and very fast became a hit. The book averaged 4.5 Amazon stars from 120 plus reviews. How tough was the road for Barbara J. Taylor before she released her story? You may find out in our next Land of Books interview.
barb
– Did you expect Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night to have such a nice feedback from readers and critics?
– Honestly, the whole experience has been amazing, and I’m truly grateful for how well Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night has been received. Going into this, I had no expectations. In my other life, I’m a high school English teacher, so the world of publishing is new to me.
sing
– How did you decide to write the story?
–*** I had always wanted to write, but it wasn’t until I was in my forties that I actually got serious about it. Back in 2006, I enrolled in Wilkes University’s Low Residency Creative Writing Graduate Program to learn how to write a novel. Students attend two one-week residencies per year, and the rest of the work is completed online. As part of our second residency, we had to pitch story ideas to potential mentors. While I didn’t have a complete vision for my novel, I knew I wanted to use a variation of a family tragedy as the inciting incident.**
– What was the biggest challenge during the write up process?
– Time, or the lack of it, was probably my biggest challenge. It’s so easy to find a million other things that need to be done instead of writing, but the truth is, you have to make writing a priority and honor that. I teach fulltime, so in order to make my deadlines, I was often writing until 1 or 2 in the morning, then getting up at 5 AM to get ready for school.
– Tell us something more about your main character Violet? Is she 100% fiction or it’s close to someone from your real life?
– Violet is very loosely based on my great-aunt Janet, and her sister Daisy is based on my great-aunt Pearl. On July 4, 1918, the day of Pearl’s baptism, she and her friends were playing with sparklers when Pearl’s dress caught fire. According to the story, Pearl survived for three days and sang hymns. When she passed away, people from all over town came to view the body of the little girl who sang. As tragic as that story is for Pearl, I also felt for Janet who was also in the yard that day. She didn’t have the happiest life, and I wondered how much of that stemmed from what she witnessed. That wondering led to the creation of Violet.
– How much time you need to finish the story and to publish it?
– I started writing the novel in January of 2007, and it was published in July of 2014. I’d say, with all of the revisions, it took a good three or four years to write the novel.
– Was it tough to find a publisher for your book?
– The first time my agent sent the book out, it was rejected by at least twenty publishers. After that, I put the book in a drawer and started writing the next one. About a year into that process, Kaylie Jones, my mentor from Wilkes, had an idea for restructuring Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night. I did another rewrite, and that’s when the book sold. I’m very fortunate because just at the time I was ready to send the book out again, Kaylie started an imprint with Akashic Books. Mine was the second book selected for publication. Unmentionables by Laurie Loewenstein was Kaylie Jones Books flagship publication.
– Who are you?
– I’m Scranton born and raised. I’m someone who loves her city and its people. I’ve been teaching high school in English in the Pocono Mountain School District for twenty-eight years, and I’m happy to say my students still make me laugh. I have a good life.
– What are your writing habits?
– Lately I’ve been touring with the book, so my writing schedule is a bit erratic. Normally, I write for a few hours each night and on weekends.
– Are you satisfied by the sales of the book?
– I’m floored by my book sales and so grateful.
– You are working on a sequel of Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night. What will be the development of the story and when the book will be released?
– I’m happy to say I recently signed the contract for the second book. It’s a sequel to Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night, but it starts twenty years later. It’s slated to be released in June, 2016.
– What are you doing to promote by the best possible way your book?
– By way of promotion, I actively participate in social media, specifically Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. More importantly, I’m out touring with the book and meeting the readers. I go wherever I’m invited—bookstores, book festivals, libraries, historical societies, classrooms, and book clubs. It’s been a wonderfully busy year.
– Part of your book sales went to charity. Would you tell us more about Osteogensis Imperfecta Foundation and why you decided to donate to them?
– My nephew was born with a brittle bone disease called Osteogenesis Imperfecta. He’s 30 years old now, and he’s broken bones well over 100 times. OI takes a physical, emotional and financial toll on those afflicted with the condition and their families. The Osteogenesis Foundation does an amazing job supporting families and research. If your readers would like to learn more about OI, they can go to http://www.oif.org/site/PageServer.
