Lace Curtain

by Mary Lou Widmer

Forced to leave Ireland during the potato famine of 1830s, Danny and Brian Callahan come to New Orleans in answer to a flier calling for diggers for a grand canal. The fliers promise work, free passage, and free room and board on arrival, but say nothing of the heat, the mosquitoes, or the annual Yellow Fever epidemics.

In the new world, the brothers suffer through their early years, but in time leave their back-breaking jobs and follow different paths on their way to a better life. Danny, quick-witted, living a life based on integrity, becomes a merchant, and seems a natural for city politics, while Brian finds his fame as the owner of the city’s biggest barroom and brothel. In a clash of Irish wills, Danny must find a way to crush his infamous brother, always with the help and support of his childhood sweetheart.

392 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1985

About the author

I am a native of New Orleans, graduate of Loyola University,author of 12 published books, fiction & non-fiction, historian, former teacher, mother of two, grandmother of four.

Reviews

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because it takes place in New Orleans and I thought it was a decent story about how some of the Irish came to the city

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a romance. More like a family saga. It's refreshing to have a novel tell of a immigrant family that though it eventually prospers, does so at realistic levels. Very nice detailing of working class New Orleans in the early 1800's. The author must have done very thorough research or listened carefully to some older members of her family.