Esther Budgar

Anna's Story: a Romance: a Saga of the Polish in America: 1919-1939 Esther Budgar

This is Anna's Story. It begins is a small town in Eastern Massachusetts in the mid '30s and then there is a flashback to Anna in her small village in Poland circa 1919 after the war. Her meeting with the aristocrat Jan leads to a heady love affair and a deep despondency when Jan leaves for university studies. An omniscient Babka, the grandmother, fearing only the worst because of the sharp class differences between the two young people, plots to save her beloved granddaughter from impending heartbreak. A wedding to Anna to Stash, the silent one, is quickly arranged by Babka. The two, Anna and Stash, are immediately shipped to the United States to live with the Aunt, Ciotka Janina. The book continues with Anna's experience, first in Hadleigh at the aunts' farm, and then the move to Boughtonville, the mill town where we first see Anna. The book depicts the hard work in the fields and in the mills. It depicts the fight for the dream of a better life for the children born in a new place, and the repetition of history. Anna's son is extraordinarily handsome and young women are attracted to him as is one of the Boughtons, of the Boughton mill dynasty. The class struggle is repeated in America as it was in Poland where Anna's first love was Jan, a Count. Beauty is a problem for Anna and her son. Jan returns to the story: There is a reunion. Life changes drastically for Anthony and for Anna there is a new crisis to face. The story ends on the eve of the outbreak of World War II in 1939.