Baker Towers audiobook

Baker Towers is a family saga set in the fictional mining town of Bakerton, Pennsylvania. It begins with the death of the Novak family head in 1944 (although there are references to events that happened before this) and ends in the 1970s, when the town has begun to fall into decline. Haigh tracks the lives of the Novak family through the intervening decades, chronicling the impact of change in American society on this small town, and its characters. There are five children in the Novak clan. When we first meet them, George, the oldest, is serving in the military; his youngest sibling, Lucy, is piping hot out of the oven. Haigh has a talent for giving each of these very different siblings a unique voice. Some have more stage time than others (a flaw she tries to address by tying up some loose ends in a later book); but those in the spotlight are shown clearly and to great effect. Jennifer Haigh - image from PatchHaigh brings to life diverse aspects of Bakerton life, from the drudgery of factory work to ethnic and religious divisions, from union elections to the plague of black lung, from young love to adult desires, from a wedding with old-world elements to a town dance that summons an image of the Kaaba in Mecca. Haigh looks beyond the town for a bit, describing the experience of single women in DC during the war, and one woman’s post-war experience in the military. But mostly she concentrates on changes in the town and in her characters as the outside world evolves and time marches on. Cars and telephones become ubiquitous. Presidents are elected; one is murdered. But to the citizens of Bakerton, and the Novak family, the world seems distant, an echo over a far hill. But no matter how insulated or isolated they are in this close-knit small town, change seeps into their lives, shaping them in unexpected ways. Haigh offers us temporal touchstones in each chapter, helping orient us in US history. As might be expected in any tale of a small town, there is much here about longing, but not nearly so much about escape as one might expect. The yearning for fulfillment is at the center of her characters’ lives, along with the fear that this small place may never offer a way to satisfy wants and needs, and might even extinguish hope.Bakerton did this to people: slowly, invisibly, it made them smaller, compressed by living where little was possible, and where the ceiling was very low. Not only are opportunities limited in the world of work, the range of the possible in romance is likewise narrow:It was, she reflected, a dangerous pastime, mooning over the handsome, clever men on the screen. It doomed you to disappointment; it made you expect too much. [She] had never been in love, but felt herself capable of it. She could love Fred Astaire or Clark Gable or Errol Flynn, an elegant, cultivated fellow who wore wonderful clothes and possessed all sorts of hidden talents, who sang and danced and even fought in a way that looked beautiful; who even when he drank was witty and articulate and gentle and wise. The harder job was loving what men really were—soldiers and miners, gruff and ignorant; louts who communicated mainly by cursing, who couldn’t tell you anything about life that you didn’t already know. The strength of the novel, only Haigh’s second, is her characters. Male and female (well, mostly female), these people are made real. Their desires are made as clear to us as they are to themselves, and we feel an investment in how things turn out for them. Like moviegoers loudly telling the little girl in the horror movie not to go back for her dropped teddy bear. (No, no, don’t do that. He’ll get you!) Or cheering when something right wins out over the opposition of time. (You go, girl!) Haigh was born and raised in the great metropolis of Barnsboro, PA, a mining town that provided the model for Bakerton. Her grandfathers were miners. I have a bit of an in-house expert to consult on this. My wife was born and raised in Wilkes-Barre, PA, a more easterly version of Bakerton, a place with street names like Carbon Lane and Anthracite Street, and public spaces like Coal Street Park and Miner’s Park. She tells me that when she read this book some years back she felt as if Haigh had been writing about her town. So we can take it from a local that Haigh nailed it. One caveat is that there are a lot of characters in this book. While one might be tempted to keep track of them all, to do so might induce madness. Stick to keeping up with the Novaks.Baker Towers opens with coal cars heading in to town and ends, decades later, with Amish buggies. New, plain residents have emerged, and while they begin to re-green the land, the history that lies beneath remains. Lives go on, or don’t. Directions change, or don’t. Hopes are realized and dreams are dashed. Love is found and squandered. There are satisfactions and regrets. As Haigh makes clear, where you are from may not determine what your life will be, but it has an indelible impact on the person you will ultimately become PS – I must add that in a rare exception to my usual strictly solo practice, I called on my wife personal editor extraordinaire for some assistance after completing an almost-final cut, and feeling unsatisfied with the result. She deserves partial credit (but no blame) for the contents, as the final edit was mine alone. PPS – Haigh, eight years after Baker Towers was published, wrote a follow up, News from Heaven: The Bakerton Stories.