– You are teaching English. Do you think that the current young generation reads less than the previous ones?
– Young or old, it seems to me that people are reading less and less, and I’m sure the internet is contributing to that to some degree. It’s much easier to click on a three-paragraph article than it is to read a novel. In order to encourage the reading of books in my classroom, I use many of the techniques discussed in Kelly Gallagher’s, Readicide. Every English teacher should read this book.
Learn more about Barbara J. Taylor at her Web page
Twitter
Facebook
All Waiting Is Long
Donna Chavez
Booklist.
112.1920 (June 1, 2016): p55.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
* All Waiting Is Long. By Barbara J. Taylor. July 2016. 288p. Akashic, paper, $15.95 (9781617754432).
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Although Taylor's (Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night, 2014) powerful betweenthewars historical novel is about two
Scranton, Pennsylvania, sisters, it simultaneously demonstrates the personal repercussions that can be caused by social
dogooders. Violet, 25, and Lily, 16, soon feel, if not like lifelong friends, at least like cousins or neighbors. Single and
pregnant, Lily has been shuffled off to a Philadelphia home for unwed mothers, the Good Shepherd Infant Asylum.
And because the coddled, clueless teen would be lost without Violet, the elder sibling puts her life on hold to stay with
her for the duration. The Catholic facility is funded by a childless benefactor and attended, when midwifery wont
suffice, by a physician enamored with the thenpopular theory of eugenics. Every page is saturated with the 1930s
milieu as the sisters navigate the adversities of their reality on a sea rough with the unrealistic expectations of wellintentioned
idealists, both religious and secular. As if to highlight those expectations, Taylor periodically interrupts her
thirdperson narrative with Greekchorustype commentary from the Scrantonbased Isabelle Lumley Bible Class,
including excerpts from a 1929 sex manual for women. The overall result is a thoughtprovoking bookclubdiscussion
cornucopia.Donna Chavez
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Chavez, Donna. "All Waiting Is Long." Booklist, 1 June 2016, p. 55+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA456094166&it=r&asid=7d713a1de5c9f5f10f8ed4c80dfac148.
Accessed 4 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A456094166
2/4/2017 General OneFile Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1486256248357 2/3
All Waiting Is Long
Publishers Weekly.
263.22 (May 30, 2016): p36.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
All Waiting Is Long
Barbara J. Taylor. Akashic, $15.95 trade paper (288p) ISBN 9781617754432
Set in the 1930s, Taylor's suspenseful and intricate followup to Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night tells the story of
sisters Violet and Lily Morgan. When 16yearold Lily becomes pregnant out of wedlock, Violet follows her to the
Good Shepherd Infant Asylum in Philadelphia. The nuns promise good homes to all babies born under their roof, but
unbeknownst to them, the lead physician at the asylum is practicing eugenics and sterilizing the expecting mothers who
pass through their doors. As the girls' visit comes to a close, Violet makes a rash decision that will alter not only her
relationship with her sister, but her future with her fiance, and her entire existence in her hometown of Scranton, Pa.
Taylor delivers startling plot twists and incisive commentary on the social unrest of a coalmining town during the
Great Depression. Covering a sixyear span, the novel reveals the consequences of arduous labor and widespread
sterilizations that came with the eugenics movement. Among the prostitutes, mobsters, and miners is a web of
interconnected lives that come together for a breathtaking ending in Taylor's fine sequel. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"All Waiting Is Long." Publishers Weekly, 30 May 2016, p. 36. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA454270563&it=r&asid=46ba94660d963f143a4b21c6c8005d5c.
Accessed 4 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A454270563
2/4/2017 General OneFile Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1486256248357 3/3
Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night
Publishers Weekly.
261.14 (Apr. 7, 2014): p40.
