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Gilded Mountain
This “stellar read” (Los Angeles Times) is an exhilarating tale of an unforgettable young woman who bravely exposes the corruption that enriched her father’s employers in early 1900s Colorado.
In a voice infused with sly humor, Sylvie Pelletier recounts leaving her family’s snowbound mountain cabin to work in a manor house for the Padgetts, owners of the marble-mining company that employs her father and dominates the town. Sharp-eyed Sylvie is awed by the luxury around her; fascinated by her employer, the charming “Countess” Inge, and confused by the erratic affections of Jasper, the bookish heir to the family fortune. Her fairy-tale ideas take a dark turn when she realizes the Padgetts’ lofty philosophical talk is at odds with the unfair labor practices that have enriched them. Their servants, the Gradys, formerly enslaved people, have long known this to be true and are making plans to form a utopian community on the Colorado prairie.
Outside the manor walls, the town of Moonstone is roiling with discontent. A handsome union organizer, along with labor leader Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, is stirring up the quarry workers. The editor of the local newspaper—a bold woman who takes Sylvie on as an apprentice—is publishing unflattering accounts of the Padgett Company. Sylvie navigates vastly different worlds and struggles to find her way amid conflicting loyalties. When the harsh winter brings tragedy, Sylvie decides to act.
Drawn from true stories of Colorado history, Gilded Mountain is a tale of a bygone American West seized by robber barons and settled by immigrants, and is a story imbued with longing—for self-expression and equality, freedom and adventure.
In a voice infused with sly humor, Sylvie Pelletier recounts leaving her family’s snowbound mountain cabin to work in a manor house for the Padgetts, owners of the marble-mining company that employs her father and dominates the town. Sharp-eyed Sylvie is awed by the luxury around her; fascinated by her employer, the charming “Countess” Inge, and confused by the erratic affections of Jasper, the bookish heir to the family fortune. Her fairy-tale ideas take a dark turn when she realizes the Padgetts’ lofty philosophical talk is at odds with the unfair labor practices that have enriched them. Their servants, the Gradys, formerly enslaved people, have long known this to be true and are making plans to form a utopian community on the Colorado prairie.
Outside the manor walls, the town of Moonstone is roiling with discontent. A handsome union organizer, along with labor leader Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, is stirring up the quarry workers. The editor of the local newspaper—a bold woman who takes Sylvie on as an apprentice—is publishing unflattering accounts of the Padgett Company. Sylvie navigates vastly different worlds and struggles to find her way amid conflicting loyalties. When the harsh winter brings tragedy, Sylvie decides to act.
Drawn from true stories of Colorado history, Gilded Mountain is a tale of a bygone American West seized by robber barons and settled by immigrants, and is a story imbued with longing—for self-expression and equality, freedom and adventure.
464 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2022
About the author
Kate Manning
6 books342 followersA former documentary television producer (for WNET-13, where she won two Emmy Awards), Kate Manning would rather read than watch TV. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, Glamour, and Time magazine. She has taught writing at Bard High School Early College in New York City where she lives with her family. Early endorsements of her new novel, Gilded Mountain, are from authors Erik Larson, ("Brilliant. I raced through it.") Christina Baker Kline ("So immersive, so richly imagined.") Carol Edgarian ("Remarkably panoramic") and Marybeth Keane ("love, sorrow, revenge, joy, Gilded Mountain hums with all of these..." Pub date 11/1/22.
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September 17, 2023
This one wasn’t my favorite…..
“Hey, Sugar Pie!”
That’s all it takes for Sylvie Pelletier to fall in love, one little pet name.
Sylvie Pelletier is new to Colorado. Her father is working in the marble mine under hazardous conditions. When the summer arrives, Sylvie has an opportunity to work for the owner of the mine company.
Her father would like to unionize the mine workers, negotiating for living wages and safer working conditions. Will Sylvie’s father bring about his dream of unionizing?
There is no easy way to say this, but….the storytelling was off on this. The suspense was missing.
First, Sylvie, Sylvie, Sylvie. She is so boring. And oh…she falls in love with anyone who calls her Angel, Sweetheart. She literally fell for Jasper instantly. For being so smart, she doesn’t ask any important questions before making big decisions.
The author covered too much time in this book, and I didn’t connect with any of the characters. The characters were very one dimensional, not very well developed. When a character died, it wasn’t particularly moving because they were just names on a page. We didn’t know their backstories.
There is a classic saying when it comes to writing about, “Show Don’t Tell.” Unfortunately, this book was a lot of tell. I still don’t understand what Sylvie saw in Jasper/Jace (aside from his little pet names).
Gilded Mountain was okay, but The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah is a better value for your money.
*Thanks, NetGalley, for a free copy of this book in exchange for my fair and unbiased opinion.
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“Hey, Sugar Pie!”
That’s all it takes for Sylvie Pelletier to fall in love, one little pet name.
Sylvie Pelletier is new to Colorado. Her father is working in the marble mine under hazardous conditions. When the summer arrives, Sylvie has an opportunity to work for the owner of the mine company.
Her father would like to unionize the mine workers, negotiating for living wages and safer working conditions. Will Sylvie’s father bring about his dream of unionizing?
There is no easy way to say this, but….the storytelling was off on this. The suspense was missing.
First, Sylvie, Sylvie, Sylvie. She is so boring. And oh…she falls in love with anyone who calls her Angel, Sweetheart. She literally fell for Jasper instantly. For being so smart, she doesn’t ask any important questions before making big decisions.
The author covered too much time in this book, and I didn’t connect with any of the characters. The characters were very one dimensional, not very well developed. When a character died, it wasn’t particularly moving because they were just names on a page. We didn’t know their backstories.
There is a classic saying when it comes to writing about, “Show Don’t Tell.” Unfortunately, this book was a lot of tell. I still don’t understand what Sylvie saw in Jasper/Jace (aside from his little pet names).
Gilded Mountain was okay, but The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah is a better value for your money.
*Thanks, NetGalley, for a free copy of this book in exchange for my fair and unbiased opinion.
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November 1, 2022
1907. Sylvie Pelletier is almost seventeen when her family moves to Moonstone in Colorado. Her father works at the Quarrytown where they mine marble.
Sylvie is ambitious in writing essays at school, which leads her to getting a job at the local newspaper led by Miss Redmond. Miss Redmond wasn’t welcomed as a journalist anywhere since she was a woman, thus, she started her own newspaper and she is not afraid to confront the Padgett Company. She is bold and tells Sylvie to keep asking questions as she needs a real go-getter. As Sylvie reports on all those accidents in the mountains, she wonders why nothing is being done about it.
But money talks, and Sylvie takes a better paid position as a secretary to Mrs. Padgett. They take a field trip to the worker’s camp to write a report and recommendations for improvements for the Padgett Company, where Sylvie’s father works. Mrs. Padgett has a good heart and honestly thinks that her husband cares about her work. But Mr. Padgett just plays along and keeps his wife busy.
The Padgett family is to host King Leopold II of Belgium, who is called a monster for his mistreatment of enslaved Africans in Congo. This invitation doesn’t sit well with the son, Jasper, who also takes the liking to Sylvie, and a relationship develops.
Over the summer, Sylvie gets a taste of a different world, which sets her on a path questioning many things, which path would she pick if she had the choice, the one with the money or the one that was fighting for justice. Money seems to be very tempting.
The story has a good punch when Mother Jones makes an appearance. She is certainly a force to reckon with. She makes some faint with her force of talk. She knows how to rally the people into action. It seems as her talk is contagious and Sylvie catches it.
The character of Sylvie comes more alive when Mother Jones makes the appearance. Sylvie starts feeling more confident reporting on unjust treatment of workers. Her father fought for the union and after his death, she carries the torch.