I wanted to give this book five stars, I really did. Ms. Haigh beautifully recreates life in a Pennsylvania coal town from the end of Word War II to the end of the Viet Nam Era. She's spot on with so many details such as being able to know who died by which family's hearse is parked in front of a house. She paints an exquisite picture of coming over a hill and having the valley open up before you with its company-built houses huddling an arms-length apart. There used to be a sulfur hill that glowed blue in the dark on "the old road to Scranton" just like the Baker Towers. The mines in NEPA where I am from were shut down like those in SEPA as a result of the change to oil. I remember January 22, 1959, when the Susquehanna River that flowed three doors from my house burst through and drowned 12 miners.As in real life, when tragedy strikes in a mine, everyone prays to St. Ann. There is a basilica dedicated to her in Scranton and her feast day, July 26, is a major day of celebration and prayer. The Italian church had an annual commemorative parade in thanksgiving for lives saved in a mining town in Sicily, complete with dollars pinned to the Virgin's cloak (you can check the veracity of this by watching "The Sopranos" ;-).Where I ran into difficulty was with the accuracy. Even the Western Branch of the Susquehanna River doesn't flow near Pittsburgh. Glen Echo park is on the Northwestern edge of The District of Columbia, not forty miles south. Little Polish pillows filled with potatoes are called piErogis not pirogis. St. Casimir is the patron saint of Lithuania. NOBODY but the deceased rides in a hearse during a funeral. The family rides in The First Car.And I still haven't gotten used to the Iowa Writer's Workshop's approval of "lay" for "lie."I'd give it a 4 2/3 or 4.75 if I had the option. I loved the book and am starting its sequel this afternoon.

In this character driven story, author Jennifer Haigh paints a dramatic picture of life in a small coal mining town in the years following World War II. As the young men who survived the war come home, jobs are scarce for men and women alike. Working in the coal mines or the dress factory is about all that is available, and the men know where their destiny lies. But mining is hard, dangerous work, and the thought of pending tragedy is never far from people’s minds. Against this backdrop, Haigh has placed an Italian/Polish family who struggle to provide for their children. They have little time and even less money for leisure activities. As the children grow up to seek a better life for themselves, they find themselves at odds with each other. Can they put aside hurt feelings and resentment to revive familial ties? Can past mistakes be righted? Or is it too late? When tragedy does strike, will it bind together a town that is on the verge of collapse? These seemingly real characters and their story will stay with you long after you finish the book.

I found this book at the Pittsburgh airport two years ago while traveling for work. I loved her previous book, Mrs. Kimble. Little did I know until Baker Heights that the author grew up less than 20 miles from where I did. She knows that area -- impoverished and spirit-broken. Baker Heights told the story of the real Barnsboro-area coal mines. My grandfather lost his arm in a mining accident not far from there.

