TransAtlantic in Retro Chapter Chicks

Jun 21, 2020 Brina rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, canada, historical-fiction, ireland, genealogy, reconstruction

The world that we inhabit is a small place, and that has been as evident as ever in 2020. The ability to travel large distances in a short amount of time can be both a blessing and a curse. With the click of a button aided by technological applications, a person can talk to those on the other side of the world, not having to leave one’s house. One hundred years ago, the idea of traveling large distances in a short matter of time was still in its infancy. Crossing oceans by steamship or newly cre The world that we inhabit is a small place, and that has been as evident as ever in 2020. The ability to travel large distances in a short amount of time can be both a blessing and a curse. With the click of a button aided by technological applications, a person can talk to those on the other side of the world, not having to leave one’s house. One hundred years ago, the idea of traveling large distances in a short matter of time was still in its infancy. Crossing oceans by steamship or newly created airplanes needed to be carefully planned out or run the risk of meeting one’s watery death. The idea of bettering one’s life by moving to a different place- city, state, country- has long been part of the human experience. Gifted prose writer Colum McCann delves into the concept of human migration across large distances as he focuses on people, both real and fictional, as he showcases how and why people have traveled.

History, McCann notes in his author interview at the end of Transatlantic, has largely been written by men. In the first part of his thought provoking novel, McCann focuses on three real men from different eras of history: Frederick Douglass, aviators Jack Alcock and Teddy Brown, and Senator George Mitchell. Irish by birth, by the time McCann wrote Transatlantic he had never focused on Ireland in his writing even though he knows that the nation is his home. The descriptions of the Emerald Isle are the most vivid in the book, as though McCann had been waiting to write about Ireland for his entire career. Douglass traveled to Ireland in 1845 at the onset of the potato famine, which eventually lead to a mass immigration to United States soil. Douglass’ trip is a little known footnote in history, with the abolitionist garnering most of his notoriety upon his return to his homeland. For Douglass, however, he experienced freedom for the first time in Europe, traveling to Ireland on a speaking tour to promote his book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, which in turn allowed him to buy his freedom on his return to the United States. As McCann expertly weaves fact and fiction, he points out that Douglass true sense of self and belonging is tied to Ireland because in that nation he was not chained to slavery, and, yet, he had the longing to return to home to his family, a voyage to freedom across a vast ocean.

Seventy five years after Douglass traveled to Ireland, aviators Jack Alcock and Teddy Brown flew from Newfoundland to Northern Ireland in a propeller plane. The plane had been elevated to freedom having been rescued from war, and the flight itself brought fame to the pilots who relied on a network of stars to blindly navigate the skies, flying because they loved the feeling of freedom not for glory. Alcock and Brown crossed the ocean in fifteen hours, and this time would only become shorter over the years. By the turn of the 21st century, George Mitchell crossed the Atlantic Ocean every few days in a matter of hours traveling from New York to London to Dublin to Belfast to Washington to New York, attempting to broker peace on an otherwise serene island. Travel became second nature for Mitchell as he was on a first name basis with airline personnel in multiple countries, memorizing the menus and accoutrements provided to him for his enjoyment. Despite having the luxury of easy travel, Mitchell appeared of all the characters the least free, coming out of retirement to assist others in gaining peace at the expense of spending time with his son. Mitchell is fortunate to live at an era in history where such travel is possible, whereas in Douglass’ era, the Senator might have rarely known his son, showcasing that the world has indeed gotten smaller over time.

While the men who have written history are on display in this novel, the stars of this book are four generations of women who have woven their own family’s history as a web of time and place. Lily Duggan is inspired by Douglass’ talks and immigrates to New York. From there she travels by train to St Louis where she works as a nurse during the Civil War, finding love and marrying Jon Ehrlich, a simple man who sells ice for a living. The Ehrlichs have six children, the youngest of whom Emily is emblematic of the United States’ growth as a nation in the second half of the 19th century. Emily chooses a career as a newspaper reporter yet has to write under the byline of her publisher, much to her own consternation, having given so much of herself to her job. At the turn of the 20th century, women are still not full citizens, and Emily is clearly ahead of her time. A single mother to young Lottie, Emily chooses to immigrate, first to her brother in Toronto and then to Newfoundland, where she takes up residence in the Cochrane Hotel and finds employment at a forward thinking newspaper. It is at the Cochrane Hotel that the lives of the Ehrlich family intersect with Alcock and Brown, weaving fact and fiction together seamlessly, setting a stage for a meeting between the families later on in another time and place.

The stars of the book in my eyes are Lottie Tuttle nee Ehrlich and her daughter Hannah. Lottie and Emily travel to Europe aboard steamship in 1929 in a carefully planned journey to see the continent. Their first stop is Northern Ireland to meet with Brown and his family, and it is there that Lottie finds true love, allowing her to put her roots down in the Emerald Isle, her family’s original home. As a ninety year old, she encounters Senator Mitchell and tells him that he should work on his tennis game. Here, Lottie Tuttle seems as real as George Mitchell even though she is a fictional character. Thirteen years later, her daughter Hannah completes the story of the family history. She tells the tale of her great grandmother Lily Duggan’s journey to America in 1845 and reminisces about the struggles and memories that came next, making readers believe that perhaps Hannah has been the narrator all along. Lottie did not make it to one hundred years old but she lived long enough to see George Mitchell broker peace in Ireland, making Northern Ireland a safer place to live for future generations. As the book is about to draw to a close, Hannah meets David and Aiobhanne Manyaki and their children, a family with roots on two continents, characters carefully drawn out and playing a large role in the novel even though they only make an experience in the final chapters. The Manyakis demonstrate how time and distance have grown smaller over the decades, their lives intersecting with the Duggan/Ehrlich/Tuttle family, who has crossed the ocean multiple times in search of the spot that the family can truthfully call home.

In an author interview with Elizabeth Strout, Colum McCann adroitly notes that his fictional characters are as real as the factual ones. He notes that a Tom Joad or Scout Finch are real in that they help explain history to today’s readers even though they are made up characters. This is the blending of fact and fiction and shows that Colum McCann is a leading historical fiction writer of today, melding carefully crafted characters with real historical people and events to allow readers an insight into history. Transatlantic brought many discussion points about time, place, distance, human migration, and family. McCann’s always expert prose made for enjoyable fast reading, allowing me to savor his words, giving me much to look forward to the next time I pick up one of his deftly crafted novels.

4+ stars ...more

66 likes · Like · see review

Dec 02, 2024 Maureen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own

I found this gem of a book at a used book sale. It has been sitting in my book shelf for a long time. I love discovering new authors that I have not read before. This is one of them. Where have I been that I have never read a book by this author. I certainly will read more of his books in the future.
This was a compelling story. It was beautifully written it is based on true events intermingled with fictional characters. The writing just drew me into the story.
This story begins in 1919 with two ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Nov 19, 2013 Tasha rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

Well-done but it took me awhile to get into the book. It felt like short stories at first but by mid-point everything started connecting wonderfully. I ended up really enjoying it and feeling sad that it came to an end!

5 likes · Like · see review