The story brings a vivid transformation that Sylvie goes through as well as the workers, who, at first, are scared to go on a strike, but with such fire as Mother Jones, they get courage to start making those steps.
Written with wit, the novel explores the fight for equality. It brings the harsh times of the mining industry, and the enrichment and ruthlessness of one through the cost of another who just wanted a descent life.
Source: ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Review originally posted at mysteryandsuspense.com
Sylvie is ambitious in writing essays at school, which leads her to getting a job at the local newspaper led by Miss Redmond. Miss Redmond wasn’t welcomed as a journalist anywhere since she was a woman, thus, she started her own newspaper and she is not afraid to confront the Padgett Company. She is bold and tells Sylvie to keep asking questions as she needs a real go-getter. As Sylvie reports on all those accidents in the mountains, she wonders why nothing is being done about it.
But money talks, and Sylvie takes a better paid position as a secretary to Mrs. Padgett. They take a field trip to the worker’s camp to write a report and recommendations for improvements for the Padgett Company, where Sylvie’s father works. Mrs. Padgett has a good heart and honestly thinks that her husband cares about her work. But Mr. Padgett just plays along and keeps his wife busy.
The Padgett family is to host King Leopold II of Belgium, who is called a monster for his mistreatment of enslaved Africans in Congo. This invitation doesn’t sit well with the son, Jasper, who also takes the liking to Sylvie, and a relationship develops.
Over the summer, Sylvie gets a taste of a different world, which sets her on a path questioning many things, which path would she pick if she had the choice, the one with the money or the one that was fighting for justice. Money seems to be very tempting.
The story has a good punch when Mother Jones makes an appearance. She is certainly a force to reckon with. She makes some faint with her force of talk. She knows how to rally the people into action. It seems as her talk is contagious and Sylvie catches it.
The character of Sylvie comes more alive when Mother Jones makes the appearance. Sylvie starts feeling more confident reporting on unjust treatment of workers. Her father fought for the union and after his death, she carries the torch.
The story brings a vivid transformation that Sylvie goes through as well as the workers, who, at first, are scared to go on a strike, but with such fire as Mother Jones, they get courage to start making those steps.
Written with wit, the novel explores the fight for equality. It brings the harsh times of the mining industry, and the enrichment and ruthlessness of one through the cost of another who just wanted a descent life.
Source: ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Review originally posted at mysteryandsuspense.com
October 14, 2022
Gilded Mountain is a stark reminder of the harsh life of the working classes in the early 20th Century. Sylvie’s father goes west from Vermont to work in the marble quarry of Moonstone, Colorado. It’s dangerous work and management constantly worries about the workers attempting to unionize. Once Sylvie graduates high school, she finds a job first with the town newspaper and then as the summer secretary to the quarry owner’s wife.
The story works in a straightforward fashion, told solely from Sylvie’s POV. She tells the story looking back on her life, which allows her to comment on what she learned later. Mrs. Padgett has a plan for “sociology” to cure the problems, but many of her ideas are ill conceived when the main issue is lack of decent pay and safety benefits. As the story goes on, the Financial Panic of 1907 hits and things become even harder. As has been said, “when the aristocracy catches a cold, the working classes die of pneumonia.” Sylvie becomes more strident in her views concerning the rights of the working class.
As the Padgetts were originally slaveholders in the South, we also see the issues that confront their black household help, formerly slaves. At the heart of the story is the lack of concern over the value of human life by the rich.
The characters were all richly drawn. Sylvie’s youth, Inge’s obliviousness, Jace’s desire to separate himself from his father while living off his father’s wealth, K.T.’s proto-feminism. Real life characters, like Mother Jones and among Leopoldo of Belgium , make an appearance. It worked well to have Sylvie be young and impressionable, with feelings that seesaw back and forth.
Manning has meticulously researched the story and it was easy to envision the events taking place.
My thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for an advance copy of this book.
The story works in a straightforward fashion, told solely from Sylvie’s POV. She tells the story looking back on her life, which allows her to comment on what she learned later. Mrs. Padgett has a plan for “sociology” to cure the problems, but many of her ideas are ill conceived when the main issue is lack of decent pay and safety benefits. As the story goes on, the Financial Panic of 1907 hits and things become even harder. As has been said, “when the aristocracy catches a cold, the working classes die of pneumonia.” Sylvie becomes more strident in her views concerning the rights of the working class.
As the Padgetts were originally slaveholders in the South, we also see the issues that confront their black household help, formerly slaves. At the heart of the story is the lack of concern over the value of human life by the rich.
The characters were all richly drawn. Sylvie’s youth, Inge’s obliviousness, Jace’s desire to separate himself from his father while living off his father’s wealth, K.T.’s proto-feminism. Real life characters, like Mother Jones and among Leopoldo of Belgium , make an appearance. It worked well to have Sylvie be young and impressionable, with feelings that seesaw back and forth.
Manning has meticulously researched the story and it was easy to envision the events taking place.
My thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for an advance copy of this book.
May 7, 2023
A family’s treacherous journey from the east to Colorado in hopes of finding safety and a secure life is told in this well researched, well written piece of historical fiction focusing on the labor movement in Colorado in the early 1900’s. Sylvie Pelletier’s coming of age story brings the times and events to life, as she struggles to find a way to a better life. Her family endures hunger, the awful living conditions in a company owned shack, the dangers of mining marble that her father and the other workers face for little wages that are eaten up by rent and sparse food or not paid at all. Sylvie wants out, but after a horrific loss, her desire to effect change in this community becomes her strength. Although Sylvie is a fictional character, the story feels so realistic not just in terms of the the time and place, but the emotional connection I felt to Sylvie and her family made me feel as if I was there with them.
Kate Manning knows how to write gutsy women. Just about nine years ago I read Manning’s My Notorious Life. I’ve haven’t forgotten Axie Muldoon . I highly recommend that one as well and I won’t forget Sylvie Pelletier anytime soon either.
I received a copy of this from Simon & Schuster through Edelweiss.
Kate Manning knows how to write gutsy women. Just about nine years ago I read Manning’s My Notorious Life. I’ve haven’t forgotten Axie Muldoon . I highly recommend that one as well and I won’t forget Sylvie Pelletier anytime soon either.
I received a copy of this from Simon & Schuster through Edelweiss.
August 11, 2022
Set in a Colorado mining town at the turn of the 20th century, this novel is both a character study of Sylvie Pelletier and an epic narrative of the difficult lives of workers and their struggles against ruthless mine owners.
I loved that the narrative allowed me to stay with Sylvie as she develops as a young woman and her character deepens. I've grown tired of historical novels that jump back and forth between timelines and between various characters. I became invested in Sylvie's choices and the conflict between her desires and ideals. Manning writes in a lush but direct way, not using excess words, yet forcing me to slow down and fully enter the vivid world of The Gilded Mountain. Thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending me the ARC.
I loved that the narrative allowed me to stay with Sylvie as she develops as a young woman and her character deepens. I've grown tired of historical novels that jump back and forth between timelines and between various characters. I became invested in Sylvie's choices and the conflict between her desires and ideals. Manning writes in a lush but direct way, not using excess words, yet forcing me to slow down and fully enter the vivid world of The Gilded Mountain. Thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending me the ARC.
October 15, 2022
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ ½
Genre: Historical Fiction
The story is set in the early 1900s in Colorado. Sylvie Pelletier, a seventeen-year-old girl, and her family move to Moonstone, Colorado to join her father, who works there in the mining field. But upon arrival, and to the family’s surprise, the atmosphere is agitated and the living conditions are just horrible. Obviously, the mining company has not been taking care of its miners and their families. When Sylvie gets a job in one of the newspapers, there will be a conflict of interest, especially when the newspaper publishes about the miners’ living conditions.
