A domineering silk industrialist...his progressive suffragist wife...his radical unionist brother...A family torn apart by The Great Silk Strike of 1913 in Paterson, NJ.
In early twentieth century Paterson, New Jersey, dashing twenty-nine year old Abraham Bressler charms naive nineteen year old Sarah Singer into marriage by making her believe he feels the same way she does about the new calling of a modern woman. He then turns around and gives her little more respect that he would a servant, demanding she stay home to take care of "his" house and "his" children.
Feeling betrayed, Sarah defies him and joins women's groups, actively participating in suffrage rallies. For a while, she succeeds in treading delicately between the demands of her husband and her desire to be an independent woman. He balanceing act falters when a strike shuts down Paterson's 300 silk mills. With many friends working in the mills, Sarah is forced to choose sides in the battle between her Capitalist husband had his Socialist brother, a union leader who happens to be her best friend's husband.
Jealousy, infidelity, arrogance, greed-the characters' titanic struggles will catapult you into the heights of their euphoria and the depths of their despair. Who will triumph and who will be humbled is not certain until the last page.
Excerpt
Sarah stared at him. They'd been married eight years. She bore him four sons, had a fifth child on the way, and she couldn't remember the last time he thanked her for anything. Yet she had no trouble remembering how she reveled in his response to he wanting to travel. They were on the chasm bridge looking at the great waterfall when he said, "We'll see the world together."
So overjoyed was she that her dreams were almost in her grasp, the flaws her parents saw in him dissolved into the thunderous roar of the falls. The cascading water hypnotized her like Medusa. She had fallen under his spell like and empty-headed schoolgirl. But she wasn't brainless. She had read everything from Dickens to Marx to Balzac to Verne and Mark Twain. She had only been naive--a naive teacher working with her father, afraid she would never earn enough money to realize her dreams.
So seduced by his charm and sophistication, she made the biggest mistake of her nineteen years by pleading with him to see his bar. Why didn't she acquiesce when he said, "It's not a place for young ladies." Did she want to show him that she was a modern woman, as sophisticated as he? Or, maybe subconsciously she wanted exatctly what she brought upon herself?
Then in his apartment with his flattering words enveloping her in a warm glow, she had blurted out about his bar maids uniforms, "Do you think I have enough to fill it out?" What did she think those provocative words would invoke in him? Though he didn't answer, she could guess his thoughts by the smile on his face and the direction of his gaze. She should have run. Yet she stayed in his lair that she had crept into by her own free will. Then they made love, and despite the pain from the first time, it was glorious.
After that day she ignored every derogatory thing he parents had to say about him. Whenever she could sneak away from their watchful eyes, she ran to him, and they lay together. Enfolded in his arms, he told her about the deal he made that would put him in the silk business, that he found a buyer for his bar, and the wonderful life they were going to have with beautiful children. She extolled the wonders of the world they would see. When her cycle didn't come, she cried to him. He kissed her tears away, and with feigned expressions of joy from her parents, they married. And her dreams died.
Professional Reviews
Janet Elaine Smith, author of bestselling, award winning Keith trilogy
"Richard Brawer's characters are magnificent. I adored them, in spite, or perhaps because, of their shortcomings. He captures not only the feeling of the era, but does it with warmth and affedction through a trying love story."
New Jersey Jewish News
"'Silk Legacy' is a fast-moving, richly detailed saga. Richard Brawer is a deft storyteller with a knack for plot twists. He combines various plot and character elements to create a large, vaiegated picture of American society at a combustible moment."
Others have said
"An Epic Family Saga"
"A Tumultuous Love Story"
"A Slice of American History"
"Remarkable storytelling"
"Vivid enticing characters"
"A book I won't easily forget"
Read all the reviews at my website, www.silklegacy.com
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