Archana “Archie” Morley is a journalist working in 1907 New York City. She’s a double outsider: she’s a woman, and she’s from India. Her physician husband, who has defied his family to marry her, is quite tolerant of her choice to don pants and traverse dangerous parts of the city looking for stories. And boy, does she find some. While her editor has her latched on to the notorious murder of Stanford White by Harry Thaw, Archie gets distracted by a gang style shooting in Chinatown and the gangster who may or may not be behind it, Mock Duck.
Mock Duck, Harry Thaw and Stanford White were all real people in turn of the century New York, but Mock Duck is the person Archie – and the novel – focus on. While the book definitely opens with a crime it’s less of a mystery than it is a straight up historical novel. Vatsal is deeply skilled at portraying the sounds, smells and people of New York, and the people of Chinatown, who are as outsider as it gets.
Chinese weren’t allowed to vote or become citizens though they were allowed to work, and work they did, creating their own community – a community the mayor of New York wants to rip down to create a park. So unimportant are the Chinese to New York “society” there’s no thought given to where the population of Chinatown might relocate were their entire community to be torn down. That’s the “meta” view.
The “micro” view is what draws you in as a reader, however. When Archie goes to report on Mock Duck at his home at No. 10 Doyers Street she finds a crowd inside his apartment. The city, in the form of what would now be called Child Protective Services, are there to take his daughter away. She’s an adorable six year old and the separation from her family is both abrupt and heartbreaking. Archie is witness to the bereft parents when their child is taken away from them, and later in court, to the ridiculous reason she was removed from the household.
The case of the daughter is only the starting point for Vatsal’s look at Chinatown as well as her examination of Archie’s unusual and happy marriage, which at times takes her into the upper echelons of society. It’s through these connections that Archie is able to interview the mayor and boost her career. Perceiving this, Mock Duck begins to appreciate Archie’s intelligence and see her as a tool he might be able to use. He does grant her some access, an access denied to other reporters.
While Archie is often “off the reservation,” as far as her boss is concerned, she does turn in some great stories, but she also ignores specific assignments, making the tension at her job (filled with male reporters who look down on her) more intense. This book begins with heartbreak and ends up being an extremely deft portrait of the way politics work. Both the heartbreak of Mock’s family and the political levers and the way they are used are pretty timeless. Vatsal’s portrayal of a city at a specific time, as it was growing and changing almost daily, is an adroit one. This is a book that makes an impression though I was hoping for a bit more resolution to the story she’s telling. While it may be realistic, it was on some levels unsatisfying. However the character of Archie and the story of a bursting New York City is indelible. — Robin Agnew