This is a coming-of-age story for this girl. The story is beautifully written and told from Sylvie’s perspective. And I am glad it was written in a linear timeline. I am honestly very tired of picking historical books to see the author going for two timelines or more just to add a little mystery to the plot. It is not worth it at all to do that. I prefer historical fiction to be straightforward, and this is where Gilded Mountain wins.
This book, in my opinion, discusses several significant problems that the mining industry used to face and still faces today. Corporate greed and abuse is a problem that persists in all professions. The historical era has been well captured by the author. The one thing that does a big disservice to the story is the protagonist. She is a teenager, and sometimes we cannot blame her for being so naive or taking a certain kind of action. If you can overlook that aspect of her, I think you are going to like the book a lot.
Many thanks to the publisher Scribner and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book.
Genre: Historical Fiction
The story is set in the early 1900s in Colorado. Sylvie Pelletier, a seventeen-year-old girl, and her family move to Moonstone, Colorado to join her father, who works there in the mining field. But upon arrival, and to the family’s surprise, the atmosphere is agitated and the living conditions are just horrible. Obviously, the mining company has not been taking care of its miners and their families. When Sylvie gets a job in one of the newspapers, there will be a conflict of interest, especially when the newspaper publishes about the miners’ living conditions.
This is a coming-of-age story for this girl. The story is beautifully written and told from Sylvie’s perspective. And I am glad it was written in a linear timeline. I am honestly very tired of picking historical books to see the author going for two timelines or more just to add a little mystery to the plot. It is not worth it at all to do that. I prefer historical fiction to be straightforward, and this is where Gilded Mountain wins.
This book, in my opinion, discusses several significant problems that the mining industry used to face and still faces today. Corporate greed and abuse is a problem that persists in all professions. The historical era has been well captured by the author. The one thing that does a big disservice to the story is the protagonist. She is a teenager, and sometimes we cannot blame her for being so naive or taking a certain kind of action. If you can overlook that aspect of her, I think you are going to like the book a lot.
Many thanks to the publisher Scribner and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book.
September 8, 2022
Sylvie Pelletier, her mother Cherie and two brothers Henry and Frankie finally join their father in Moonstone, Colorado. They have traveled over two thousand miles from Vermont, and Jacques Pelletier is working as a quarry man for The Padgett Fuel and Stone Company.
The conditions in the town are terrible, not what Sylvie and her mother were expecting, the company house is nothing more than a shack, everyone has to buy their supplies from the corporation store and the men don't earn cash money.
During the first winter, Sylvie is offered a job working for Mrs. Inge Padgett, she requires a secretary and the family needs the extra income. The "Countess" lives in luxury, the complete opposite to the people working in her husband Duke’s marble mine, and Sylvie meets his son Jasper. He’s the heir to the mining fortune, Jasper is a disappointment to his father and Sylvie finds him charming.
Sylvie discovers the Padgett’s are originally from the South, the cook Easter Grady and her husband John, were once owned by the Padgett’s and she's shocked. The Grady’s have secret plans to leave, start their own town for colored people on the Colorado prairie and finally be free.
Sylvie returns home to the shack, her father Jacques is a union man, and the miners are getting tired of the way their being treated and the long shifts. They work in extremely dangerous conditions, everyday someone is injured or killed, and with no promised hospital.
Sylvie works for the local newspaper called the Moonstone Record, owned by Miss. Katrina Redmond, and when labor leader Mother Mary Harris and George Lonahan visit Moonstone, it causes trouble and even more discontent.
I received a copy of Gilded Mountain by Kate Manning from Simon & Schuster and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. A narrative set in the early 1900’s in Colorado, it highlights how difficult life was at the time, the huge difference between the working poor and the rich. Everything was hard and unfair, the winters, the living and working conditions, how they treated women, immigrants and colored people. Sylvie, her family and Miss. Redmond are caught up in the terrible consequences and aftermath. A story about a brave young women, fighting for fairness, justice and righting the wrongs. Four stars from me and I look forward to reading Ms. Manning's next book.
The conditions in the town are terrible, not what Sylvie and her mother were expecting, the company house is nothing more than a shack, everyone has to buy their supplies from the corporation store and the men don't earn cash money.
During the first winter, Sylvie is offered a job working for Mrs. Inge Padgett, she requires a secretary and the family needs the extra income. The "Countess" lives in luxury, the complete opposite to the people working in her husband Duke’s marble mine, and Sylvie meets his son Jasper. He’s the heir to the mining fortune, Jasper is a disappointment to his father and Sylvie finds him charming.
Sylvie discovers the Padgett’s are originally from the South, the cook Easter Grady and her husband John, were once owned by the Padgett’s and she's shocked. The Grady’s have secret plans to leave, start their own town for colored people on the Colorado prairie and finally be free.
Sylvie returns home to the shack, her father Jacques is a union man, and the miners are getting tired of the way their being treated and the long shifts. They work in extremely dangerous conditions, everyday someone is injured or killed, and with no promised hospital.
Sylvie works for the local newspaper called the Moonstone Record, owned by Miss. Katrina Redmond, and when labor leader Mother Mary Harris and George Lonahan visit Moonstone, it causes trouble and even more discontent.
I received a copy of Gilded Mountain by Kate Manning from Simon & Schuster and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. A narrative set in the early 1900’s in Colorado, it highlights how difficult life was at the time, the huge difference between the working poor and the rich. Everything was hard and unfair, the winters, the living and working conditions, how they treated women, immigrants and colored people. Sylvie, her family and Miss. Redmond are caught up in the terrible consequences and aftermath. A story about a brave young women, fighting for fairness, justice and righting the wrongs. Four stars from me and I look forward to reading Ms. Manning's next book.
October 29, 2022
An awesome book set in the early 1900's in Moonstone, Colorado. Sylvie Pelletier tells the story of her life on Gilded Mountain. Sylvie was the daughter of a coal miner and the family were very poor. The conditions the miners were forced to endure in order to work were harsh. The threat of a union hung over the company's head and they were determined to put it down. Sylvie wrote an essay at school for a contest, which helped her get a job at the local paper. The paper was run by a woman with liberal views and who was trying to draw attention to the plight of the miners. Sylvie gets drawn into the union movement as she reports on accidents that happened at the mine for the paper. Then she was offered an opportunity to work for the wife of the mine owner.
This was an emotional, moving story of a woman with a difficult life, but tries to make a difference. I found Sylvie's story inspirational. I felt the characters were well-developed and really liked Sylvie and the paper owner, Miss Redmond. Time spent with this book was well worth it.
Thanks to Kate Manning and Scribner through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on November 1, 2022.
This was an emotional, moving story of a woman with a difficult life, but tries to make a difference. I found Sylvie's story inspirational. I felt the characters were well-developed and really liked Sylvie and the paper owner, Miss Redmond. Time spent with this book was well worth it.
Thanks to Kate Manning and Scribner through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on November 1, 2022.
May 18, 2023
"There in the sharp teeth of the Gilded Mountains, where the snow and murderous cold conspire to ruin a woman, I lost the chance to become a delicate sort of a lady, one of those poodles in hair parlors and society clubs." - Chapter 1, pp 1
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Kate Manning has quickly become one of the the top ten authors I would recommend to anyone who asks me, "Who are your favorite living authors these days? Whose books do you recommend across the board?" Yes. She really IS that good, and "Gilded Mountain" was one of the best books I've read in about five years.
