Negative Positive
Title: Ambitious story of a Pittsburgh steel family
Review: Marcia Davenpot, a music critic, often chose musical themes as subjects for her novels. That's not the case here in this huge (over 600 pages), ambitious, and vividly written novel that is concerned with a Pittsburgh industrial family over the course of about 70 years. Mary, the "Irish peasant girl from Shantytown" is the main character, and she's wonderfully drawn by Davenport. Her goal in life is to hold the Scott family together: "she was hellbent that nothing should ever happen to reflect on this family," says Paul, the head of the family and the man she's loved (and who has loved her back) but wouldn't marry, feeling his real love was his steel mill. The book spans a very large canvas from Pittsburgh to Eastern Europe and a large cast of characters; Davenport's skill at manipulating events and people is on full display in this novel, and despite its length the book is interesting from cover to cover.
Is the review positive or negative? 