The Incorrigibles
San Francisco, 1972: Twenty-five-year-old Judy has recently separated from her abusive, unfaithful husband. Women’s liberation is in the air, and Judy dreams of reviving her old ambition to go to graduate school for photography. She rents an apartment in a tattered section of town, and starts photographing her colorful, struggling neighbors and embraces their fight for a voice in what happens in the neighborhood. Then, at her job in a studio, Judy comes across a photograph from 1890 that haunts her. It is a mug shot of a very young, very scared woman.
San Francisco, 1890: Annie has emigrated from Ireland and found a position as a maid with a wealthy family. She plans to better herself and bring her nine siblings to the U.S. from their lives of privation back home. Her hopes rise when her employer’s nephew takes an interest in her.
The Incorrigibles tells both of these women’s stories in alternating chapters. Judy becomes obsessed with learning about the young woman in the mug shot, while at the same time fending off her husband’s increasingly forceful attempts to bring her back home. Annie’s hopes of a brilliant marriage are quickly dashed. She finds herself in a nightmare of imprisonment, degradation, and helplessness. Her only solace is the friendship of a fellow prisoner, who teaches her a trade that may become her lifeline.
Judy and Annie are very sympathetic characters. Both of them must find the courage to stand up to men who want to control them, and find the lives they have dreamed of. Jaeger skillfully develops strong themes of both self-determination and solidarity. I was so invested in the plights of these two heroines that I found the book hard to put down and read all 354 pages in just two days. Highly recommended.
