I’m big Callahan fan and have read every book she has written. Although I read a quite a bit of historical fiction, I must confess that the author’s change of genre made me a bit sad – because I will miss her special brand of southern women’s fiction. Well guess what? This book gave me both!
Synopsis:
When Savannah history professor Everly Winthrop is asked to guest-curate a new museum collection focusing on artifacts recovered from the steamship Pulaski, she’s shocked. The ship sank after a boiler explosion in 1838, and the wreckage was just discovered, 180 years later. Everly can’t resist the opportunity to try to solve some of the mysteries and myths surrounding the devastating night of its sinking.
Everly’s research leads her to the astounding history of a family of eleven who boarded the Pulaski together, and the extraordinary stories of two women from this family: a known survivor, Augusta Longstreet, and her niece, Lilly Forsyth, who was never found, along with her child. These aristocratic women were part of Savannah’s society, but when the ship exploded, each was faced with difficult and heartbreaking decisions. This is a moving and powerful exploration of what women will do to endure in the face of tragedy, the role fate plays, and the myriad ways we survive the surviving.
Review:
One of the elements of the book that I loved was the dual timelines that tie the present to the past. This is a device that Beatrix Williams and Sarah Jio also use, which gives us two stories to enjoy. Surviving Savannah is an engrossing novel that provides the reader with a history lesson, a mystery, an analysis of racial issues in the south, an exploration of the difficulties of “surviving the surviving,” and addresses eternal questions about fate and destiny. It is a page turner!
The history of the Pulaski is fascinating and heartbreaking. Make no doubt about it, this book at times it is very hard to read – especially if you are a mother. Yet Callahan has created characters, based on actual passengers, who are so compelling that your heart aches for what those passengers experienced. I had to put the book down a few times and just breath. The descriptions of the aftermath of the explosion (one of the boilers on the ship explodes, which caused the ship to sink) and what the passengers endured is horrific – Sophie’s Choice types of decisions were made. God’s Providence is brought up many times, but still hard to fathom.
Throughout the book, Callahan examines the question that anyone who has experienced – and survived – great tragedy and loss will ultimately ask themselves. How do I survive the surviving? When you lose someone (or multiple someones), how do you go on? Do you live your life with gratitude and renewed purpose? Do you live a better life because of it? Or do you let the loss destroy all that is good and noble in you? Does the anger and bitterness win? Fifty-nine passengers survived the Pulaski. Some completely started over. Some honored the past and the lives lost, while managing to keep on living. Others, despite living and breathing, died on the inside. What determines how you will live?
“The idea that surviving brings everyone to a new and better place is a lie told by people who need the world to make sense.”
Grief leads us to ask why? Why did this happen? Why did I survive? This is where, for some, God’s Providence comes in. Yet, we all know good, young people who die, and you cannot make sense of it. You want a reason, you need one. Unfortunately, often there isn’t one, and that can break your soul.
“There many ways to survive and many ways to survive the surviving. The darkness was there, too. Survival wasn’t just about the happy story of living. Some didn’t survive the living. Some did awful things with the second chance.”
Surviving Savannah is also a story of hope – I promose. The present-day heroine of the book, Everly, experienced her own tragedies. She feels a kinship with Augusta & Lilly (passengers on the ship) that has its own special synchronicity. Through her work curating the Pulaski artifacts, Everly’s able to process her own grief and change her own destiny. Just because you choose to forge ahead with living, doesn’t mean you forget the past, rather, you honor it.
The author thoroughly researched her subject. When I read historical fiction that’s based on a real-life event, I usually end up on Google, to discern for myself what is true and what is poetic license. I also want to find out what happens next. I didn’t have to do this for the history of the Pulaski. Callahan shares some of her extensive research in the Author’s Notes, and brings the story full circle, so we know how everything, and everyone ended up. She also shares the interesting tidbit that the Pulaski was discovered 100 feet under the sea – while she was doing research for this book – a sure sign that she was meant to tell this story. And she did it so well! This is a wonderful book and I urge you to read it! But have the tissue handy!