Button Box Two: Button Box Saga - 1930 to 1948 - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

The Button Box Saga consists of a trilogy of books. This is the second book in the series. In the first volume, a prologue and a number of “interludes” served to introduce the original family members and their stories. All interludes are told in the first person by the 4th generation’s Emily. The interludes also allow the reader to learn a bit about Emily’s own life. Her grandmother’s button box, full of “story buttons” from old family garments, is the vehicle through which each generation’s tale is begun. The first book started when 16-year-old Marya traveled to America alone to escape the turmoil which would become WWI. Sponsored by an avaricious cousin, Marya’s life in the Slavic section of Cleveland, Ohio was not an easy one. She didn’t think she’d survive without her younger cousin Sophie. The two girls shared most of their trials and triumphs, joys and pain. Marya entered into an arranged marriage and had a daughter, Josie. Sophie got secretarial training and was hired by a law firm. The dramas of their lives were set against the background of the Home Front during WWI, the fight for Women’s Suffrage, and the Roaring Twenties. The first book also introduced Marya’s daughter, Josie. It showed her to be a bit spoiled and mischievous during her childhood. After her family moved from Cleveland to Sandusky, Josie was unhappy and longed to return to Cleveland and her best friend, Mary. But whenever she did visit, she ended up in trouble. After the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression, Josie felt completely boxed in, unable to go away to college, or even to visit in Cleveland. So at age 17, she eloped with a local farm boy, Art Bransen. She became pregnant very quickly. Life on Art’s farm was not what she expected from married life, to say the least. And then her beloved father died and her mother moved back to Cleveland. Josie felt both grief-stricken and abandoned. She thought if she wasn’t married and pregnant, she could stay with her mother in Cleveland. While there for her father’s funeral, she tried to bring on a miscarriage, but failed. Afterward, she felt enormous guilt and vowed to return to the farm and make a go of things with Art and his family. That is the point at which Book Two picks up. It details her life with Art and his family and the dramatic events that cause her to permanently move back to Cleveland. It then continues her story as she gets a job and faces the difficulties of living in the Depression, and also being a divorced woman during that era. She also faces the more positive dilemma of deciding between two young men with whom she forms relationships. The story continues with her life during WWII, and the difficulty she shares with all young women of that time whose men were at war. It also introduces her daughter, Becky and the main issue she will be facing as the saga continues in Book Three.

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