A SNUG LIFE SOMEWHERE
Amazon Five Star Reviews
Part History, Part Fiction, All Great Storytelling! ***** rating
I believe that most readers who go to author Jan Shapin’s Web site (www.janshapin.com) for the first chapter of “A Snug Life Somewhere” will want to know what happens next to Penny Joe Copper, the narrator whose relationships with figures involved in the often violent labor unrest in the Puget Sound area during the World War I years drive Shapin’s informative and engaging blend of history and fiction. Shapin uses the death in 1916 of Penny Joe’s younger brother, a student activist, in what came to be known as the Everett Massacre to launch a tale of an inexperienced but plucky young woman swept up into a network of Socialists and Communists maneuvering for control of an unsettled U.S. labor movement.
Most of the novel is devoted to Penny Joe’s experiences during the years between the Everett Massacre and another major event in labor history, the Seattle General Strike of 1919. It is a period in which she allows herself to be used in the campaign of a radical labor agitator, Gabe Rabinowitz, and accompanies him on a trip to Mexico during which he takes possession of Faberge eggs intended to help finance the activities of the American Communist Party. Following their return to the U.S., Penny Joe’s efforts to separate herself from Gabe and undermine his role in Soviet-financed agitation make for some exciting reading.
Throughout this formative period in her life, Penny Joe is aided by a series of strong and appealing characters, some drawn from the pages of the history of the period, some of Shapin’s creation. Also during these years, an ill-fated love affair with a teenage violin prodigy several years her junior plays a powerful role in Penny Joe’s life and story.
Penny Joe Copper may have been swept along for a time by dangerous people and events, but the author gave her the personal qualities she needed to grow and to prevail, including a particularly appealing voice with which to tell her story. Now I look forward to hearing the next voice the talented Jan Shapin will offer her readers.
Michael Brown, Maryland
Tour de Force ***** ratingI loved the writing as well as the story. The book achieved a melding of character plot, historical background, and rich, beautiful writing. Penny Joe is an original character, and through her we learn a lot of the history of the early 20th century. The writing is deeply felt with nary a cliche in sight. It would be great for book clubs and would lead to stimulating discussions.
Dina Cramer, California
Jan Shapin's novel is beautifully written and populated by well-drawn characters who demand our attention. The narrator--an old woman, born Penny Joe Copper, twice widowed and now retired--succeeds in conveying the distilled wisdom of a lifetime as she relects on her formative years with an unflagging honesty tempered by affection. Life for Penny Joe has been a series of storms with an occasional snug harbor....
Penny Joe's life story is presented much as an artist creates a portrait, first sketching in the broad outlines, then painting the details....In Ms. Shapin's hands this proves to be an effective narrative....
Clint Hull, Massachusetts
Great Book Club Selection with a worthy dose of US history ***** rating
Our bookclub read this book and loved the spunky protagonist, Penny Joe Copper. She is a working class woman doing her best to survive in the United States, in the era between the wars, WWI and WWII….
Penny crosses paths with some famous ‘movers and shakers’, like J. Edgar Hoover (before he was director of the FBI) and Mikhail Borodin, an influential Russian Communist. But all the action boils down to what life is actually like for one woman, who searches for “a snug life somewhere’….
Shapin has honed he skills writing plays and screenplays for more than 20 years. I look forward to reading her next book.
Cynthia F. Davidson, Rhode Island
Other Recent Reviews:
I finished reading "A Snug Life Somewhere" and have been meaning to tell you how much I enjoyed it. I read a lot, am not a "student of writing" but I remember enough of my high school English to know the bad stuff...so, just wanted to tell you what a fine read your book was. Sylvia Hampton, Rhode Island
I am a friend of Mary D___ and a big reader. She loaned my your recent book "A Snug Life Somewhere" which I enjoyed.... I knew nothing about the unions, strikes, etc. and learned quite a lot. The most interesting part to me was about the Faberge Egg. Have seen many of them in museums everywhere including Russia. So beautiful and perfect.
Judy McLaurine, Alabama
How much I enjoyed reading your novel. The characters, events and their times were really brought to life. My grandfather was a lawyer for the ILGWU in New England and a one-time candidate for Congress under the Socialist Labor party so it gave me a much broader understanding of his life too.
Marsha Jackson, Maryland
What a great treat for Mary and me to dive into A Snug Life. Mary's father was a labor leader in Liverpool during the early 1900s and accepted Lady Astor's offer to pay passage for the family to go to Russia--so your excellent historical novel evoked and enlivened poignant memoriesof her life decades ago. Many thanks for a great read.
John Jenson, California
When I stopped into the Bristol Bookstore... I bought your book, mostly to put in my summer reading pile. With that said, I poked around in it a bit, and absolutely got pulled in, and proceeded to read the whole thing. I am a busy music teacher with pending concerts, a union president, and a college student working on my PhD. You can see why I wanted to put off the reading of your book until quieter times! I look forward to your next book.
Lynn Benetti, Rhode Island
Penny Joe sure struck a cord with me. It was interesting to watch her develop from an aimless girl with no concept of her talents or worth to one who would become perceptive, resourceful and compassionate. She was also a lot of fun. I loved the way you incorporated history into this fictional life. The two blended easily.
Lynn Einig, Rhode Island
I sure do hope you’re going to write some more! I love that you’ve written about labor history, and about the commitment of both sides (revolutionaries and the government) to using violence—something that is not mentioned much as we head into similarly disrupted times….
I liked that although Penny Joe sometimes lets herself be swept up by a person, she kept her independence about the political events that surround her.
Marjorie Smith, Pennsylvania
I couldn’t wait to write and tell you how much I loved it. Yesterday morning was chill and damp, so I lit a fire and sat down with a Snug Life. A perfect snug morning. My little book club just finished reading ___________, which literally made me gag. But I noted there were 338 requests for it at the library. Just think—all those people could be reading A Snug Life instead of such a one-dimensional piece of drivel.
Congratulations. The research must have been formidable. To say nothing of the writing that sounds as it if flowed like a charm.
A Snug Life Somewhere is a triple treat. In character Penny Joe Cooper we get the compelling voice of a witness to high drama from our often overlooked common history. In author Jan Shapin we get a skilled story teller who promises us even more in the future.