COPYRIGHT 2014 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night
Barbara J. Taylor. Akashic/Kaylie Jones, $15.95 trade paper (256p) ISBN 9781617752278
Taylor's debut novel is set in her native city of Scranton, Penn., during the early part of the 20th century. When Daisy,
the oldest daughter of miner Owen Morgan and his housemaid wife Grace, dies in a fireworks accident, her parents are
devastated: Grace's melancholy becomes so overwhelming that she conjures up the creepy, destructive figment she
calls Grief; Owen has a violent drunken quarrel with Grace, moves out to live above a tavern, and leaves their church.
Meanwhile, the Morgans' eightyearold daughter, Violet, is weighed down by her guilt and starts cutting school with
older boy Stanley Adamski. While Owen seeks a way to reconcile with his wife and family after losing a hand in a
mining accident and moving in with a compassionate widow, the tormented Grace battles her inner demons. Taylor's
novel, which is based on a family story, dramatically culminates with the arrival of evangelist Billy Sunday and a
powerful blizzard that rocks Scranton. An earnest, welldone historical novel that skillfully blends fact and fiction.
(July)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night." Publishers Weekly, 7 Apr. 2014, p. 40+. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA364577515&it=r&asid=49b28f466e21ece9f88c360b638f1ea9.
Accessed 4 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A364577515
All Waiting Is Long
BY BARBARA J. TAYLOR
Find & buy on
Sisters. Good relationships or bad, they are fraught with rivalry, jealously, and loyalty. Such it is with Violet and Lily Morgan. After Lily becomes pregnant, Violet goes with her to the Good Shepherd Infant Asylum, where Lily will spend the rest of her confinement, have the baby, and give it up for adoption. In accompanying her little sister, Violet is putting her relationship with Stanley Adamski at risk. But in making a fateful decision after the baby is born, she risks more than a staid, comfortable future with Stanley; she risks the reputation and social standing of both sisters. Punctuated by third-person commentary from a member of the local Bible class, the social cost of Violet’s decision and all that comes after is dissected, examined, and judged in a way that further reveals the complex web of small-town life.
A good selection for book clubs, All Waiting Is Long is set in Pennsylvania coal country in the 1930s, a time of tumultuous change and social unrest, including the rise of the eugenics movement. Barbara Taylor’s characters—a cast of nuns and prostitutes, mobsters and miners, social activists and church busybodies—reflect the varying pressures and expectations of small-town life with rich, insightful prose and dialogue that rings true to each character’s voice. Will the web of lies the two sisters weave around themselves survive? You’ll have to read it yourself to find out. Recommended.
All Waiting Is Long Reviewed By Gordon Osmond of Bookpleasures.com
By Gordon Osmond Published May 7, 2016 GENERAL FICTION REVIEWS
Gordon Osmond
Reviewer Gordon Osmond : Gordon is a produced and award-winning playwright and author of: So You Think You Know English--A Guide to English for Those Who Think They Don't Need One, Wet Firecrackers--The Unauthorized Autobiography of Gordon Osmond and his debut novel Slipping on Stardust.
He has reviewed books and stageplays for
http://CurtainUp.com
and for the Bertha Klausner International Literary Agency. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia Law School and practiced law on Wall Street for many years before concentrating on writing fiction and non-fiction. You can find out more about Gordon by clicking
HERE
Gordon can also be heard on the Electic Authors Showcase.
View all articles by Gordon Osmond
Author:Barbara J. Taylor
Publisher: Akashic Books
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-61775-471-5
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-61775-443-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015954207
Certainly the wait between conception and delivery must be one of the longest in the life of a pregnant woman. When the Morgan sisters arrive at a Catholic refuge for unwed mothers for the purpose of delivering and farming out the baby of the younger sister, they are faced with a plentiful supply of nuns, mothers and newborns, the travails of whom occupy a good portion of the first part of Barbara J. Taylor’s novel, All Waiting Is Long. Indeed, were it not for the author’s extraordinary descriptive abilities, crowned with a truly harrowing account of a quasi stillbirth, the reader might reasonably wonder when the plot pot is going to start boiling.
