Careers for Women

In the late ’50s, at the outset of the women’s lib movement, a woman named Maggie Gleason goes to work for real-life figure Lee K. Jaffe, head of public relations for the New York Port Authority. She’s an inspiration for the women who work for her, and when she offers the beautiful and brash Pauline Moreau a job, Pauline and Maggie become friends and Maggie comes to adore Pauline’s developmentally-disabled daughter, Sonia. When Pauline goes missing, leaving Sonia behind, Maggie is desperate to get to the truth. As Maggie’s investigation progresses, Pulitzer Prize finalist Scott (The Manikin) displays her considerable storytelling skills to chronicle the lives of the astonishingly resilient Pauline and her gentle, sweet-natured daughter Sonia, as well as Pauline’s horrible treatment at the hands of the men in her life and her near constant struggle to provide for herself and Sonia. Sentimentality is mostly avoided, making the ultimate revelations even more tragic. Although Maggie mostly narrates, other dramas unfold throughout, such the poisoning of Native American land by an aluminum company called Alumacore, as well as Jaffe’s role in selling the idea to build the twin towers of the World Trade Center. This finely drawn novel is memorable and rife with textured historical detail. (July)