UPRISING
Margaret Peterson Haddix
Simon & Schuster
Historical Fiction
ISBN: 9781416911715
352 pages

UPRISING, by prolific author Margaret Peterson Haddix, opens with a young woman named Harriet pleading with a Mrs. Livingston to tell her about the long-ago fire at the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. The reader soon learns that three good friends were there, and only "Mrs. Livingston" survived. Harriet is the daughter of one of the factory's owners; she was five when she lived through this ordeal. Mrs. Livingston begins her story, remembering the tale of three young girls whose fate will include the tragic fire.

Bella is new at the factory. She came to New York alone at age 15 in order to send money home to her starving family in Italy and lives in a filthy, crowded boarding house. Her distant cousin, Pietro, is her only joy. As she suffers through her daily 10 or 12 brutal hours of work, locked into the workroom and abused by the factory's foreman, she falls in love with Pietro.

One day Pietro vanishes. Unable to make her way home without his guidance, two factory workers --- sisters Rahel and Yetta --- assist Bella. The girls are Jewish, and Bella only speaks Italian. The sisters are activists, hoping to help form a union to help the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory employees.

Jane is not a factory worker; she is the coddled, sheltered daughter of a wealthy businessman. Her life is all about learning the social niceties while knowing she will be forced into a marriage of her father's choosing. She feels smothered and worthless until she meets Eleanor, a college student who invites Jane to attend lectures on women's rights and to walk the Shirtwaist Factory picket line with the strikers.

During the strike, Yetta is right in the middle of the action, picketing in front of the factory. Soon, prostitutes beat her up, and Yetta is arrested for disorderly conduct. Instead of defeating Yetta, this ignites a passion to fight for fair treatment. Jane, Yetta and Bella are destined to meet, become close friends and face the worst disaster of their time. Only one will live. Which girl will be the surviving Mrs. Livingston?

This is a gripping page-turner about true events. The Shirtwaist Factory strike of 1909-1910 actually happened, as did the horrendous fire of March 25, 1911 in which 146 workers died. History comes alive for readers through the eyes of the three young girls, who are fully real despite being fictional characters. The skillful intertwining of fiction and actual events make for a haunting tale, one that (as Haddix points out in her notes) resonates even today. The ending packs a few unforeseen twists and manages to be not too tidy yet quite satisfying.

    --- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (terryms2001@yahoo.com)

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