Book Summary and Reviews of The Daughters of Erietown by Connie Schultz

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Cathryn Conroy

A Bit of a Soap Opera Plot, but It’s a Captivating Story That Brilliantly Captures a Bygone Era
As much as this is the story of a marriage, it is even more a story of a bygone era when men were the ones who went to work, women were housewives, races and ethnicities lived in separate neighborhoods, and Dad’s word—no matter how unfair—ruled. This is a story that will take you back in time to a place that some still call "the good old days" even if they really weren’t.

Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist Connie Schultz, this is the story of Brick and Ellie, high school sweethearts in 1957 who "have" to get married when Ellie gets pregnant before they even graduate. Both come from troubled backgrounds—Brick’s dad physically abuses him, while Ellie’s father abandoned her to her grandparents after his wife died. They find solace in each other. But the pregnancy changes everything when Brick must turn down a basketball scholarship to Kent State University, and Ellie gives up her dreams of nursing school. The novel spans nearly 40 years as Brick and Ellie build a life together that is sorely tested by mistakes big and small, infidelity, heartbreak, and seismic societal changes.

While this book is almost 500 pages long, it’s a fast read. The plot, filled with family secrets and tension, keeps the reader turning those pages. Yes, some of it is quite predictable and sometimes too much like a soap opera, but it’s still a captivating book that brilliantly captures the era.

One of the main "characters" is the setting of the fictional Northeast Ohio town of Erietown. If you’re a baby boomer who grew up in Northeast Ohio during the ‘50s, ‘60s and early ‘70s, you’ll enjoy the shoutouts to such favorites as children’s show hosts Barnaby and Captain Penny, Indians announcer Herb Score, Lawson’s convenience store and its famous French onion dip, Higbee’s department store in downtown Cleveland and its Silver Grille, CKLW radio station, lake effect snow, and Ohio heroes John and Annie Glenn.

Dottie

Real Life
Book covers family life thru 60-70-80's. Small town, small choices or do they lead to big choices or being stuck in the same dreams. Descriptions of each character come alive and carries reader from youth to older generations. Social conditions are things of the past but so real in this time. Quick read and good for book discussions.

Virginia Canalos

Predictable
Predictable, one dimensional characters.

MaryBeth

The Daughters of Erietown by Connie Schultz
This book is a story of the lives of women in the 1950s through the last seventies. Specifically in some cases about their lack of choice and the consequences of not having control over their choice to have children. I found the writing tedious and juvenile. The plot was was predictable, but that may be because I was born in 1955. This is a nice story, but I found it boring.