Daughter of Providence

May 23, 2011
It's 1934, and Anne Dodge, the heroine of Drew's promising but undercooked debut, has remained insulated from the economic hardships befalling Warwick, R.I. After all, her father, who owns the (currently closed) mill in town, is wealthy enough to have been coasting through the Depression. Anne's worries are more personal than politicalâher Portuguese mother left when Anne was just sixâand now Anne's past has come to call, when her younger half-sister, Maria Cristina, comes to live with Anne and her father. Anne tries to reconcile her father's evident hatred of Maria Cristina with her own fondness for the serious, almost saintly girl, just like she must balance her own unladylike aspirations to become a boatbuilder with her early forays into romance. Anne, 23, is a memorable heroine and narrator, though her perspective and voice can make her seem like a contemporary woman dressed up in 1930s costumes. Drew enjoys some success in addressing issues of the dayâparticularly those of race and class; the unionization debate less soâwhich lends a strong atmosphere to the family drama, but the big disappointment is the melodramatic conclusion; it doesn't do justice to an otherwise considered if slightly shaggy story.