Young Sylvie Pelletier is Manning's protagonist in this historical fiction masterpiece. She has ventured with her mother and younger brother from Canada to Colorado in the early 1900's, to join her father who is a union worker in a marble mine. Soon after arriving in Moonstone, Sylvie finds herself working for a fiesty editor of a local paper. No sooner has she gotten a taste for publishing what many would prefer she overlooked, than she is offered a job with the "Countess" Inge, to which she transfers due to the position and luxury it affords Sylvie. She learns that not all do-gooders who are at the top of the socio-economic food chain actually DO 'good.' There are compromises, there are exceptions, there are the stories others tell of their altruistic lifestyle which often times contradicts the truth.
This is a story of what we choose after we gain experience and knowledge from every angle.
"Gilded Mountain" incorporates the themes of agency, classism, Colorado history, and the power of one's voice.
Manning's writing is what captivated me from the opening sentence, and I was enthralled until the final page. To write sentences that aren't dripping with sensory imagery and metaphor, nor too barren and choppy, it's a difficult balance to find. At no point in this book did the gorgeous writing lull. It was a literary dream, this book! Oh myyyy goodness. You'll LOVE it. You will.
Recently nominated as a finalist for the Reading the West award for fiction amongst some other beautiful publications, this is going to be a highly recommended read on my favorites list forever. ~ 🏔️
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
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Kate Manning has quickly become one of the the top ten authors I would recommend to anyone who asks me, "Who are your favorite living authors these days? Whose books do you recommend across the board?" Yes. She really IS that good, and "Gilded Mountain" was one of the best books I've read in about five years.
Young Sylvie Pelletier is Manning's protagonist in this historical fiction masterpiece. She has ventured with her mother and younger brother from Canada to Colorado in the early 1900's, to join her father who is a union worker in a marble mine. Soon after arriving in Moonstone, Sylvie finds herself working for a fiesty editor of a local paper. No sooner has she gotten a taste for publishing what many would prefer she overlooked, than she is offered a job with the "Countess" Inge, to which she transfers due to the position and luxury it affords Sylvie. She learns that not all do-gooders who are at the top of the socio-economic food chain actually DO 'good.' There are compromises, there are exceptions, there are the stories others tell of their altruistic lifestyle which often times contradicts the truth.
This is a story of what we choose after we gain experience and knowledge from every angle.
"Gilded Mountain" incorporates the themes of agency, classism, Colorado history, and the power of one's voice.
Manning's writing is what captivated me from the opening sentence, and I was enthralled until the final page. To write sentences that aren't dripping with sensory imagery and metaphor, nor too barren and choppy, it's a difficult balance to find. At no point in this book did the gorgeous writing lull. It was a literary dream, this book! Oh myyyy goodness. You'll LOVE it. You will.
Recently nominated as a finalist for the Reading the West award for fiction amongst some other beautiful publications, this is going to be a highly recommended read on my favorites list forever. ~ 🏔️
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
June 15, 2023
✰ 3.75 stars ✰
“Even now I cling to the idea that amour fou, curdled as it was, still had me in its grip. I want to believe this. If you do not act out of some form of love, then who are you in the world?”
I have mixed feelings about Gilded Mountain. A part of me enjoyed reading about the racial and social inequality that was plaguing a little rural town in Colorado through the eyes of our young protagonist, Sylvie. She had a witty sly charm to her personality and I liked the humorous voice to her inner thoughts and feelings. All the characters were also very fascinating and well-fleshed out. From Sylvie's boss to the union folk, to the Padgetts, everyone played an integral part in this young woman's coming of age story.
And I didn't mind the romantic aspect of it, either. I would have hoped for a happy ending between Jace and Sylvie, but I guess it would have been too optimistic of an ending. But, this is just me, but if it had only been about one or the other aspects, the romance vs the social injustice, I think it would have been a better novel. The shift and tone between Sylvie's romantic moments and all the political upheaval made for a strange imbalance. I would lose interest, but then it would pick up, with a sudden twist in the plot or a clever exchange, that made me continue reading till the end.
It was very well-written. Kate Manning clearly did a lot of research to make this as historically true to the time period as possible, and Sylvie's rich witty voice made for a very entertaining read. I did empathize with how she felt - the injustice being shown to not only her family but the union workers frustrated me, as well. And sadly, even now, these issues continue to plague our society.
Overall, I thought it was a satisfying read. I admit, it was a tad bit long, and at times, I do feel that the focus on the trials and tribulations of the work force outweighed everything else. Still, I don't regret reading it. I learned a little bit, was introduced to some colorful charming characters and was entertained by some very sharp clever dialogue with some unique situations thrown into the mix. ✨✨✨
“Even now I cling to the idea that amour fou, curdled as it was, still had me in its grip. I want to believe this. If you do not act out of some form of love, then who are you in the world?”
I have mixed feelings about Gilded Mountain. A part of me enjoyed reading about the racial and social inequality that was plaguing a little rural town in Colorado through the eyes of our young protagonist, Sylvie. She had a witty sly charm to her personality and I liked the humorous voice to her inner thoughts and feelings. All the characters were also very fascinating and well-fleshed out. From Sylvie's boss to the union folk, to the Padgetts, everyone played an integral part in this young woman's coming of age story.
And I didn't mind the romantic aspect of it, either. I would have hoped for a happy ending between Jace and Sylvie, but I guess it would have been too optimistic of an ending. But, this is just me, but if it had only been about one or the other aspects, the romance vs the social injustice, I think it would have been a better novel. The shift and tone between Sylvie's romantic moments and all the political upheaval made for a strange imbalance. I would lose interest, but then it would pick up, with a sudden twist in the plot or a clever exchange, that made me continue reading till the end.
It was very well-written. Kate Manning clearly did a lot of research to make this as historically true to the time period as possible, and Sylvie's rich witty voice made for a very entertaining read. I did empathize with how she felt - the injustice being shown to not only her family but the union workers frustrated me, as well. And sadly, even now, these issues continue to plague our society.
Overall, I thought it was a satisfying read. I admit, it was a tad bit long, and at times, I do feel that the focus on the trials and tribulations of the work force outweighed everything else. Still, I don't regret reading it. I learned a little bit, was introduced to some colorful charming characters and was entertained by some very sharp clever dialogue with some unique situations thrown into the mix. ✨✨✨
November 22, 2022
3.5 I'm rounding up. A fascinating story about mine workers and the horrible conditions they worked in, the families that suffered along with them, and the beginning of unions.
It's a dark story about Sylvia and her family. She arrives to a cold, thin-aired mountain town in Colorado. Her dad has already been here for years and now, the whole family has arrived. The first winter is brutal. "Dead Hours" of shoveling snow off the tracks unpaid and the family freezing and spending their wage at the "company story." No running water, electricty or bathrooms in the houses, the families barely stay warm enough to survived.
The story is interesting from Sylvia's POV. At first, she's young and attends school, walking thorugh drifts of snow. Then she is a teen and working, first in the town and then at the big house. She's privy to information that many other aren't. She's taught to listen, ask questions, and report the truth.
But she slowly watches her father wither. She hears and sees other workers injured. They suffer another winter with unpaid "dead hours" when the whole family must spend hours out shoveling snow off the train tracks for no pay. It isn't until there is a huge tragedy and so many betrayals that Sylvia must decide who she is and what marke she wantst to make on the world. It was interesting to think of the first starts to union and the rights to workers. Interesting to read about the beginning and all the trails they endured. This was a little long but the characters were well developed and kept me reading, wanting to know how it would all turn out for them.
A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.
It's a dark story about Sylvia and her family. She arrives to a cold, thin-aired mountain town in Colorado. Her dad has already been here for years and now, the whole family has arrived. The first winter is brutal. "Dead Hours" of shoveling snow off the tracks unpaid and the family freezing and spending their wage at the "company story." No running water, electricty or bathrooms in the houses, the families barely stay warm enough to survived.
