Ursula Pflug's Blog - Posts Tagged "ottawa-review-of-books"

A Harsh and Private Beauty by Kate Kelly

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I reviewed this wonderful family saga for ORB, the Ottawa Review of Books:

"Educator and spoken word artist Kate Kelly's debut novel A Harsh and Private Beauty follows a family of Irish immigrants to prohibition-era Chicago. Progeny of a family uprooted from the culture and tradition of their native Ireland, brothers Michael and Daniel Kenny take to the mean streets to forge a living. Well, Michael anyway. He urges his little brother, always the bright one, to stay in school while he and his friends struggle to navigate the emerging gang culture. Becoming a rum-running gang’s accountant isn’t quite what we’d imagined for sensitive Danny, but life sometimes foils our expectations and that’s an underlying theme of Kelly’s—do we become embittered or adapt to reduced or changed circumstances?"

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