Mary Coin: A Novel

OMG. I think I just finished the best book I’ve read by a living author ever! I loved each character, contemporary and historical. The two strong women of course, but also the charming, gentle men who were drawn to them.Brilliant construction. I anticipated each connection, and felt such satisfaction in being right and seeing how it played out, enjoying the interplay of past and present. An engaging album of life's snapshots.Brilliant dialogue. Sparkling with wit, reverent irreverence -- tempered with a deft touch. I loved the classic banter between male and female character, parent and child. Half-way through, I figured the author was a film scriptwriter, and cinematic director. Though I wouldn’t want her to make a movie out of this masterpiece of art. It’s perfect the way it is. Fresh, original, engaging. I’d give it six stars if I could.Funny how after all these years of seeing this photo, I never noticed the two children beside her.

Try to imagine what Florence Owens Thompson was thinking in this iconic “Migrant Mother” photograph, a picture that was taken in 1936 by Dorothea Lange. Lange was a government employee, on assignment to show the plight of poor migrant workers during America’s Great Depression, and this image became a national symbol of the extreme hardships these destitute Americans endured. To me, she looks tired and worried, but also strong and resolved. When this picture was taken, Thompson was a widow with seven children, and she worked in the fields to support her family, picking cotton, peas, and oranges. She and her children traveled to wherever there was work, living in tents and scraping by to do no more than exist.Marisa Silver used this image as inspiration for Mary Coin, a work of historical fiction based on the incredible and difficult life of Florence Thompson and her children.I enjoyed reading Mary Coin. Silver is an excellent writer and she makes it very easy to imagine what Thompson’s life was like. She presents the story from three perspectives, beginning with Walker Dodge in the present day, whose family has owned an orange grove in California for four generations. When Walker’s father, George dies, Walker must go through the family home and clear out his father’s belongings, furniture, books, and seemingly unimportant, outdated papers. Trained to notice details, Walker begins to piece together a different picture of his family, particularly the lives of his father and grandfather.Mary’s story begins in Oklahoma when she is a teenager. She is restless and in search of something more than the life she leads in her family’s mud house. Mary reads the newspapers that cover their walls for insulation and feels excluded from a bigger world, “aware that there were words and ideas meant only for people who already knew them.” She’s drawn to Toby Coin, a boy in her village. They marry when she becomes pregnant, marking the beginning of Mary’s life as a mother.Vera Dare begins her career as a portrait photographer, taking pictures of wealthy society women. She marries and has children, but her marriage is doomed and when the Depression hits, Vera gets a job taking photographs for the government. Her picture of Mary Coin gains national recognition, Mary remains anonymous, and their lives continue independently until years later.As the years pass and the two women age, each feels compelled to confront and explain the significance of their meeting. And when Walker makes discoveries in his father’s house, we learn about the significance of his family’s link to Mary.Silver follows Thompson’s story closely, but it’s important to remember that this is a fictional work. It is fun, however, to imagine the personalities of these people and the story of Mary Coin allows you to do just that. Reading Mary Coin makes me want to re-read The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, one of my all-time favorites.For the record, Dorothea Lange did not receive royalties or any kind of payment (other than her salary) for her photograph of Florence Thompson. The picture was the property of the U.S. government. Lange did, however, receive a great deal of professional recognition after taking the picture, which helped boost her career. Thompson’s identity remained anonymous until 1978 when a reporter tracked her down and told her story.I recently found additional information about Thompson and her children, including two great interviews of her daughter, Katherine. It’s a fascinating story and I think the interest begins with that very photograph and the serious, but not-totally-readable look on Thompson’s face.Great 2008 interview with Katherine McIntosh, one of the children in the photo (girl to the left):http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/12/02/dustbowl.photo/Another interview with Katherine McIntosh 2009:http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Daughter-of-Migrant-Mother-proud-of-story-3221049.php#photo-2363732Great article from the Tampa Bay Times: http://www.tampabay.com/features/visualarts/depressions-migrant-mother-remains-a-powerful-image/493338

When an author weaves a tale from a real-life event, it has to be more than a reproduction in time and character. Mary Coin represents Florence Owen Thompson, who was photographed in 1936 on a California pea farm. This famous photograph was named "Migrant Mother." It is a riveting photo depicting a 32-year-old widow and the mother of seven children.Marisa Silver takes us into the grueling, heart -wrenching life of Mary Coin, who married Toby Coin when she was seventeen. She came from an underprivileged background where fathers leaving and children dying were not uncommon. Mary married Toby Coin and began "popping out" babies. Their only means of sustaining themselves was to join the migrant workers, pitch a tent on a farm, and pick crops until they could hardly breathe or move. Paid a meager wage, the Coins worked from meal to skimpy meal and had more children. Toby Coin dies of tuberculosis and Silver's description of his death and Mary's attentiveness is sad, so very sad. After his death, Mary, who tries to give her children a good memory everyday, has them tell her of a lovely flower or a good person. She is in a daze but perseveres giving the reader the tenor of the times and the strength of Mary's endurance.Flashback to two other main characters: Vera Dare, representing Dorothea Lange, is a photographer paid by the US government to travel and illustrate the depths of the Depression. Vera is polio survivor with a visible limp who marries a philanderer and has two sons. Vera's story connects to Mary's as two women who manage to exist through life, often as outcasts. One is middle class; the other is a malnourished mother who will do anything to feed her children, she is fiercely devoted. The upper class is represented by Walker Dodge, a divorced college professor, and social historian, who teaches his students that there are stories to be discovered with minimal information. He attempts to uncover his own family mystery. Walker's place in the novel is the weakest; I felt we needed more information about the depth of his character to complete Silver's circle of the legacy of Mary Coin.The novel spans 91 years and it is adroitly braided together with the heritage of Mary Coin. The documentation of the farm workers is the strongest portrait. They are underpaid and over worked. Do they have any freedom in this country? They are free to leave this degrading work leaving them only with the choice to starve.

I happen to live and teach school 1/4 mile from where this epic photograph was taken. It has always haunted many of us who live in this area and have wondered how the woman and children fared after the photo was taken. The problem for me with this novel is that the author has assigned a life of facts and details to this woman that do not exist, nor should they. I feel it is rather presumptuous to invent a life for an iconic photograph and publish it because many will believe it to be fact, which it is not. I am not surprised to learn that a student at this high school in Nipomo CA can trace, with more accuracy, his ancestry to this woman. I say, the real story has yet to be written!

Loved this book And I will read it again . I am going to put Mary Coin in my best of books that I keep for good. It arrived in great shape. I loved the cover so much.

I really enjoyed this book. I found it very interesting and loved the women in it. It was about the past and the depression, drought and extremely difficult times. I was amazed at how hard they struggled to survive and was very proud of them all and how they overcame adversity. Great.

Captures the time and place beautifully. A very moving story about human struggle. I would highly recommend it. Give it a try!

Enjoyed the take on the story behind this iconic photograph. I would have liked more on the lives of their children and more closure on her relationship with Earl and what happened after the dirty 30's were ove, but all in all a good read.

Beautifully written. Honest, forthright with enough narrative quality to bring this historical fiction tale to life. I loved it! Highly recommended.