Author: Naomi Nowak (also illustrator)
Publisher: NBM
Rating: WORTHY!
This is a really short and easy read. I fell in love with it because of the artwork, even though I don't really get the story. I mean superficially it's a woman's struggle to find a better life and to take charge of her destiny, which alone is a great thing, but the story was really loosely wrapped, so I have to keep wondering if I missed something.
This is the story of Josephine who is sent away to a factory called the House of Cotton, where she is to work whilst saving funds to go to nursing school, a project which would appear doomed by the fact that Josephine faints every time she sees blood.
At the house, she meets two people, one of whom is a co-worker and sometime prostitute by the name of Edith, with whom she bonds, and the other is a much older woman who calls her work-place the House of Clay because it's like the underworld, she says.
The older woman has a different take on life due to the fact that as a younger woman, she almost died from an illness. Now she makes the most of every day. Josephine gives her a bit of a turn because she looks so much like the older woman looked in her own youth. Josephine tells the woman that she will come back and visit, but when she does, the woman has died.
This prompts Josephine to take the woman's advice and take charge of her own life. She rejects the work at the House of Clay and departs, having no plans other than to own her life. Edith decides to come along for the trip.
Like I said, I do think I am missing something here, but it's not brain cells! I loved the simplicity and fluidity of the artwork and the story (as I understood it!), so I consider this a worthy read.
