Those of us who were around in the 60s and actually remember them (you know the saying: If you remember the 60s, you weren’t there), you probably think we’re the generation that started women’s lib.  And we were.  This time.  There have been women’s movements all throughout modern history.  The Boston Girl tells the story of a woman who liberated herself when there wasn’t a movement.

Addie Baum is 85 when the book begins.  Her granddaughter has asked her, “How did you get to be the woman you are today?,” and to begins the tale.  Addie had a career and married for love, two things that good Jewish girls did not at that time.  But her parents had emigrated to America before she was born, so she grew up a free-thinking American kid.

Addie was a good student, with dreams of going to college.  But she has to drop out of high school to help support the family.  Still, she is determined to keep learning.  With the support of one of her teachers, she joins the Saturday Club, a social group for girls, but one focused on education and reading.  So, now she has the support of other girls, truly American girls, whose parents were born here and so, more liberal than immigrants from “the old country.”

Membership in the club exposes her to the life she wants for herself and she eats it up.  She’s a good writer, her teachers have told her, and that’s what she wants for her career.  Why do liberated women in books from the early part of the 20th century always want to be writers?  I don’t get it.

I’ve read other books by Ms. Diamant and I’ve always liked them.  This one’s different, though.  I did like the book, but I can’t really tell you why.  The story is not fascinating, nothing momentous happens.  But it’s captivating, all the same.

There is one very interesting development.  Addie has two older sisters, one of whom left home and lived on her own when she was 16 (I guess rebellion runs in the family) while the other is a pale delicate little thing.  She is married off to a widower with two boys.  They need a mother and she, according to her parents, needs a husband.  It is not a good marriage.  Celia can’t deal with the rambunctious children as well as keeping house and cooking.  It actually does kill her.

The husband is really a good guy, though, it’s just the marriage that was bad.  He had no idea how unhappy Celia was.  He knows she would still be alive if he hadn’t married her and he feels terrible about what happened.

Then he marries Betty, the oldest sister.  Of course, her parents are dead set against the marriage, but Betty does what she wants.  And this one is a love match.  Betty couldn’t love the boys more if they had been born to her and the boys are just as thrilled with her.  I don’t think I’ve ever read a story like that.  It’s controversial, to be sure, but very interesting.

I think The Boston Girl may be a “chick book,” but if you’re a chick, I think you’ll like it.