Coming from a small town and one-time mining town, I found myself completely enamored with BAKER TOWERS, and those little idiosyncrasies that define small town life: the unwillingness to escape, the focus on comfort and the familiar, the constantly churning gossip mill, the quaint downtown, the neat little streets, and the emphasis on family. Had this been the only endearing part of the novel, it still would have been a worthwhile read. But Jennifer Haigh offers her readers so much more. She takes an intricate look at the Novak family and their five children, and she tackles issues like love and loss, success and failure, and greed and generosity with a stealth pen and attention to detail. It is her attention to detail that really brings out the hearts and souls of these characters, transforming them from what in many cases could have been static characters to giving them multi-dimensional appeal.Like Bakerton, Georgie, Dorothy, Joyce, Lucy, and Sandy are defined by more than the twin stacks of mine waste that come to represent the town. While all five children have grown up within the walls of the Novak household, each proves as unique as snowflakes and as fragile in many respects as the morning dew. It’s this fragility that brings fullness and richness to the characters, and the lives of those they interact with. And ultimately it defines the pull of home, whether they reach out and grab it, or do whatever they can to run from it. That is the true definition of small town life, and it’s a message that resonates throughout this novel’s pages.

Audio book performed by Anna Fields.3.5*** rounded up to 4****Adapted from the book jacket: Bakerton is a company town built on coal, a town of church festivals and ethnic neighborhoods, hunters’ breakfasts and firemen’s parades. The looming black piles of mine dirt (are called) Baker Towers; they are local landmarks, clear evidence that the mines are booming. The mines were not named for Bakerton; Bakerton was named for the mines. This is an important distinction. It explains the order of things. Born and raised on Bakerton’s Polish Hill, the five Novak children come of age during wartime. My reaction:This is the kind of character-driven literary fiction that I love to read and discuss with my F2F book club. Haigh focuses on the Novak family to tell the story of America in the years following World War II. It’s a microcosm of American life, that encompasses many of the issues faced by the nation during the 1930s through 1970s. The five Novaks are as different as night and day. The oldest, Georgie, serves in the Pacific during World War II, but after the war he moves away with his new wife, rarely returning home. Next is Dorothy, a pretty but insecure young woman who takes a job in Washington D.C., but falters. Joyce is the middle child, smart and driven, always helping out and taking charge of the household when her widowed mother is unable to cope. Sandy is the family charmer, relying on his good looks and smooth talk to get by in life; like his older brother, he leaves home and rarely returns. And finally, there is Lucy, who is showered with affection and seems unable to grow out of her role as the baby of the family. Through the lens of this family the reader watches the changes in America as the town prospers in the post-war era, deals with changes in American manufacturing, and begins an inevitable decline. The residents face the changing expectations as women get a taste of “important” work during the war and chafe against restrictions when the men return. Haigh mentions the changes outside Bakerton – the death of FDR, the Eisenhower years, the assassination of President Kennedy, Neil Armstrong’s historic walk on the moon, etc – but the changes within the town have greater impact, from getting a phone or car, to a long strike for better conditions and wages at the mine. I do not usually round up when awarding half-stars, but I will in this case because it’s a discussion-worthy book.Anna Fields does a fine job performing the audio book. She has a good pace and enough skill as a voice artist to differentiate the many characters.

2022 - 5 STARSI reread this novel as we are reading the lasted book in the series for my book club. It has been years since I first read it so I wanted to get back into the Bakerton and it's people. I also rated it 5 stars and recommend this book, so I should finally do a reread lol. I knew I would like this book, rating it so high before, but I still wowed on my second reading. Haigh is a master at writing characters and bringing them all to life. I still cried as I read this novel, even knowing what was coming this time. I am so happy I read this one again, as I can keep recommending it.2009 - 5 STARS Just a lovely novel! Haigh is fabulous at giving each character a voice and personality. This novel aspires every emotion and makes you feel like you are looking into a family's personal life.

