‘Lost Women of Mill Street’ is Civil War novel | Book Talk
There’s a lot of denial in the Civil War-era book “The Lost Women of Mill Street,” the second historical novel by Akron native Kinley Bryan.
Clara Douglas hasn’t heard from her betrothed, Benjamin, for a year and a half, but she is certain that he will return from Nebraska to take Clara and her sister Kitty to their new home on the prairie. Benjamin took advantage of the recent Homestead Act to claim land rather than serve in the Confederacy, and Clara scorns any idea that he is gone for good.
Many of the people of Roswell, Georgia, also are in denial, sure that William Tecumseh Sherman’s invading army won’t raid the town.
Almost everyone in Roswell works in the cotton mill, Clara and Kitty as loom operators. The army does appear and burns down the mill. The leering soldiers place the employees under arrest, calling them traitors for weaving cloth for Confederate uniforms.
Kitty is in fragile health, her lungs filled with cotton lint from the mill. In addition to the Yankees, Clara’s antagonist is Temperance, a mill girl who tells slanderous lies about Clara, even implicating her in a murder.
After being transported to a prison in Louisville and surviving a measles epidemic, the sisters are allowed to go to Cincinnati, where they are left to their own devices. Clara is a talented but untrained milliner and hopes to find a job in a fancy hat shop; anyway, she needs only to survive until Benjamin comes for them. She continues to treat Kitty as a delicate flower, though Kitty is the one who wants to press forward with their lives whether Benjamin comes back or not.
The Civil War continues; most people in Cincinnati are aligned with the Union, with mass demonstrations and riots on both sides. More than once Clara is forced to hide to avoid street violence. A man calls “Filthy Lincoln-lovers!” in a gunfight and another is chased out of a saloon by a man yelling “Butternut scum!,” slang for a Confederate or Southern sympathizer.
Bryan’s admirable debut novel, “Sisters of the Sweetwater Fury,” is about three sisters caught up in the destructive Great Lakes Storm of 1913. Despite its wartime setting, “Lost Women” is more domestic, a coming-of-age survival story, without the intense action of a hurricane.
“The Lost Women of Mill Street” (300 pages, softcover) costs $14.99 from Blue Mug Press. Bryan is an alumna of Kent State University.
Awards
Linda Castillo won two Edgar Awards for her Holmes County-set Kate Burkholder mystery series: Best Short Story for “Hallowed Ground” and the G.P. Putnam’s Sons Memorial Award, “An Evil Heart. The awards are presented by Mystery Writers of America.
Events
Fireside Book Shop (29 N. Franklin St., Chagrin Falls): Brandy Schillace signs her mystery “The Framed Women of Ardmore House,” 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday.
Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library (Willowick branch, 263 E. 305th St.): Anna Kopp discusses her young adult graphic fantasy novel “The Marble Queen,” 7 to 8 p.m. Monday. Register at we247.org.
Cuyahoga County Public Library (Parma-Powers branch, 6996 Powers Blvd.): Novelist Mary Kay Andrews (“Summer Rental”) talks about “Summers at the Saint,” 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.
Cuyahoga County Public Library (Strongsville branch, 18700 Westwood Drive): Parker Adams discusses his thriller “The Lock Box,” 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.
Hudson Library & Historical Society (96 Library St.): Bridget Quinn appears virtually to talk about “Portrait of a Woman: Art, Rivalry, and Revolution in the Life of Adéla?de Labille-Guiard,” about the 18th-century painter and feminist, 7 p.m. Wednesday. At 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius appears in person with “Phantom Orbit: A Thriller.” Register at hudsonlibrary.org.
Cuyahoga County Public Library (North Olmsted branch, 27403 Lorain Road): Tom Clavin talks about his book (with Bob Drury) “Throne of Grace: A Mountain Man, an Epic Adventure, and the Bloody Conquest of the American West,” 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.
Severance Hall (Reinberger Chamber Hall, 11001 Euclid Ave., Cleveland): Kai Bird is the keynote speaker of the Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival, talking about his Pulitzer Prize-winning “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” 7 p.m. Wednesday. Tickets are $45. At 10 a.m. Saturday, Caldecott Medalist Christopher Rascha, author and illustrator of “The Magic Flute,” narrates the highlights from the opera with musical accompaniment. Tickets are $15. Go to clevelandorchestra.com.
Cuyahoga County Public Library (Bay Village branch, 27400 Wolf Road): In a Zoom event from 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Janet Sherlund discusses her memoir “Abandoned at Birth.” From 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Patrick K. O’Donnell appears in person with “The Unvanquished: The Untold Story of Lincoln’s Special Forces, the Manhunt for Mosby’s Rangers, and the Shadow War That Forged America’s Special Operations.” Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.
Coventry Heights-University Heights Public Library (Coventry Village branch, 1925 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights): Greg Donley, author of “A Small Book About Design Craft and Practice,” signs his work from 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday. Register at heightslibrary.org.
Learned Owl Book Shop (204 N. Main St., Hudson): Author Sabrina Makhsimova and artist Dinara Mirtalipova sign their children’s book “Merfolk Village,” 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
Barnes & Noble (28801 Chagrin Blvd., Woodmere): Cleveland author Jermel D. Carr signs “Hi-Five to Winning: Why Winners Win,” 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Email information about books of local interest, and event notices at least two weeks in advance to [email protected] and [email protected]. Barbara McIntyre tweets at @BarbaraMcI.
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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: ‘The Lost Women of Mill Street’ by Kinley Bryan is historical novel