The Courtship of Joanna Author:Catherine Gourley The Courtship of Joanna spotlights one year in a small Pennsylvania coal mining toen in the 1880's during which Joanna, at sixteen, leaves her farm family to become housekeeper for a recently widowed Irish miner and his mother. As her attachment to the Flynn family deepens, and she becomes part of the mining community, Joanna grows gracefull... more »y into herself as a woman and a human being.
The author's understanding of the terrible conditions under which miners labored and the almost nonexistent choices open to people who immigrated without any wealth is impressive. With spare and powerful details, she brings to life the grinding, dangerous work of the miners and the worry and bleakness of their families' lives. Through them we come to understand the particular struggle of immigrants to find themsleves in a new world and, despite their harsh lives, find the spirit and means to survive.« less