The story is interesting from Sylvia's POV. At first, she's young and attends school, walking thorugh drifts of snow. Then she is a teen and working, first in the town and then at the big house. She's privy to information that many other aren't. She's taught to listen, ask questions, and report the truth.
But she slowly watches her father wither. She hears and sees other workers injured. They suffer another winter with unpaid "dead hours" when the whole family must spend hours out shoveling snow off the train tracks for no pay. It isn't until there is a huge tragedy and so many betrayals that Sylvia must decide who she is and what marke she wantst to make on the world. It was interesting to think of the first starts to union and the rights to workers. Interesting to read about the beginning and all the trails they endured. This was a little long but the characters were well developed and kept me reading, wanting to know how it would all turn out for them.
A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.
February 27, 2023
DNF at 41%
Not for me. Just....boring. I was kind of dreading having to turn the audiobook back on and craving other books instead so I'm just gonna drop this one. Trying this new thing where I don't make myself miserable just to finish a book..
Not for me. Just....boring. I was kind of dreading having to turn the audiobook back on and craving other books instead so I'm just gonna drop this one. Trying this new thing where I don't make myself miserable just to finish a book..
March 10, 2023
"I never told a soul about the money. Not a word about the marriage or the events that led me to his arms. In those days I was a young religieuse, my mother pointing me toward a nunnery. But it was the transformations of love and ease I wanted, and when we went west, I went looking. There in the sharp teeth of the Gilded Mountains, where the snow and murderous cold conspire to ruin a woman, I lost the chance to become a delicate sort of lady, one of those poodles in hair parlors and society clubs. Instead, I got myself arrested as a radical and acquired a fine vocabulary, one more common to muleskinners and barflies, quarryhogs, witches. And I'm not sorry, for it was all of my education in those two years, about right and wrong. Here in the attic of my memory, I sit with my trunk of ghosts, my pen, to put down those long-ago days in Moonstone, Colorado, to report at last certain crimes, my own included, of the heart and worse, and how they tried to smash us."
As you can tell, Gilded Mountain had a most intriguing beginning, followed by beautiful, descriptive writing, immersive atmospheres including Quarrytown and Elkhorne, and compelling phrases throughout with lots of foreshadowing...so much foreshadowing that I just wanted the end to come and became agitated for the story to pick up.
BUT: A lot of elements were missing, or not in their fullest, that I enjoy in every type of genre. I did not connect to or care about any of the characters, besides Mother Mary Harris Jones who I thought was a hip old lady who marched to the beat of her own withered drum. And what was the worst was that there was a rare moment when I was completely in the story and enjoying it, but instead read in a near-constant state of low-key boredom, just waiting for everything to come together in the end. Wanting to know how everything wrapped from that intriguing beginning paragraph was really the only thing that kept me from DNFing.
I took a flyer on this book, first of all, intrigued mostly from the atmosphere of Colorado in the early 1900s and am very sad that I did not enjoy it more, enjoy it as much as I had hoped. Everything was there that was promised in the synopsis- a realistic look at the life and struggles of miners in the Colorado Rockies, complex past secrets, and surprising reveals of characters-but it was all just not to the level that I wanted it to be.
But there were two quotes that really impacted me, that I really think implies to the current state of the world now....
"'It tempts us all. Luxury makes slaves. Never forget it. The paradise of the rich is built from the hell of the poor. I prefer the down road, a comrade's greeting, and the breath of freedom. If I yielded to luxury, I might lose myself.'" -Mother Mary Harris Jones
"Bravery is not just for the battlefields of war. Every day, ordinary people climb out of bed and carry on extraordinary, in a fight for their families, carrying sorrow, working for the betterment of us all."
As you can tell, Gilded Mountain had a most intriguing beginning, followed by beautiful, descriptive writing, immersive atmospheres including Quarrytown and Elkhorne, and compelling phrases throughout with lots of foreshadowing...so much foreshadowing that I just wanted the end to come and became agitated for the story to pick up.
BUT: A lot of elements were missing, or not in their fullest, that I enjoy in every type of genre. I did not connect to or care about any of the characters, besides Mother Mary Harris Jones who I thought was a hip old lady who marched to the beat of her own withered drum. And what was the worst was that there was a rare moment when I was completely in the story and enjoying it, but instead read in a near-constant state of low-key boredom, just waiting for everything to come together in the end. Wanting to know how everything wrapped from that intriguing beginning paragraph was really the only thing that kept me from DNFing.
I took a flyer on this book, first of all, intrigued mostly from the atmosphere of Colorado in the early 1900s and am very sad that I did not enjoy it more, enjoy it as much as I had hoped. Everything was there that was promised in the synopsis- a realistic look at the life and struggles of miners in the Colorado Rockies, complex past secrets, and surprising reveals of characters-but it was all just not to the level that I wanted it to be.
But there were two quotes that really impacted me, that I really think implies to the current state of the world now....
"'It tempts us all. Luxury makes slaves. Never forget it. The paradise of the rich is built from the hell of the poor. I prefer the down road, a comrade's greeting, and the breath of freedom. If I yielded to luxury, I might lose myself.'" -Mother Mary Harris Jones
"Bravery is not just for the battlefields of war. Every day, ordinary people climb out of bed and carry on extraordinary, in a fight for their families, carrying sorrow, working for the betterment of us all."
July 22, 2022
4.5!
This was a beautifully written historical fiction set in Colorado in the early 1900s. The novel is long, but the author does a wonderful job capturing the reader’s attention throughout the 400 plus pages. She has beautiful prose to describe the mountains and landscape of Colorado.
The main character is Sylvie - a young woman struggling with doing what is right and following her heart. The author did an amazing job developing this character and I loved how realistic she was to me as a young girl at the beginning of the book to an adult by the end. She was a hero with flaws - a true authentic character. She, like many, struggle with the goal “to do one right thing.”
“Did You Know the Liberty Bell is Cracked?” The novel reveals so many cracks in the bell - race, women’s suffrage, labor and unions, free press and so much more. All of these issues still remain today. I loved that the novel focused on the woman’s role in the fair labor movement in the 1900s. I was unaware of the activist, Mary Harris Jones and will make sure my daughters won’t miss out on that heroine in American history.
Gilded Mountain is my historical novel 2022 pick this far. I look forward to reading other books by Kate Manning.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this book and giving my honest review!
This was a beautifully written historical fiction set in Colorado in the early 1900s. The novel is long, but the author does a wonderful job capturing the reader’s attention throughout the 400 plus pages. She has beautiful prose to describe the mountains and landscape of Colorado.
The main character is Sylvie - a young woman struggling with doing what is right and following her heart. The author did an amazing job developing this character and I loved how realistic she was to me as a young girl at the beginning of the book to an adult by the end. She was a hero with flaws - a true authentic character. She, like many, struggle with the goal “to do one right thing.”
“Did You Know the Liberty Bell is Cracked?” The novel reveals so many cracks in the bell - race, women’s suffrage, labor and unions, free press and so much more. All of these issues still remain today. I loved that the novel focused on the woman’s role in the fair labor movement in the 1900s. I was unaware of the activist, Mary Harris Jones and will make sure my daughters won’t miss out on that heroine in American history.
Gilded Mountain is my historical novel 2022 pick this far. I look forward to reading other books by Kate Manning.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this book and giving my honest review!
