The Daughters of Erietown by Connie Schultz

Title: The Daughters of Erietown
Author: Connie Schultz
Publication:  Random House, hardcover, 2020
Genre: Fiction
Setting: Ohio, 1947-1994

Plot: This is a gritty three-generation family saga set in small-town Ohio.  Ellie Fetters is the smartest girl in her high school class of ‘56 but it doesn’t occur to anyone but her aunt that she should go to college.   Her boyfriend is not much of a student but is offered a basketball scholarship to Kent State.  Just when Ellie is about to get into nursing school and Brick is about to start believing in himself, she gets pregnant.   He stands by her, as the saying used to go, but is it possible for these teens to create a stable family?   Brick has a loving mother but a physically abusive father, while Ellie’s parents abandoned her, and she was brought up by her grandparents.  They care about each other but that may not be enough.  In this story, the women are the strongest characters but even they do not always make the right decisions.