Mary Coin

Summary (from the publisher): Bestselling author Marisa Silver takes Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother photograph as inspiration for a story of two women—one famous and one forgotten—and their remarkable chance encounter.

In 1936, a young mother resting by the side of the road in central California is spontaneously photographed by a woman documenting migrant laborers in search of work. Few personal details are exchanged and neither woman has any way of knowing that they have produced one of the most iconic images of the Great Depression. In present day, Walker Dodge, a professor of cultural history, stumbles upon a family secret embedded in the now-famous picture. In luminous prose, Silver creates an extraordinary tale from a brief event in history and its repercussions throughout the decades that follow—a reminder that a great photograph captures the essence of a moment yet only scratches the surface of a life.

 

Review: This speculative novel imagines the fictional lives between the subject and photographer of the famous Migrant Mother photograph from the Great Depression, which depicts a young mother  with her children on the side of the road in California. Author Marisa Silver reimagines the subject as migrant laborer Mary Coin and the photographer as Vera Dare, whose brief exchange for the famous photographer in 1936 change both their lives. In present day, Walker Dodge, a professor going through his recently deceased father's home, stumbles upon a secret related to the famous photograph of Mary Coin.

 

Silver's account is beautifully written, full of one liners that evocatively convey the characters' emotional depth. For instance, Walker's struggles with his teenage daughter are described thus: "her reticence is sometimes physically painful for Walker, who can still feel the sensation of her warm body against his chest when he lifted her from her crib each morning" (25). Silver is adept at creating very visual images of her characters, particularly fitting for a novel focusing on a photographer and an iconic image. The visceral images of the characters' suffering and physicality is keenly felt - the snot encrusted on a child's nose, the wracking cough of a dying man still working in the field, hands so encrusted with dirt that they look "like carrots just yanked from the ground" (145).

 

The most compelling portion of this novel were the sections that followed Mary Coin. Silver is able to effectively create a haunting backstory behind the famous picture. Mary's struggles, grit, poverty, and fierce love for her children dominate her portrayal. Less moving to me were the sections that followed the photographer Vera and the present day Walker Dodge. For me, Mary is the one whose picture was captured but yet whose story was untold. In many ways, she was merely a face to symbolize a period in history. This novel was the chance for a fictionalized version of her story to emerge, which was more powerful than the choice to the photographer, who in reality profited nicely from the famous photo, yet more coverage. Finally, I found the frame story of beginning and ending the novel with Walker Dodge and the family secret that tied him to Mary Coin unnecessary. Mary's life was filled with enough hardship and despair; I found the creation of yet another element of sorrow gratuitous.

 

As the photographer as well as the name of the migrant woman herself are known, I found it intriguing that the author decided to create new and entirely fictional personas for both in this novel. However, that did give her the artistic license to shape her novel as she chose. Overall, Silver did an admirable job of imagining the deprivation and extreme poverty of migrant workers in the 1930s with the creation of her fictional character Mary Coin.

 

Stars: 3