Bakerton, Pennsylvania is a mining town. It's a town of company houses and union jobs, of church and family. Bakerton is a town that depends on its coal mines and, in the years during and after World War II, those mines are doing raging business. Baker Towers is the story of those years, told from the perspective of the Novak family: widowed Rose Novak and her five children, Georgie, Dorothy, Joyce, Sandy and Lucy. Georgie and Dorothy escape their small-town childhoods, Georgie for the Navy and Dorothy for a wartime clerical job in Washington, D.C. Joyce joins the service as well but returns to care for her ailing mother and watch opportunities to do something important pass her by. Joyce dedicates herself to her mother and her younger brother and sister, a sacrifice which goes un-thanked. When Dorothy has a breakdown, Joyce takes responsibility for her elder sister as well. Meanwhile, Georgie has "made good" in Philadelphia but remains haunted by what could have been his life, had he stayed home and married his small-town sweetheart, and Lucy struggles with her sense of self and perspective after being spoiled by her mother all her childhood. Each of the Novaks wrestles, in his or her own way, with the legacy of growing up in the shadow of Baker Towers, two massive piles of mine refuse that serve as the town's most commanding landmark.I read Faith, Jennifer Haigh's most recent book, earlier in the summer and was captivated by her wonderful writing and her ability to take the reader into the innermost thoughts and emotions of her characters. So I sought out some of her earlier work and Baker Towers immediately jumped out at me as a book I knew I'd love. I love reading about the time period around World War II, when the book starts, and I've always been fascinated by industrial America. (After all, I majored in Industrial and Labor Relations.) And wow, I was not disappointed. From the very first page, I couldn't put Baker Towers down. I was pulled bodily into the loves and struggles of the Novak family and found myself relating to Georgie and Joyce in particular. The strong desire to escape a small town - I know that. And the equally strong compulsion to be the good child, the steady child, the child who holds it together even if it means getting nothing back - I know that too. But beyond just Georgie and Joyce, thanks to Jennifer Haigh, I feel as if I know all of the Novaks.The fact that I majored in Industrial and Labor Relations probably did add something to my considerable enjoyment of the book. I could read between the lines and understand what the families suffered during the miners' strike, and the economic implications of the mines' business (or lack thereof) in the 1970s and 1980s. But you don't need to have a labor background to enjoy Baker Towers. All you need is to enjoy a good family saga, great characters and wonderful writing. If you do, I promise you will enjoy this book - because it has all that and more. Highly recommended.

For my full review, click here: http://www.coffeeandabookchick.com/20......Bakerton, Pennsylvania is made up of residents who are Swedish, Polish, and Italian immigrants, with the coal mine employing a good majority. In the Novak family, the home is traditional to the time and place. Rose and Stanley, first-generations to America, live in Polish Hill in company-owned housing. Rose, an Italian wife and mother, remains at home to take care of their five children, and her Polish husband, Stanley, works every day in the coal mine. It was never expected that he, provider of the family and gentle disciplinarian, would suffer a fatal heart attack leaving too early his wife and five children to make a place for themselves in a town and in a world that is rapidly changing.This is the story of the five children who would be members of the Greatest Generation, living in a town whose existence thrives off the hulking mass of coal mined daily from deep in the mountain, resulting in Black Lung for miners and making widows of their wives. Each of the Novak children must find their way through life and whether it's enlisting in the military, or moving to Washington, D.C. and working for the government, or running away with no other goal but to just leave Bakerton, and who cares where you end up, their lives are ultimately filled with family, loss, love, and regrets, and it is a beautiful story with sincere contemplation on the painful choices each of them make. Combined with a glimpse into what life may have been like for those who lived during this time, ignoring the expected vintage nostalgia but instead strongly imbuing the story with remarkable authenticity, Baker Towers captures America during a time that will never be forgotten. The Novaks grow up, marry, and live their lives, and although some escape small-town life, over time they find that their paths invariably meander around and back to the very place that once made them want to flee.This was impossible to put down, the story weaving between characters and historical events with an efficiency and skill that captured me from the very first page. Quite frankly, it swallowed me up in the time and even made me feel the aesthetics and intangibles; I could see and feel the outfits the characters wore, the jobs they took, and the cars they drove. I also could easily see this as a movie, and with all of HBO's recent endeavors into successful adaptations to the small screen, I think it would follow up quite nicely after their expert remake of Mildred Pierce this past summer, starring Kate Winslet.Jennifer Haigh is just brilliant with her storytelling, and I decided that she is now one of my favorite authors. Her writing is expressive, moving, and thoughtful, and she has an astounding way to take tough subjects and events and turn them into the most painfully memorable moments of reading that I've had in the past year. I've enjoyed it all and can't wait to read Mrs. Kimble and The Condition next.

