The Bohemians: A Novel

I received a free electronic ARC of this awesome novel based on historical information, from Netgalley, Jasmin Darznik, and publisher Ballantine Books. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. Ms. Darznik writes a powerful story with heart and brings to us the very soul of San Francisco a little over a hundred years ago. I love that she shares with us more information at the end of the book on these fascinating artists, rounding out the story for us. And these characters were, for the most part, drawn from the reality of that period of time. In a counter-revolve from the earthquake and fires of 1906, San Francisco became a magnet for young people involved in the arts. We spend much time beginning in 1918 with photographer Dorothea 'Dorrie' Lange (23) who wanted Paris but the Great War was raging, so she collected her precious Graflex camera and her life savings and took a boat from New York to New Orleans and a train from there to San Francisco, intending to check out the Paris of the American West and then head down to Mexico, where her scant savings would support her for a longer period of time while she set up shop as a portrait photographer. Only to be robbed by an attractive pick-pocket as she prepared to exit the ferry at the port of San Francisco. Penniless and hungry, lost in the dark at the end of the streetcar line, she spends her first night in California on the beach and weakens to the certain knowledge that the only thing she owned of value would have to be hocked to float her till she can find a job - any job. And then she is blessed to meet Caroline in a cable car. A native of the city, Caroline is able to steer Dorothea onto a path to recovering her life plan despite the growing pressure of hate aimed at immigrants in general and orientals in particular. Caroline was raised in the orphanage/school/rescue center known as the Occidental Mission Home for Girls by Donaldina Cameron. Only 5 years old at the time of the quake, Caroline thrived along with other Oriental or Eurasian children and young adults rescued from the earthquake, their numbers added to by rescues of girls and young women kept as slaves in the brothels of Chinatown. Now an independent, self-supporting woman with a line of clothing and a nack with a sewing machine, Caroline was generous with advice and introductions to other photographers and artists in the city and Dorrie finds a niche for her art and herself centered around the lives existing at the old Monkey Block building, a multistory 'floating' edifice that survived both the earthquake and the fires located at 628 Montgomery Street and bordering the Barbary Coast, the wicked heart of the city. And for a time life was good. The two women combined their talents and opened shop, establishing themselves -a job much more difficult for Caroline as Asian bashing becomes a way of life, and politicians are calling for America for Americans. The list of victims keeps growing. How long can they withstand the odds? I was in the middle of this book when the Atlanta mass shootings at spas occurred on March 16, 2021, killing 8 people, 6 of them Asian Americans. What have we learned, in the last 103 years? Looks like 'nothing'.