When the sisters return to their hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania with a newborn in tow, those concerns are swiftly dealt with. The mix of lovers, friends, and relatives that awaits them there may not be as magnificent as the Ambersons, but they are close. In this richly populated community, old ties are either torn or tightened, and the characters left behind when the sisters went off are nicely fleshed out.
The theme of the awakening of natural maternal instincts is a potent one and can always be counted upon to cause no end of trouble to those that have settled in to the deception of false or assumed motherhood. Mary Astor threatened to destroy the family bliss of Bette Davis and George Brent in The Great Lie, and Halle Berry did the same with Jessica Lange in Losing Isaiah. And while we’re drawing film parallels, let’s not forget Charles Cobern’s deranged surgeon in Kings Row, Nicolas Cage’s manual deformity in Moonstruck, and the struggles between owners and workers in Valley of Decision. The moral contrast between the two sisters is certainly not as dramatic as that between Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland in In This Our Life, between Donna Reed and Lana Turner in Green Dolphin Street, or between Bette Davis and Bette Davis in A Stolen Life, but again the telling of Ms. Taylor’s tale does bring these classics to mind, actually with great affection.
None of this should in any way diminish the literary merit of All Waiting Is Long. Ms. Taylor writes with total mastery of her craft. Her similes and metaphors are born of a highly developed abstractive sensitivity, and her dialogues are unerringly true to their respective speakers.
All Waiting is Long
by Barbara J. Taylor
Akashic, 2016. ISBN 978-1-617-75443-2.
Reviewed by Ann McCauley
Posted on 04/28/2016
Fiction: Historical
(click on book cover or title to buy from amazon.com)
Barbara J. Taylor has created another suspenseful page turner in All Waiting is Long. We first met the Morgan sisters two years ago in her debut novel, Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night. In this novel she tells us their captivating story twenty years later in the 1930s.
The story begins as 25-year-old Violet and her pregnant sister, 16-year-old Lily, leave Scranton, PA. They are moving to Philadelphia to live at the Good Shepherd Infant Asylum until after the birth of Lily's baby. The baby has to be delivered in secrecy to protect Lily's virtue and her prospects for a good marriage. During their months at Good Shepherd, Violet serves as caregiver to the nursery and watches the babies leave one after the other with their adoptive parents.
Violet is anxious to go home and marry her childhood sweetheart, Stanley Adamski, who is finishing his last term of law school in Philadelphia. Even though they are in the same city at the same time, they might as well be on different continents. But Violet develops a warm relationship with Mother Mary Joseph who runs the Good Shepherd, and keeps a close eye on the nursery and pregnant mothers in waiting. However, she does not like or trust Dr. Peters, who delivers the babies at the asylum. She and Mother Mary are not aware of his deep interest in eugenics or his experimental sterilization on the pregnant girls immediately following the deliveries of their babies.
Lily developed a close friendship with another pregnant girl, Muriel. Their friendship is abruptly cut short when Muriel delivers a premature deformed baby who does not survive. Muriel suddenly disappears. After Lily delivers her baby and rests a week, Violet and Lily return to Scranton. But life does not go as planned.
Thus begins the deception, which reveals shocking details of enlightened thinking in the 1930s. But it is Taylor's finely honed characters that hold the reader's attention. Taylor creates a depth rarely seen into the relationship of sisters, neighbors and childhood friendships. These characters thread their way through unexpected plot twists to make All Waiting is Long another unforgettable novel.
Barbara J. Taylor has lived in Scranton all her life, she has taught High School English for many years. In addition to earning her M.F.A. in Creative Writing form Wilkes University this year, she has completed the sequel to her first novel. Her writing reflects her detailed research and keen observation skills as she develops unforgettable characters. This gifted writer makes history come alive. Visit her website.
Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night
by Barbara J. Taylor
Kaylie Jones Books c/o Akashic Books, 2014. ISBN 978-1-617-75227-8.
