The Lives of Diamond Bessie

February 7, 2022
In 1866, 16-year-old Annie Moore, the narrator of Hadlock’s arresting debut, falls in love and gets pregnant in Canton, N.Y. To spare her family shame, she is sent to a convent in Buffalo. She accepts her fate, believing it temporary, but after the nuns spirit her baby daughter away, she is inconsolable. Determined to earn a living and get her daughter back, Annie runs away from the convent and ends up in a “joy house” (aka brothel) in Watertown, where she finds support along with, surprisingly, strength and dignity in her new role as sought-after demi-mondaine Bessie. Then she falls in love with a jeweler’s son, Abe Rothschild, and they get married. She hopes to gain respectability, but those hopes are dashed when Abe turns out to have a violent streak. Drawing on a true story, Hadlock uses authentic period detail and well-drawn characters to pull readers into Annie/Bessie’s precarious journey toward redemption, which comes to an unexpected ending. This affecting tale of a 19th-century American woman struggling to prove her worth other than as a marriage prospect leaves a lasting impression. Agent: Jennifer Unter, Unter Agency.

In Hadlock's genre-bending debut novel, a betrayed woman travels across America looking for acceptance, wealth, and freedom. This historical tale, inspired by a true story, is set during the last decades of the 1800s. Annie Moore, an Irish-born immigrant, becomes pregnant out of wedlock. She's sent to a convent in Buffalo, New York, and the nuns take her daughter away right after she's born; however, Annie soon escapes to try to find a way to be reunited with her child. Finding no other means of income, she resorts to sex work to survive, taking the professional name "Bessie." Although her wealthy clients provide her with jewels and other luxuries, her life on the margins leaves her yearning for mainstream social acceptance. When she begins a relationship with Abe Rothschild, the charming son of a well-known jeweler, this dream seems attainable--but then she suffers a terrible betrayal. The novel explores the day-to-day life of a marginalized woman struggling to find meaning and power in her existence. There's an impressive deliberateness in the way that Hadlock present her themes, with an opening dialogue on dreams from Shakespeare's Romeo and Julietand a quote on forgiveness. Feminism is central to the novel, although its references to gender-based double standards eventually feel repetitive. That said, Hadlock takes care not to use her character as a mere mouthpiece for her story's themes. Rather, she thoughtfully explores the protagonist's relationships to her Catholic faith and Irish roots as well as her love of reading. The novel also skillfully uses foreshadowing to create a suspenseful atmosphere without giving the game away. The ending feels a bit rushed and abrupt, but the epilogue provides a satisfactory denouement. An often engaging and inventive character study.

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