May 30, 2022
A book I couldn’t put down! From the very start, the words promised a story ahead that I knew I would not want to miss, and it delivered—at a pace that I tried to keep up with by flipping through the pages as fast as I could. The history is rich, painful, raw, and the prose is delightful. The reader won’t be able to partake without experiencing the angst, the anguish, the fury endured by the characters. There was as much enjoyment watching the plot unfold as there was in gobbling up Manning’s next wonderful turn of phrase. Her use of literary devices is glorious and entertaining, cunning and pure artistic genius. But even more genius is that within this incredible historical tome of resilience, suffering, oppression, and loss, therein lies a story of our current times. The experiences of the past reveal how history repeats itself, and that the haves continue to oppress the have-nots for their own gain. We still have our oligarchs calling the shots; we still have wealthy despots stomping on the common folks for their own profit and power, as well as to satisfy their deep-seeded prejudice, fear, and hatred. Just like Guilded Mountain’s protagonist and her floundering newspaper struggled to get the truth out, we still have the Fourth Estate working tirelessly to do their utmost to present the facts while the entrenched powerful wield their alternate “truth” to keep their hands clutched tightly to the reins of power. To read what unfolded in luscious description and painful clarity, it shoots to the heart of the ongoing struggle we Americans have today to try to make a more perfect Union. As much as this is a story of our past, this is a story of these times, a story of our very lives.
November 14, 2022
I borrowed this book from the library. It started out really well with descriptions of a family traveling through the mountains to arrive at a mining camp in Colorado where the Father was working. Very interesting. The teenage girl gets a job at the local paper and she begins her job to become a journalist. It’s about her life. Frankly it seemed to go on forever. Really sad at times. She works one summer for the local mine owner, and she falls in love with the weak son. In my opinion she abandons her family. I felt this could have been shorter. I did not like the girl, I finished the book but it became annoying because the owners are always evil and the workers are practically saints.
March 3, 2023
“I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there, and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad, he would be a United States Senator.” — Mary Harris “Mother” Jones.
The early 1900s is an epic time in American history and Moonstone, Colorado, is a harsh place to live. In Gilded Mountain, author Kate Manning introduces readers to Sylvie Pelletier, an unforgettable teenager who bravely exposes the corruption that enriches her father’s employers.
Sylvie is a first-generation American and the daughter of French-Canadian parents. To help put food on the table, the sixteen-year-old serves as an apprentice to the editor of the local newspaper. But when she is offered a temporary position as a personal assistant, she leaves her family’s dilapidated mountain cabin to work in the opulent manor house of the Padgetts, exploitative owners of the marble-mining company that employs her father. “Countess” Inge is charming, Mr. Padgett is lecherous, but it’s their son Jasper who has her affections.
The town of Moonstone is roiling with discontent. Labor conditions are dangerous, the camp is primitive, and what provisions can be had must be bought at the overpriced company store with company scrip.
A handsome union organizer, along with labor leader Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, is stirring up the quarry workers. The company hires union busters and the Pinkertons to quell the protests.
Gilded Mountain is drawn from the true stories of powerful robber barons and the immigrants who make them rich. Sylvie’s vivid first-person narrative and deeply sympathetic characters captured my imagination and didn’t let go. 5 stars.
The early 1900s is an epic time in American history and Moonstone, Colorado, is a harsh place to live. In Gilded Mountain, author Kate Manning introduces readers to Sylvie Pelletier, an unforgettable teenager who bravely exposes the corruption that enriches her father’s employers.
Sylvie is a first-generation American and the daughter of French-Canadian parents. To help put food on the table, the sixteen-year-old serves as an apprentice to the editor of the local newspaper. But when she is offered a temporary position as a personal assistant, she leaves her family’s dilapidated mountain cabin to work in the opulent manor house of the Padgetts, exploitative owners of the marble-mining company that employs her father. “Countess” Inge is charming, Mr. Padgett is lecherous, but it’s their son Jasper who has her affections.
The town of Moonstone is roiling with discontent. Labor conditions are dangerous, the camp is primitive, and what provisions can be had must be bought at the overpriced company store with company scrip.
A handsome union organizer, along with labor leader Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, is stirring up the quarry workers. The company hires union busters and the Pinkertons to quell the protests.
Gilded Mountain is drawn from the true stories of powerful robber barons and the immigrants who make them rich. Sylvie’s vivid first-person narrative and deeply sympathetic characters captured my imagination and didn’t let go. 5 stars.
December 14, 2022
Set in the beautiful, but equally dangerous mountains of Colorado, we follow Sylvie Pelletier’s path from child of a hard working quarry man to working as a social secretary for the Padgetts who own the marble mining company. In the Padgett household, young Slyvie sees how the other half lives, and is shocked. The “countess” Inge appreciates Slyvie’s wit and intelligence, and would like to help her climb the social ladder, but Slyvie is unwilling to compromise her morals. Despite feeling somewhat inferior to the Padgett family, she discovers that their help, the Gradys, have it even worse than her, and only want to escape their life of servitude.
In her summer of service in the Padgett household, Slyvie sees injustice everywhere as she compares their lifestyle to those of the workers mining the mountain. When the Padgett’s take off after summer’s end, Slyvie goes to work for the local paper, The Record, to bring awareness to the unfair practices of the Padgett company. It is under the guidance of her boss KT Redmond, that she finds her voice which leads her on a quest to see unionized workers in the mines, and the robber baron’s brought to justice.
In Gilded Mountain the scenery is practically its own character. Though the mountains are breathtakingly beautiful, they are hard to tame, and should be treated with the respect they deserve, as they can take a life easily. Slyvie’s growth from a youthful romantic, to a pragmatic adult is a rocky one, with slips along the way, but that’s what makes her human and interesting. I do wish some of the secondary characters had a little more oomph to them. Jasper in particular felt one dimensional. Overall it was a good read, if a little tedious towards the end.
Instagram.com/passionforprose
In her summer of service in the Padgett household, Slyvie sees injustice everywhere as she compares their lifestyle to those of the workers mining the mountain. When the Padgett’s take off after summer’s end, Slyvie goes to work for the local paper, The Record, to bring awareness to the unfair practices of the Padgett company. It is under the guidance of her boss KT Redmond, that she finds her voice which leads her on a quest to see unionized workers in the mines, and the robber baron’s brought to justice.
In Gilded Mountain the scenery is practically its own character. Though the mountains are breathtakingly beautiful, they are hard to tame, and should be treated with the respect they deserve, as they can take a life easily. Slyvie’s growth from a youthful romantic, to a pragmatic adult is a rocky one, with slips along the way, but that’s what makes her human and interesting. I do wish some of the secondary characters had a little more oomph to them. Jasper in particular felt one dimensional. Overall it was a good read, if a little tedious towards the end.
Instagram.com/passionforprose
January 1, 2023
4.0. Very interesting and enjoyable historical fiction novel about a young woman’s life in a mining town in Colorado in the early 1900s. The novel focuses on the hardships miners and their families faced, in the harsh working and winter conditions of Colorado, many of them immigrants and others looking for work, as well as the rise of unions. We follow Sylvie Pelletier, Quebecois who came with her family from Vermont to follow their father who came to work in the stone mines in Moonstone, a mining town. The novel chronicles poverty, violence, discrimination, inequality, greed, and corruption, among other things. Sylvie is caught between two worlds, the world of hardship faced by her family, and that of the wealthy owner of the mines and his minions. Add in King Leopold of Belgium and Mother Mary Harris Jones, and the author has cooked up quite a story. Characters are very well developed.
October 13, 2022
Lisa says: This historical novel is set in the early 1900s in a recently settled, mountainous area in Colorado. It's a coming-of-age story and family saga that spans decades. Sylvie Pelletier tells her family's immigration story, along with their interactions with other families who have settled in the area including the Padgett and Grady families. Slavery, industrialism, newspaper publishing and union organizing are a few of the themes covered in this lengthy, but well-told story by Kate Manning.
January 23, 2023
My aunt wrote this!!!