Reviewed by Ann McCauley
Posted on 05/28/2014
Fiction: Mainstream
(click on book cover or title to buy from amazon.com)
Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night, Barbara J. Taylor's debut novel, is one of the most compelling books I've ever read. It's a novel set in Scranton, PA's coal mining community in 1913. As a coal miner's granddaughter, this story resonated with me. I gained insight into what my grandfather's life must have been like. He died of lung cancer, the scourge of the mines, at age 52.
Like that of other coal mining towns, Scranton's culture was taken over by the coal industry back in the early 1900's. Mining families lived in drafty company houses and shopped in company stores. There was a constant threat of mining accidents...when the whistle blew, everyone ran to the mines to see who was lost in a cave-in. And if a father was killed in a mining accident, the oldest son, even if only eight years old, had to work in the mines as a breaker boy or the family would be homeless.
This is the backdrop of the Morgan family story in Taylor's novel. Mr. Morgan is a coal miner with ambitions of moving up to supervisory position at the mines, studying mining courses. Then an accident left nine-year-old Daisy Morgan severely burned. The novel tells the story of how her family copes with grief after her death.
An unforgettable story of loss unfolds as the inconsolable mother is seduced by grief into a crippling depression, almost to the point of no return. The father's descent into alcoholism was portrayed with compassion. Eight-year-old Violet's grief and guilt thread through the novel: it was she who threw the celebratory sparkler in the air that landed on her sister's dress and caught fire. Neighbors and school mates whisper, "Murderer, killer."
Violet's grief, guilt, feelings of abandonment, and despair are buoyed by the anticipation of Billy Sunday's revival meetings. Sunday, a famous professional baseball player and evangelist, began his talks by running onto the stage, swinging a ball bat and declaring, "I'm here to make a home run for God." His lively tent revivals of yore offer fascinating glimpses of the culture. Underscoring the prevalence of faith and religion, the familiar lines of old church hymns are woven through the story. I often found myself singing along.
When Violet's best friend, Stanley, age nine, is drafted into the mines, he is promoted from lowly breaker to mule boy within a week due to his innate skills with animals. Sophie is a skittish mule who was on death row because she refused to do anything useful. Stanley saves Sophie. He is thrilled: "Mule nipper was a hell of a lot better than bendin' over pickin' through slate ten hours a day." Later Sophie saves Violet and Stanley. I highly recommend this book.
Though these descriptions sound bleak, Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night is a story of hope and the joy of survival. A community of well-developed characters, subtle wit, and plot twists create a haunting story that will stay with the reader long after reading this novel.
Read an excerpt from this book.
Barbara J. Taylor lives within two blocks of where she grew up; she teaches English in the Pocono Mt. School District. This is her first novel. Visit her website.
Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night
BY BARBARA J. TAYLOR
Find & buy on
Barbara J. Taylor’s debut novel is the moving story of a family from Scranton, Pennsylvania at the turn of the 20th century. Scranton is located right in the heart of anthracite coal country and, at the time of this saga, was teeming with immigrants from Wales, Poland, Lithuania, Czechoslovakia, and Italy, people who had come from the old country with the hope of making a better life in America. They landed in Scranton because coal companies were desperate to find enough people to mine the rich coal that heated homes and ran steel factories.
Scranton figures almost as one of the characters in this tale of Violet and Daisy, two sisters eleven months apart; their mother, Grace; and their father, Owen. In celebration of Daisy’s ninth birthday on the 4th of July, Owen brings home sparklers as a surprise for his daughters. However, the surprise turns deadly when Daisy’s new dress catches fire, resulting in the child’s death. This loss drives Grace almost insane and leads Owen down the road to perdition via whiskey. Little Violet is caught in the middle of the tragedy, the only one with Daisy when the accident occurred. Many in the small coal town point a finger at Violet, saying she somehow caused the fire because of jealousy. Soon, Violet begins to believe the rumors herself.
This story is at once poignant and hopeful, spiced up by such characters as Billy Sunday, the revivalist, and Grief, the specter who haunts Grace to the very edge of sanity. A rich debut.