PINK CHIMNEYS - Ardeana Hamlin

1800's, Bangor, Maine. Three women struggle to survive and thrive in a male-dominated world.

Maude Richmond is bright young girl who wants to become a doctor like her father, but, because she's female, it won't be possible. So she does the next best thing - she becomes a midwife and by choice she elects to help the 'fallen' girls.

Fanny Abbott is one of Maude's patients. A young girl who has been completely taken advantage of - seduced and abandoned.  She gives birth to a daughter, Elizabeth.

Fanny knows that she needs to find work, but the prospect is made doubly hard with a baby in tow, so she asks her sister to look after the child while she looks for work in the city.  She'll send for the baby as soon as possible.  But that good time never seems to arrive as Fanny flounders about trying to find work.  Finally she manages to get a job ... running the day-to-day business of a brothel ("Pink Chimneys") - and sends for her daughter, now a young woman, to work there with her, as a seamstress.

Author Ardeana Hamlin has clearly put in a great deal of time researching the location and the era and the book manages to feel like a 19th Century romance tale, rather than the 1980's historical fiction that it truly is.

I didn't mind the read, though I struggled to maintain an interest through the middle sections of the book. Fanny's plight was certainly real and something the history books don't spend much time on, but other than showing a determination to keep moving forward she doesn't actually bring much to the story. Maude is much more interesting but not featured enough.

A fair number of reviewers mention the historical aspects, and again, it did read like a book from this period, but I have no personal knowledge of Maine history and other than a couple of visits to the state, I don't know much about it.

This was a fine but not terribly memorable read.  Perhaps the local (Bangor, Maine) angle will appeal to some.  I understand that the book is loosely based on an actual Madam who ran a brothel known as the "Blue House". But I suspect that many cities had their bawdy houses and stories of the area have lingered through the decades.

Looking for a good book? Pink Chimneys by Ardeana Hamlin is a feminist, historical fiction novel set in 19th century Maine.

3 stars

* * * * * *

Pink Chimneys

author: Ardeana Hamlin

publisher: Tilbury House Pub

ISBN: 9780884480563

paperback, 312 pages