Review by New York Times Review
WE know the photograph. A seated woman - hand at her jaw, skin etched with worry - looks into the middle distance. Children rest their heads on her shoulders, faces turned away; an infant lies bundled in her lap. By capturing the plight of California's Depression-era migrant workers, Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" transformed a nation's attitudes toward the poor from the moment of its publication in 1936. Today, its immediacy dulled by time and fame, it functions mainly as a visual metonym for the Great Depression. We look at it, but we no longer see it, to borrow a distinction made in Marisa Silver's phenomenal new novel, "Mary Coin." Inspired by Lange's image, Silver's novel unfolds through the viewpoints of three characters: Walker Dodge, a present-day professor of cultural history who takes pleasure in exploring forgotten corners of quotidian history; Vera Dare, a poliostricken photographer who ends up working for the Resettlement Administration, shooting portraits of people in poverty; and Mary Coin, an impoverished Cherokee mother of seven, subject of the famous photograph. For Vera and Mary, Silver appropriates biographical details from the lives of Lange and her real-life subject, Florenee Owens Thompson. Renaming these historical figures allows Silver to engage in a bit of speculative fiction - Walker's present-day research culminates in the discovery of a family secret related to the image. But this discovery plot only provides an armature to lend underlying shape to an otherwise entirely supple work of art. In rendering this alternate universe, Silver is clearly interested not in the question "What if?" but rather "Who?" As we follow Mary from her childhood in Oklahoma to California through a series of births and deaths and couplings, we experience a portrait of poverty not through the dreary accumulation of gritty detail, but via a series of direct shots to the heart. Silver, author of two short-story collections and two previous novels, including "The God of War," writes with an unadorned impressionism that never feels self-conscious or fussy. And she handles the passage of time - one of the central themes of "Mary Coin," photographs stopping time as they do - so deftly it feels like magic. Part of what makes this novel so good is Silver's unwillingness to write facts free of the people living through them. Vera's sections trace her development as an artist in search of a subject, from her childhood polio to her pseudo-bohemian life in San Francisco as a portrait photographer and so on. When she and Mary cross paths at the midpoint of the novel, they are divided not only by the significant difference in their material circumstances, but also by the lens that defines them as photographer and subject. And yet, in Silver's sharply humane reconstruction, we are privy to the concerns that bind them: survival, self-determination, the fate of their children. Near the end of the novel, a museum visitor says of the iconic image, "You can see it all in her face." But what is it we see? Silver's novel breathes new life into "Migrant Mother" by reminding us that it is only a photograph, a glance fixed in time, a blip compared with the lives behind it. Or, as Mary puts it: "A person was just feelings that came and went like clouds drifting across the sky and decisions that sometimes ended up to be good and sometimes bad. But this woman in the picture was someone who looked a certain way and would never change. Like a table or a shoe." History is not a succession of icons or frozen moments but of messy lives lived, of people doing what they can with what they've got. Therein lies the power of this novel, and the Novel; Silver wields it here with grace and devastating effectiveness. The photographer and her subject are bound by their concerns for survival and the fate of their children. Antoine Wilson's second novel, "Panorama City," was published last year, as was his first book of photographs, "Slow Paparazzo."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [April 14, 2013]
Review by Booklist Review
Inspired by Migrant Mother, the iconic Depression-era photograph snapped by Dorothea Lange in 1936, Silver reimagines the lives of both the photographer and the subject. Interweaving the stories of Mary Coin, a young mother grappling with the cruel realities of raising a family during an enduring economic crisis, and Vera Dare, the brilliant young photographer facing life-altering decisions of her own, this dual portrait investigates the depths of the human spirit, exposing the inner reserves of will and desire hidden in both women. Though their paths cross for a brief moment, their fates stretching into succeeding generations are permanently altered by the meeting. The luminously written, heart-wrenching yet never maudlin plot moves back and forth through time, as history professor Walker Dodge unpeels the layers of the photograph's hidden truths.--Flanagan, Margaret Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Three characters whose lives span 90 years form the core of Silver's gorgeous third novel (after The God of War). Social historian Walker Dodge, as he sorts through the last items of his nearly empty childhood home, discovers a familial link to a famous photograph. Here, a real-life photo taken by Dorothea Lange in 1936 becomes a fictional photo taken by Vera Dare of Mary Coin. Silver fills in the untold story behind Lange's photo by revealing Vera and Mary's lives in vivid detail. Neither woman can reconcile herself with the Depression-era photo, yet they are intimately linked: each has children, husbands who leave them, and battles with cancer. This narrative of mid-century hope, loss, and disenchantment is both universal and deeply personal. Mary's problem with the truth of history and the stories told through objects leads her to make the hardest decision of her life, one confronted by Walker 75 years later. Silver has managed the difficult task of fleshing out history without glossing over its ugly truths. With writing that is sensual and rich, she shines a light on the parts of personal history not shared and stops time without destroying the moment. Agent: Henry Dunow; Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Library Journal Review
Dorthea Lange's legendary photograph of an unknown migrant mother, taken at the height of the Great Depression, is the inspiration for Silver's (The God of War) superb new novel. The titular character is a reimagining of this Native American mother of seven, with the memorable face that came to symbolize American poverty. Mary, along with Vera Dare, a strong-minded photographer and polio survivor who is forced to abandon her own children, and Walker Dodge, a modern-day history professor with a surprising link to the celebrated photograph, are the mesmerizing novel's three central characters. Silver's acute observations and understated style are evident here as are her matter-of-fact, unapologetic characters. "You'll know who you are when you start losing things," declares one. With only a few known facts of the woman in Lange's photograph, Silver has crafted a highly imaginative story that grabs the reader and won't let go. -VERDICT A must-read for Silver fans that is sure to win over many new followers; the acclaimed author's best work to date.-Lisa Block, Atlanta, GA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The fictionalized lives of photographer Dorothea Lange and the Native American farm worker behind her famous Depression-era portrait "Migrant Mother." While adhering closely to the facts of the real women's lives, Silver (The God of War, 2008, etc.) renames them--Lange becomes Vera Dare; her subject, Florence Owens Thompson, becomes Mary Coin--and frames their stories within a wholly fictional conceit: Social historian Walker Dodge is grappling with his role as a divorced father when he begins researching the history of his family, successful California fruit growers, after the death of his uncommunicative father. Walker, who coincidentally teaches college students how to look at photographs, opens and closes the novel in 2011, but the real focus is on the two women. Mary grows up on an Oklahoma farm, raised by her tough but loving Cherokee mother after her alcoholic white father's death. At 17, she marries Toby Coin, and they head to California where he works in sawmills and she has one baby after another. By 1929, a fire has burned down the mill and their home. After Toby dies, Mary picks fruit to support her children. After an affair with a farm owner's son, she has another baby that she is nursing near her broken-down car the day in 1936 when Vera Dare takes her picture. Vera, who still limps from the polio she suffered as a child, has spent the 1920s in San Francisco as a society photographer. Her financial security has collapsed by the early 1930s, along with her marriage to a flamboyant, womanizing painter. By the time she runs across Mary, Vera has farmed out her two sons to travel the countryside taking pictures to document rural poverty for FDR's Resettlement Administration. When she photographs Mary, Vera has no idea the image will take on a life of its own. Walker's tacked-on connection to the photograph seems a calculated attempt to add sexual intrigue to what is otherwise a disappointingly plodding account that sheds no new light on either the photographer or her subject.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