March 9, 2024
The opening of the American West brought with it industry, those looking for advantage and workers seeking a better life. GILDED MOUNTAIN, set in 1900s Colorado, depicts life in this raw era, in a marble mining townsite with deplorable safety practices and a robber baron business owner. Barely out of her teens, Sylvie Pelletier moves with her family from the Eastern USA, leaving behind a close knit French Canadian community and aspirations to become a teacher to join her adventuring father high in the Colorado mountains.
A castle on the hill houses the boss’s lonely Parisian wife, who needs a secretary and Sylvie is offered the job, leaving a local newspaper for better wages. She becomes entangled in the drama and is allured by the sumptuous lifestyle of her new employer, unaware of secrets roiling beneath. Romance develops with Jasper, the boss Padgett’s first wife’s son. Of course, love is unpredictable- while she is also torn apart by the unrest and worsening poverty, reduced wages and increased hardship on those mining the marble for her rich employer. Talks of unionization and strikes bring further brutality.
Sylvie’s life covers a long span of the early unionization efforts in America, and the work of women to further labour safety and rights, as well as her tumultuous love relationships- an example of a very independent woman in her times.
I found echoes of the writings of D.H. Lawrence in this novel: a similar era, the hardscrabble life of mining, poverty versus the very rich, the entitled versus those without rights and the underlying simmering illicit passion.
I did find it fascinating that Colorado provided the marble for the Lincoln Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
3 1/2 stars
A castle on the hill houses the boss’s lonely Parisian wife, who needs a secretary and Sylvie is offered the job, leaving a local newspaper for better wages. She becomes entangled in the drama and is allured by the sumptuous lifestyle of her new employer, unaware of secrets roiling beneath. Romance develops with Jasper, the boss Padgett’s first wife’s son. Of course, love is unpredictable- while she is also torn apart by the unrest and worsening poverty, reduced wages and increased hardship on those mining the marble for her rich employer. Talks of unionization and strikes bring further brutality.
Sylvie’s life covers a long span of the early unionization efforts in America, and the work of women to further labour safety and rights, as well as her tumultuous love relationships- an example of a very independent woman in her times.
I found echoes of the writings of D.H. Lawrence in this novel: a similar era, the hardscrabble life of mining, poverty versus the very rich, the entitled versus those without rights and the underlying simmering illicit passion.
I did find it fascinating that Colorado provided the marble for the Lincoln Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
3 1/2 stars
May 18, 2023
Everyone in Colorado and/or the union movement should read this.
December 19, 2022
Whenever I read a good work of historical fiction, it is lush and atmospheric. You feel transported, and while you certainly root for the characters, you also think and reflect upon your own condition. How can we learn from the past? How can such lessons resonate into the future?
That is precisely what Manning's "Gilded Mountain" did for me, a gorgeous paean to the workers who formed an intrinsic backbone to this country in the face of injustice and discrimination. The settings might have been altered, but the messages are the same today. People matter, and this simple message seeps more into our sinew and bone when we learn it the hard way.
Sylvie Pelletier is a gorgeous character, one who really made this journey worthwhile. She is not perfect. She is trying to do the right thing - sometimes for the wrong reason - and she is surrounded by a motley cast of characters that is also in that same boat. How do we revere the dignity of work? How we help others without stooping so low that we magnify the us-versus-them mentality? There is a lot going on here.
Sylvie's voice was rich and engaging, a delightful amalgam of her own childhood (since she's a teenager when narrating it) and the decades of reflection that adulthood has brought. I like an alternating-POV narrative as much as the next person, but I felt that such singular focus on Sylvie was very refreshing. Her voice made this book, and it's hard to imagine it without that, vibrant as the supporting cast was.
There is a sacred intersectionality here as well: one individual learning about the three-pronged monster of racism, classism, and gender discrimination, all coming to a head in an early 20th-century Colorado mining town. I also loved the reverence of journalism and the interesting commentary on first love. How does it help us? How does it shape us further? Sylvie grew during this novel, and we can only hope that we do as well.
Many thanks for the wonderful ARC and for this engaging experience! I absolutely cherished it.
That is precisely what Manning's "Gilded Mountain" did for me, a gorgeous paean to the workers who formed an intrinsic backbone to this country in the face of injustice and discrimination. The settings might have been altered, but the messages are the same today. People matter, and this simple message seeps more into our sinew and bone when we learn it the hard way.
Sylvie Pelletier is a gorgeous character, one who really made this journey worthwhile. She is not perfect. She is trying to do the right thing - sometimes for the wrong reason - and she is surrounded by a motley cast of characters that is also in that same boat. How do we revere the dignity of work? How we help others without stooping so low that we magnify the us-versus-them mentality? There is a lot going on here.
Sylvie's voice was rich and engaging, a delightful amalgam of her own childhood (since she's a teenager when narrating it) and the decades of reflection that adulthood has brought. I like an alternating-POV narrative as much as the next person, but I felt that such singular focus on Sylvie was very refreshing. Her voice made this book, and it's hard to imagine it without that, vibrant as the supporting cast was.
There is a sacred intersectionality here as well: one individual learning about the three-pronged monster of racism, classism, and gender discrimination, all coming to a head in an early 20th-century Colorado mining town. I also loved the reverence of journalism and the interesting commentary on first love. How does it help us? How does it shape us further? Sylvie grew during this novel, and we can only hope that we do as well.
Many thanks for the wonderful ARC and for this engaging experience! I absolutely cherished it.
November 7, 2022
Speak the Truth
In the early 1900's Sylvie Pelletier the daughter of Canadian immigrants to the U.S. followed her father to the Colorado mining town of Moonstone. He had lost his job because of supporting Union activity.
Moonstone is a town created by the Padgett's for their mining activity. At first Sylvie is entranced by the Padgett family and their mansion where she went to work as a secretary for the summer. She soon learns the truth about how they take money from the sweat of the immigrant workers and the unfair working conditions, but not before she falls for the son Jasper Padgett.
She goes to work at the end of the summer for the editor of a newspaper who is also a union activist along with the handsome Mr. Lonahan and his colleague Mother Jones. She learns that speaking the truth can be lethal.
When the Union organizes the employees at the Marble works mine and they go on strike things become dark and ugly. She finds out that some people are wicked and some are stronger than others. She must draw on her strength when she reports the striking events for the local newspaper as the apprentice. As she writes the events as they happen it becomes more and more dangerous for her in the town of Moonstone.
It is a story of the early western mining towns, the horrible working conditions of the immigrant miners and the labor unions that worked for honest pay and better working conditions for those miners.
It was a good book , very interesting and I enjoyed reading it. I would recommend this book.
Thanks to Kate Manning for writing a great story, to Scribner Publishing for publishing it and to NetGalley for making a copy available for me to read and review.
In the early 1900's Sylvie Pelletier the daughter of Canadian immigrants to the U.S. followed her father to the Colorado mining town of Moonstone. He had lost his job because of supporting Union activity.
Moonstone is a town created by the Padgett's for their mining activity. At first Sylvie is entranced by the Padgett family and their mansion where she went to work as a secretary for the summer. She soon learns the truth about how they take money from the sweat of the immigrant workers and the unfair working conditions, but not before she falls for the son Jasper Padgett.
She goes to work at the end of the summer for the editor of a newspaper who is also a union activist along with the handsome Mr. Lonahan and his colleague Mother Jones. She learns that speaking the truth can be lethal.
When the Union organizes the employees at the Marble works mine and they go on strike things become dark and ugly. She finds out that some people are wicked and some are stronger than others. She must draw on her strength when she reports the striking events for the local newspaper as the apprentice. As she writes the events as they happen it becomes more and more dangerous for her in the town of Moonstone.
It is a story of the early western mining towns, the horrible working conditions of the immigrant miners and the labor unions that worked for honest pay and better working conditions for those miners.
It was a good book , very interesting and I enjoyed reading it. I would recommend this book.
