Book Review: The Measure of a Lady by Deeanne Gist

When the two "sunbonnets," Rachel and Lissa Van Buren, along with their younger brother Michael, slog up the muddy hill to the city from the ship on which their father died, they don’t know that they’ll be living there for a good long time. Neither do they realize its temptations; vices and challenges will sift and test them to the point where family bonds will be stretched to the break point. But that is the case when Deeanne Gist places this naive and vulnerable trio right in the middle of the gold-mad San Francisco of 1849 in her smashingly well-written second novel, The Measure of a Lady.

The story is primarily one of character, with Rachel and Johnnie Parker — saloonkeeper and gambling house landlord — playing the lead roles. Rachel’s strict religious upbringing and determined disposition can hardly bear to coexist with the red-blooded female side of her that Johnny brings out. The result is some great inner conflict. Johnny too fights inner battles as he trifles with the affections of this young beauty and then finds he, an avowed bachelor, is falling for her. Secondary characters Lissa and Michael are similarly convincing and interesting in their development.

The setting is another major player in this tale. With the harbor full of boats that never leave, having been abandoned by their gold-fevered crews, the orphans are as trapped in this place as if they were on an island. The climate, with its perpetual rain and resulting sea of mud, feels authentic and adds to the sense of isolation. Contributing to the story’s realism is Gist's research (she lists, in a note at the book’s end, incidents she incorporated that were actually found journals and memoirs of the time) and her entertaining storytelling style. It’s hard to believe she wasn’t a fly on the wall of Johnnie’s gaming rooms, judging by the convincing way she calls a card game.

Article Author: Violet Nesdoly

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