100 Pages A Day...Stephanie's Book Reviews

Mollie Flynn was born on the streets of New York City in the 1800’s.  She grew up bouncing from charity houses to the streets where she found a friend in Annabelle Lee, who works the streets as a whore.  Mollie earns her living as a pickpocket.  Together, the two girls forge their way in the Bowery, making enough money to keep a roof over their heads in a small tenement and dealing with the many feuding gangs.   After Annabelle’s release from prison, Mollie believes things will turn around; the two girls want to fulfill their dream of leaving the city behind and going to Brooklyn with the completion of the Bridge.  However, Annabelle comes out of prison pregnant and now wants to better her life for her baby.  Annabelle and Mollie enroll in Emmeline DuPre’s Cherry Street Settlement House hoping to better themselves and find honest work. Escaping from life in the Bowery proves harder than either of the girls expected.

An honest look at what life was like for young women in poverty in one of the roughest parts of New York City in the early 19^th century.  Both Mollie and Annabelle are dynamic and unique, hopeful but seemingly stuck in their situations, the have a conscious and dreams of a better future.  Mollie and Annebelle’s professions of pickpocket and whore are not overshadowed, neither are the consequences of these positions or the pay.  Mollie points out that one quick pickpocket victim could land her as much money as a 12-hour day in her typewriting position.  Life in their dismal tenement was also highlighted, a dead horse at the end of the street, walls plastered in book pages, children playing on a pile of trash all painted a historically accurate picture of the living situation at the time.  Overall, Bowery Girl is a story rich in hopes and dreams which displays a snapshot of life in this tumultuous place and time in New York City; a quick read perfect for those who want to dig into the history of 19^th Century New York City or The Gangs of New York.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.