Loewenstein does a marvelous job of drawing readers right into the time period and the setting. It's 1917, America has entered World War I, women are struggling for equal rights, and the small town seems to be the backbone of the country. In Unmentionables, small towns are more like the last bastion of traditions and ideas that need to change: the place of women in the world, war, racism to name a few. What I liked is the fact that these topics were woven seamlessly into the narrative. There wasn't any preaching.

I picked up this book because I'd really enjoyed Loewenstein's Dust Bowl era mystery, Death of a Rainmaker. At the outset, I was lulled into thinking Unmentionables was going to be a light, enjoyable read of little consequence. I was very wrong. Each character has his or her own unmentionable secrets and desires, and each character is allowed to develop more fully than readers initially expect. Loewenstein's descriptive powers are wonderful: for example, I've tucked away the description of Mrs. Sieve to savor over and over again.

If you're in the mood for well-written historical fiction that gives you a vivid setting and characters whose interwoven lives make you think about life and love and hate and all sorts of things, I recommend you find a copy of Laurie Loewenstein's Unmentionables. It's a winner. ( )

I have to admit at first this book didn't really grab me. It was nice enough, but the characterization was a little broad and the plot followed predictable cliches of women's rights, fighting for justice, and cloaked Midwestern racism. But then something happened -- Loewenstein isn't afraid to let her characters develop a little more deeply than you'd expect, and the action of the novel sometimes slides away into unexpected territory. When the novel explores the darker side of justice and good works, it ultimately earns the right to its rather romantic (and sweet) ending.

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2014/10/unmentionables-by-laurie-loewenstein.html ] ( )

Review of Unmentionables by Laurie Loewenstein (2014). New York : Akashic Books.

I started and finished this book several months ago, just after receiving it as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. I had every intention of actually providing an "early" review of the book, before its release in January 2014. Unfortunately, I had a difficult time deciding how to approach the review, primarily due to my inability to determine: (1) who the intended audience might be and (2) what genre the book represented (a related issue).

I have a feeling that when I requested the book from LTER, I thought it was a nonfiction exploration of Chautauquas and feminist efforts on behalf of sensible clothing for women. Once the book arrived and I realized it was a novel, I still hoped for historical fiction exploring these issues. Several chapters into the book I was more confused than ever. The large print made me think it might be aimed at young adult readers, but the characters, even the young central character Helen, are all older than that demographic. As I continued to read, the book read more like a "historical romance" (or at least what I remember historical romance to be from the last time I read any, when I was in my teens . . . a long time ago).

So, perhaps I am not an appropriate person to review this book. Reading it was easy and not unpleasant. The historical tidbits provided some insights into Midwestern small-town life, though I doubt that in 1917 anyone in the country was as oblivious to the "European troubles" (aka World War I) as the book portrays. (Many German and Scandinavian Americans in the Midwest may have wanted the US to remain neutral, but by August 1917 when the book opens, the war had been going on for 3 years and the US had entered in.) I appreciated the elements of feminism that crept into the book (mentions of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Jane Addams' Hull-House), but all of the female characters (even the feminist ones) seem more concerned with sex and romance than anything else. Unmentionables deals with other issues as well: racism, single-parenting, work-place issues, small-town politics . . . in fact sometimes it seemed as if the book was trying to do too much. In the end, the various story lines do manage to converge and complement each other.

If you enjoy historical fiction/romance set in the Midwest, you may enjoy this book. It just wasn't quite what I was expecting/wanting. ( )

Laurie Loewenstein's first novel, UNMENTIONABLES, launches the Kaylie Jones Books imprint of Akashic Books, and it is a fine and fascinating page-turner. Set during the years of World War I and the early years of women's suffrage, the locale shifts from small town Illinois to Chicago and even to the battlefields of France, as the plot follows the life events of several major and minor characters. The heroine is one Marian Elliott Adams, a thirty-ish independent spinster, a woman with a mission: to reform the restrictiveness of women's undergarments (the "unmentionables" of the title) in order to make them more competitive in the working world. As opening speaker for a traveling Chautauqua, Marian sweeps into Emporia with lofty and unshakeable ideas, determined to make a difference in the lives of women. Her experiences there leave her forever changed and embarked on a new, more altruistic, path, one which will take her to the Picardy region of France, as a wartime volunteer. The hero of the piece is widower Deuce Garland, Emporia's newspaper editor, who is also changed after meeting Marian. A cautious long-distance love affair ensues over the next year, as Deuce, out from under his wealthy father-in-law's thumb, begins to finally find his true voice as a reformer and a voice for the downtrodden.

Women's not-so-dainty 'unmentionables' (all together those outdated garments could weigh up to 25 pounds) are only a starting point for Loewenstein's carefully crafted story of a particular time and its customs, pastimes and prejudices. Racism and ethnic slurs take center stage for part of the story, and things turn ugly and tragic. And the sordid treatment and adventures of Deuce's daughter Helen in big-city Chicago graphically document the second class citizen status of women, even as they try valiantly to fill in positions vacated by the men who have gone to war. These attitudes are the real unmentionables of Lowenstein's story, and she has obviously researched the era painstakingly. The end result is one that is edifying, educational and, perhaps best of all, thoroughly entertaining.

Sometimes one wonders if the struggle for equal rights for women has ever really ended, a thought which makes a novel set a hundred years ago seem even more relevant. In any case, UNMENTIONABLES displays a fine feeling for the arc of a well-told tale. A great read, and one with a message. Bravo, Ms. Loewenstein! ( )

Few people alive today remember the Chatauqua assemblies that traveled through the Midwest states during the early to mid 1900's. These assemblies brought entertainment, educational programs, and cultural enlightenment to the people of these small, mostly rural communities. This story develops mostly in one of these communities in Illinois where Marian Elliot Adams appears to speak about how women's clothing of the time not only restricts a woman's body, but also restricts her place in society. When Marian falls off the stage and breaks her ankle after her lecture, she is forced to stay in the small town of Emporia for several days. Marian manages to have an impact on several people's lives - mostly for the good, although she believes herself responsible for one girl's death from tuberculosis. Although her belief is unfounded, she leaves Emporia, although she has fallen in love with Deuce. Apparently, as part of a self-inflicted penance, Marian goes to work for the Red Cross in France during World War I.

This debut explores the lives of small town people, the effects of ideas concerning race, and gender, and the impact of this outsider on their lives. A well-written, enjoyable story, that could easily have occurred anywhere in the Midwest. ( )