Thanks to Kate Manning for writing a great story, to Scribner Publishing for publishing it and to NetGalley for making a copy available for me to read and review.
August 29, 2022
This novel takes us into the snowy mountains of Colorado to a marble mining town in the early 1900’s. Sylvie’s father works in the treacherous mine owned by the Padgett Co. as their family suffers through a brutal winter. Her father tries hard to get the miners in with the Union so they can get paid and improve their work and life conditions as the company greedily spends its earnings on lavish niceties. Sylvie’s life changes as she meets the feminist newspaper editor, KT Redmond who takes her under her wing and encourages her to expose the evils of the Padgetts and the Moonstone mine. As tragedy strikes and heartbreak entails, Sylvie finds herself questioning how best she can help those around her in this mining town where the poor are treated as badly as slaves and money is the only thing that the rich care about.
This novel was SO good! I loved Sylvie’s character and how she “grows up” in this novel, making both good and bad choices as she sheds her naïveté. I loved the strong female characters and the attention to not only the feminist movement, but also the plight of the poor and of black people in the aftermath of slavery’s end. Our country has a huge problem with helping others and sharing wealth. So many of the themes in this novel are still relevant in today’s world.
Thank you to @bookclubfavorites @simonandschuster and @scribnerbooks for this advance readers copy. This novel will be available on 11/1/2022.
This novel was SO good! I loved Sylvie’s character and how she “grows up” in this novel, making both good and bad choices as she sheds her naïveté. I loved the strong female characters and the attention to not only the feminist movement, but also the plight of the poor and of black people in the aftermath of slavery’s end. Our country has a huge problem with helping others and sharing wealth. So many of the themes in this novel are still relevant in today’s world.
Thank you to @bookclubfavorites @simonandschuster and @scribnerbooks for this advance readers copy. This novel will be available on 11/1/2022.
August 28, 2022
I have had a book hangover for the past week! In my opinion, Kate Manning has written a masterpiece! As I read Gilded Mountain, I kept wishing my grandmother who was born in 1890 was alive so I could ask her questions about this time period. The beginning chapters grabbed my attention as seventeen-year-old Sylvia Pelletier, her twelve-year-old brother, “Nipper” 1 1/2, and Silvie’s mother arrive in Moonstone from Vermont after surviving a harrowing trip across the mountain in a snowstorm. Father,Jacques Pelletier, arrived in 1905 and has been working for Padgett Fuel and Stone mining Company. Conditions are terrible and their Cabin #5 is the size of a small room.
We are privy to Sylvie’s thoughts and observations throughout the entire book as we are exposed to the have nots of families like Sylvie’s and the haves of the Padgett family who own the mining company. They live in Elkhorne Manner which is a huge mansion with a multitude of servants. I especially loved John and Easter Grady who were freed slaves. This saga covers the mining conditions, suffragettes, the haves and the have nots. Gilded Mountain would be an excellent book club choice as there are lots of issues to discuss. My thanks to Scribner and Simon and Shuster for an ARC of this book. The opinions in this review are my own.
We are privy to Sylvie’s thoughts and observations throughout the entire book as we are exposed to the have nots of families like Sylvie’s and the haves of the Padgett family who own the mining company. They live in Elkhorne Manner which is a huge mansion with a multitude of servants. I especially loved John and Easter Grady who were freed slaves. This saga covers the mining conditions, suffragettes, the haves and the have nots. Gilded Mountain would be an excellent book club choice as there are lots of issues to discuss. My thanks to Scribner and Simon and Shuster for an ARC of this book. The opinions in this review are my own.
June 21, 2022
Gilded Mountain is historical fiction of the best type. The reader gets a look into what life was like for workers and their families in a place called Moonstone, Colorado, set in a marble mine. It was a hard way to make a living, and for some, it was not even making a living. The story is about Sylvie Pelletier and her family, who try to live in the extreme conditions of the mountains in Colorado.
Set in the early years of the 20th century, Sylvie's father is trying to get a union in to the mine to assist the workers to ensure they would be paid and kept safe while working. Sylvie's mother worried it would be trouble for him, and therefore the entire family. Sylvie secures a job working for a local newspaper, which puts her in a position to know things others may not know.
Based on historical events and featuring some historical people, the story unfolds with violence and drama, as well as love. Although not based on an actual event, it is based on history. It is a good read and exciting as well as enlightening. Perhaps it is an argument for keeping unions in the current time.
Set in the early years of the 20th century, Sylvie's father is trying to get a union in to the mine to assist the workers to ensure they would be paid and kept safe while working. Sylvie's mother worried it would be trouble for him, and therefore the entire family. Sylvie secures a job working for a local newspaper, which puts her in a position to know things others may not know.
Based on historical events and featuring some historical people, the story unfolds with violence and drama, as well as love. Although not based on an actual event, it is based on history. It is a good read and exciting as well as enlightening. Perhaps it is an argument for keeping unions in the current time.
July 24, 2022
Beautifully written in a hopeful and growing voice, GILDED MOUNTAIN is an old west tale devoid of cowboys, shoot-‘em-ups and saloon poker. Moonstone, 1907 is the time and place of Sylvie Pelletier: precocious and devoted to her striving family, she’s quickly pulled into a powder keg of local tensions.
As her French-Canadian parents struggle to secure their piece of American prosperity in the Colorado mining town, Sylvie’s loyalties are tested by a dizzying constellation of confusing new relationships.
Within this constellation shine brilliantly depicted American archetypes such as the ink-drenched suffragette; in all her emotional armor, a singular role model for young Pelletier.
The exhausted frustrations of company-town workers are vividly written by the author. Amidst a punishing Rocky Mountain tundra, the history pops.
Labor wars between a greedy town father and an embryonic union movement have Moonstone, CO pregnant with violent foreboding. Working on the robber baron’s estate under the wise eyes of two former slaves, Sylvie is predictably disgusted by a technicolor peek into how the other half lives and thinks.
What’s unpredictable is what she decides to do about it.
As her French-Canadian parents struggle to secure their piece of American prosperity in the Colorado mining town, Sylvie’s loyalties are tested by a dizzying constellation of confusing new relationships.
Within this constellation shine brilliantly depicted American archetypes such as the ink-drenched suffragette; in all her emotional armor, a singular role model for young Pelletier.
The exhausted frustrations of company-town workers are vividly written by the author. Amidst a punishing Rocky Mountain tundra, the history pops.
Labor wars between a greedy town father and an embryonic union movement have Moonstone, CO pregnant with violent foreboding. Working on the robber baron’s estate under the wise eyes of two former slaves, Sylvie is predictably disgusted by a technicolor peek into how the other half lives and thinks.
What’s unpredictable is what she decides to do about it.
August 21, 2022
“Gilded Mountain” is a sweeping tale of the rise of the labor movement, told through one girl’s experience growing up in a “company town” in Colorado. The main character grows throughout the novel and confronts hard choices— such a choosing a life of wealth vs a much harder, but more righteous, path of reporting on and supporting the labor movement. The novel takes a mature approach to the subject matter and the characters; most characters here are complex, inconsistent, and a bit hypocritical— just like real people. The novel highlights the exploitation that enables the extreme wealth of one family, which the main character recognizes while still yearning for a luxurious lifestyle. I learned a lot about the time period, too. However, the novel is careful not to be pedantic or long-winded about the period or its ideas. Historical events and themes are interwoven throughout.
My only criticism is that the novel really sped up at the end and did not reach a real climax, despite plenty of foreshadowing.
Overall, I recommend this novel highly and look forward to more from this author.
My only criticism is that the novel really sped up at the end and did not reach a real climax, despite plenty of foreshadowing.
Overall, I recommend this novel highly and look forward to more from this author.
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