When the last line is read and you find that it is difficult to extricate yourself from the world that has swallowed you whole, you have found a good novel for yourself. As George Saunders once said, good writing “brings to life the part of us that really believes that we are in this world at this moment, and that being here somehow matters.”
Writing duo Mary Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray have achieved just that with their latest historical novel, A pair of aces. Set in 1930s New York City, where mob life is at its peak, Benedict and Murray give us two women on opposite ends of the law who must join forces to bring down the head of one of the five largest crime families – Lucky Luciano.
Assistant District Attorney Eunice Carter, a character based on a real person, is the city’s first black prosecutor. Her work makes black people all over Harlem proud – and women everywhere take notice as a black woman is front and center in the trial of the century. But as a woman who chooses to focus on her career in this era, Eunice Carter not only has to fight to keep her place on the prosecutor’s team among white male colleagues, she is also fighting a battle at home against a husband who believes she should leave.
High-class brothel owner Polly Adler, who is based on a real person, runs one of the best and safest brothels in New York City. Names famous for their alcoholism, beauty, and bold personality often fall for “Polly.” She, too, has women who look up to her – her “girls,” she calls them – and she will do anything to protect their safety and financial well-being. She always strives to be the best, even though she keeps her life a secret from her family, which she supports with the money she makes from prostitution.
In the novel, both women are career-driven – and both women feel that their careers are in jeopardy as soon as Lucky Luciano enters the picture.
The struggles that women face, and the hold that traditional gender roles have on society, are deeply reflected throughout the novel. Although Eunice – a middle-class black woman – has one of the most prominent roles in town, those closest to her still push her towards lesser ambitions. He feels as if he is being pushed to belittle himself. At one point, even a friend questions whether her job is worth losing her husband. Meanwhile, Polly is a Jewish immigrant who worked her way up from poverty through sex work. She also learns to be flexible in order to survive, against the expectations of men in her life and in her business.
Polly’s immigrant story, although not the center of the novel, does illustrate what it means to arrive in America while pursuing the American dream. How different is a young, poor, female migrant in the early 1900s from a young, poor, female migrant today?
Much of this novel is about power – who has it, who makes the best use of it, and who can take it away. Women here fight for it at every turn: rights over their careers, rights over their bodies, and even their seat at the table.
Benedict and Murray weave together these familiar themes, stemming from women’s enduring fight for survival in the world. But they have vividly brought to life one of the most exciting literary and cultural moments in American history, and done so in a way that readers of any background can enter without feeling like outsiders.
The beauty of this historical tale is that it features appearances from many iconic figures, from the Algonquin set to the luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance. It is rare to see the entire spectrum of New York society in a single novel.
There are moments when the writers’ potential commitments are revealed very clearly through their characters’ words – such as when the normally confident Polly retreats into an interior monologue about being seen as immoral and “exploiting women”, or when Eunice contemplates her plight as a black woman and frees herself from being “bound by any chains”.
a pair of aces Still, there’s a page-turner that celebrates what women can achieve by working together, regardless of each other’s background.
Kishell Williams is a Trinidadian American book reviewer, arts and culture writer and editor.
