WKSU News: Akron novelist looks forward by looking back

Monday, January 9, 2012 Akron novelist looks forward by looking back New novel weaves today's economic depression and immigration woes into the 1930s by WKSU's KABIR BHATIA	Reporter Kabir Bhatia

As a child in Florida, Julie Drew dreamed of a magical, snow-covered world whenever she received holiday cards from New England. Her first book, Daughter of Providence, is set in Rhode Island.

Courtesy of juliedrew.com

Economic depression and immigration woes are two big issues on the campaign trail this year. They’re also the centerpiece of a new novel that’s being well received nationally. WKSU's Kabir Bhatia has more with Akron's Julie Drew, author of "Daughter of Providence."

Akron novelist looks forward by looking back

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Anne Dodge and her old-money father are about to discover ugly family secrets in Rhode Island during the summer of 1934. Anne's mother supposedly abandoned the family years before. Now the New Deal, labor strikes, and a Portuguese half-sister are flying toward the reader in "Daughter of Providence," Julie Drew's first book. The University of Akron English professor originally planned to write a book that editorialized about the dangers of moral over-certainty.

"I thought it would be more effective and reach a larger audience if, instead of an editorial, I made it a narrative with characters that people could relate to. Just a little bit of distance, maybe, so I wasn't talking specifically about contemporary politics and cultural issues. Putting it in 1934 helped me do that. And also I think there were some interesting parallels between now and the end of the Depression."

Drew says readers are intrigued by those parallels. Without spoiling the plot, she hints at some of the problems plaguing the characters in her book. In many ways, they’re the problems of Northeast Ohio some 80 years later.

Akron’s Julie Drew on her first book, Daughter of Providence, which has won good reviews from Publisher’s Weekly, The Plain Dealer and Library Journal. She's already working on another book, the first part of a trilogy for young adults.