I had a lot of feelings reading this book. I grew up in Western PA's coal country, where "Baker Towers" is set, and had uncles and paps who worked the mines. I grew up around places like "Coal Town" and "Tin Town" and "Tunnelton." I watched industry dry up and small towns become irrelevant, main street businesses close and people lose their livelihoods. Basically, I experienced "Baker Towers" firsthand, but a generation later.Reading this book was like reading about my grandparents' lives, and I at times became overwhelmed with an ache for them that almost made me cry. I remembered the stories about getting by on next to nothing, how important the coal league baseball teams were to everyone in town. (Before he died, my pap would STILL talk about the young men from his little town who played coal league ball.) I remembered stories about firehall dances. The segregation between Italians and everyone else in town. I remembered my other grandpap's story about traveling to West Virginia to rescue miners trapped underground, and how I quickly realized not every story has a happy ending. (This book also catches simple details that are completely true to life, like people getting diabetes and not realizing starch was killing them. "I feel so sick," my diabetic grandma would tell us. "I don't know why. I only ate six apples.")If you don't know anything about Western PA coal country, read this book. It closely mirrors the stories I heard growing up there, and what the region went through as coal thrived and died. Its characters are complex and believable. Maybe not always likeable, but that's true of life, right? This book kind of broke my heart. Then patched it up again. I really really really enjoyed it.

I don't usually read historical fiction, but I picked one up recently called Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh. It follows the lives of 5 children in Bakerton PA, a small mining town, starting in the 1940s. At the start of the book Stanley Novak, coal miner and father of 5, dies shortly after returning home from work. His wife, Rose, is left to raise the children. George, the oldest, is already away from home serving in the armed forces. Dorothy is about to graduate from high school, Joyce is a few years younger. Sandy is in grade school and Lucy is an infant. Without their father around, Sandy becomes a bit wild and Joyce takes on the role of the second parent-making sure that Sandy and Lucy go to school. All the children think that they want to move away from Bakerton. Some move away and then come back. Some make good choices, others not so much.This was not an edge of your seat type of book. The story moved at a leisurely pace. The reader was able to see each child's perspective on living in or away from Bakerton. I would recommend it to people who like family sagas.

I had read Jennifer Haigh’s later book, FAITH and found it moving and memorable. This earlier book is a family saga that follows the five siblings of a Polish/Italian couple from World War II up to the Vietnam War. Baker Towers is just as deserving of high praise. The setting is a fictional mining town (Bakerton) in central Pennsylvania that mirrors the significant pace of change during these years in the Novak family. The roles and relationships or the brothers and sisters as they experience and triumph over tragic events, poor choices or lost opportunities is the true focus of the author. Wonderful character development and she uses the voices of each sibling to tell their version of the family story in a compelling and moving way.Wonderful book club recommendation since it opens up discussion of social norms, gender-linked roles and limitations for women in the 20th century. Each character richly contributes to the story of this complex family and each has their own flaws and weaknesses. In the final scenes you feel they are all more than mere survivors.

This is the author's second novel and I did recommend this one to bookclub. Very good and fast read. Good descriptions of life in a coal mining community in the 1940's through the 60's. Was quite accurate in my mind about the way the family hierarchy can work from the mother (Rose) being the head and completely in charge until she becomes ill and aged and someone has to take over her position. There is always one in a group of siblings that ends up taking care of all the family's problems. There are those who are just there and then there is usually one who is "trouble" but the most "fun".It was a nice family saga that she brought full circle and pretty much tied up loose ends."Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."Cato the Elder (234 BC - 149 BC), from Plutarch, Lives