All Waiting Is Long

May 30, 2016
Set in the 1930s, Taylor’s suspenseful and intricate follow-up to Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night tells the story of sisters Violet and Lily Morgan. When 16-year-old Lily becomes pregnant out of wedlock, Violet follows her to the Good Shepherd Infant Asylum in Philadelphia. The nuns promise good homes to all babies born under their roof, but unbeknownst to them, the lead physician at the asylum is practicing eugenics and sterilizing the expecting mothers who pass through their doors. As the girls’ visit comes to a close, Violet makes a rash decision that will alter not only her relationship with her sister, but her future with her fiancé, and her entire existence in her hometown of Scranton, Pa. Taylor delivers startling plot twists and incisive commentary on the social unrest of a coal-mining town during the Great Depression. Covering a six-year span, the novel reveals the consequences of arduous labor and widespread sterilizations that came with the eugenics movement. Among the prostitutes, mobsters, and miners is a web of interconnected lives that come together for a breathtaking ending in Taylor’s fine sequel.

Starred review from June 1, 2016
Although Taylor's (Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night, 2014) powerful between-the-wars historical novel is about two Scranton, Pennsylvania, sisters, it simultaneously demonstrates the personal repercussions that can be caused by social do-gooders. Violet, 25, and Lily, 16, soon feel, if not like lifelong friends, at least like cousins or neighbors. Single and pregnant, Lily has been shuffled off to a Philadelphia home for unwed mothers, the Good Shepherd Infant Asylum. And because the coddled, clueless teen would be lost without Violet, the elder sibling puts her life on hold to stay with her for the duration. The Catholic facility is funded by a childless benefactor and attended, when midwifery won't suffice, by a physician enamored with the then-popular theory of eugenics. Every page is saturated with the 1930s milieu as the sisters navigate the adversities of their reality on a sea rough with the unrealistic expectations of well-intentioned idealists, both religious and secular. As if to highlight those expectations, Taylor periodically interrupts her third-person narrative with Greek-chorus-type commentary from the Scranton-based Isabelle Lumley Bible Class, including excerpts from a 1929 sex manual for women. The overall result is a thought-provoking book-club-discussion cornucopia.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)