Oleander City by Matt Bondurant

 

This novel takes place in 1900 in Galveston, Texas.  This was the time and place of the hurricane that still remains America's worst natural disaster, killing from 6000 to 12,000 people and almost totally destroying the city.  The reader sees the action from the viewpoint of three individuals.

Joe Choynski or 'Chrysanthemum Joe' was a famous boxer of the time and considered the best ever Jewish boxer.  He has traveled the United States and has been apart from his ill wife for over a year as he must continue to box to pay for her treatment.  He comes to Galveston for an exhibition bout against the young Jack Johnston, known as the Galveston Giant and later holder of the heavyweight championship for seven years.  The two men become friends after the fight and Joe becomes a mentor to Jack.

Diana comes to Galveston with the Red Cross to lend medical aid and relief in the form of food and finding housing for orphaned children.  She is Clara Barton's chief assistant and heads up the effort in Galveston when Clara who is in her eighties, arrives too fatigued and ill to do so.  She meets Joe at the theatre and there is an attraction between them although Diana never thought she could be interested in a man who makes his living by violence against other men.  Diana also becomes attached to Hester who is an orphan.

Hester had been an orphan before the hurricane.  She lived in an orphanage run by Catholic nuns along with ninety-two other children.  All were killed in the hurricane including all the sisters except for six year old Hester.  She can't believe that she is alive and lives on the streets by herself for weeks until she is finally brought to Diana and the Red Cross.  

Hester is the focus of many.  The mayor and the press want to make her the face of the Galveston survivors, even though she has not spoken since the storm.  But there is another group that doesn't have Hester's best interests at heart.  One night, from her hideout on the streets, she sees a group of Ku Klux Klan men kill three black children, the children of the city's most prominent black minister.  That makes her a witness and the Klan tries to capture and kill Hester as well.  The Klan has come to prominence after the storm with all its looting aftermath and turmoil in the streets.  

Matt Bondurant is an author specializing in novels, short stories and screenplays.  He often writes about adventures and bases his works on true stories such as the Galveston hurricane and a novel about bootlegging based on his own family.  In this novel, he brings together these three individuals who would never have met except for the storm and made their lives believable.  He weaves the lives of individuals who did exist along with those invented for the novel such as Diane and Hester.  Readers learn about the world of boxing, the work of the Red Cross and the rise of such organizations as the Klan.  I listened to this novel and the narrator did an excellent job of transporting the reader to another place and time.  This book is recommended for readers of historical fiction.