Edge of the Triangle

From KIRKIS REVIEW The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire anchors a generations-long family tragedy in this brooding historical melodrama. Fleeing his violent, corrupt father-the first of the novel's string of brutal patriarchs-16-year-old Junior Millwood travels in steerage from Ireland to the teeming New York City of 1906, a journey that begins a lively immigrant bildungsroman. Right off the boat he's beaten and robbed, has his meager earnings skimmed by a sly foreman and gets entangled with tenement sirens. Fortunately, his love for Moira, the winsome lass he left behind, endures; soon he brings her over, marries her and secures her a job at his garment factory. Alas, the factory is the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Company, where a 1911 fire killed 146 workers. The disaster, grippingly depicted here, was worsened by blocked exits, faulty fire escapes and other code violations, and became a rallying cry for the labor movement. It also leaves Junior bereft and burdened with a shameful secret This first act of his saga is a vivid, well-researched recreation of working-class life in the early 20th century, supplemented with 14 pages of documentary endnotes. http: //www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/dh-cook/edge-of-the-triangle/ ** Nominated for 2011 Global eBook Award