Barbara’s Pick
March 2023
Gilded Mountain
Kate Manning
Scribner Publishing; November 1, 2022
I must admit that when I saw this book’s title, I was thinking more Edith Wharton than Upton Sinclair. But from the first sentence I realized I could not make generalizations about this novel.
Gilded Mountain is set in nineteen-aughts Colorado and details the dangerous world of mining marble for statues. The main character, seventeen-year-old Sylvie, is headed to a nunnery if her French-Canadian mother has her way, but the young girl wins an essay contest and parlays that into a job at the local paper and then a summer job working for the local tycoon’s French wife. Real historic characters such as “Mother” Jones drop in as the workers flirt with unionizing to improve their horrible working conditions.
This compelling book exposed a world I had little knowledge of. Sylvie and her family will stay with you. Enjoy!