Tomorrow Will Bring Sunday’s News: A Philadelphia Story
Peggy, a first-generation Irish American woman in Philadelphia, is dying in her home in 1969. As she slowly fades from cancer, her thoughts swerve between her present life coming to an end and her need to put into words the very worst year of her life in 1917. This need to finally confront and save these memories rests on her hope that her granddaughter will come to visit her one last time so this part of her life can be passed on. Past and present then mingle throughout the book, weaving in and out of time, as the vivid story of her terrible year seems to crystallize in its retelling in her mind. She recalls her beau (called only “the boy” throughout), the call to war, anti-German violence on the home front involving her best friend, arduous factory work, a race riot, the Spanish flu. Interspersed throughout are also memories of a special day in the park, her first elevator ride, weekly concerts, her mother dancing, and her ongoing and shared love of reading. She becomes her own story as it all comes to life again. Her husband, who is caring for her in the final days of her life, is a reminder that her life has gone on for decades after this terrible year that she has tried to forget until now.
The lyrical prose, the mood shifts, and the unfurling of the storyline all add to the sense of wispy clouds merging together and then dispersing over and over in its narration. Unlike many works of historical fiction, this unique work evokes emotion through short, almost staccato-like narration rather than through dense, florid description. It draws a reader into a different sense of time and place, while revealing the ever-so-human moments of dealing with deep grief as well as moments of sweet joy. Can the most tragic year of a person’s life become their most poignant? Readers wishing to ponder this will find much to think about from this book.
