And Now Tomorrow {Third Printing}
Rachel Field
Hardcover
(The Macmillan Company, March 15, 1942)
Emily Blair is the privileged daughter of the Blair family, owners of the the local mill in Blairstown, Mass. While she's lost both parents, basically she's led a charmed life. Living in a mansion, trips to Europe, private schooling, and now she's fallen in love and is engaged to Harry Collins. Everything's going her way. But then an attack of meningitis leaves her completely deaf. This is followed by an attack of the 1929 stock market crash, which leaves her family's fortunes in a precarious balance. As I read about the mill's orders slowing down, shifts being cut, people worried about whether they'll have a job in the morning or not as they begin to realize that things are going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better, it kept hitting a nerve with me, reminding me of our own current economic crisis. So if you're looking to lose yourself in a good book to get away from the problems of today, you may want to wait on this one until later. Author Rachel Field ably presents both sides of the situation for the people dealing with the coming depression. While on one side of the river, the mill workers are desperate to feed their families and are pushed to violence out of frustration. Yet on the other side of the river the Blair family is also struggling to keep the mill open and working, to keep their employees employed and to satisfy their stockholders. Nothing is easy for either side. Add to this Emily's prickly relationship with Dr. Merek Vance who is -let's be honest - using her as a guinea pig to try out a new treatment to restore her hearing. She's been through so many other treatments to no avail that understandably she's lost hope. She's caught between the struggle between her family and the mill workers, represented by childhood friend turned union organizer Jo Kelly. And, as spoiled already by Amazon, her growing suspicion concerning her fiance and her sister, Janice. (Amazon customer)