Book Review: The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton

 

The Last Train to Key West

Author: Chanel Cleeton

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Date of Publication: June 16, 2020

Page: 320

     I am a sucker for any book written about Key West.  We have vacationed there several times and the combination of charm, history, climate, inclusiveness, and just plain fun are hard to beat.  I have documented one such trip in a previous blog post.  The restaurants are world class as well!  There are many attractions there besides the beaches and the bars, including The Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory.  When this book was selected by our new neighborhood's book club, I couldn't pass it up.

     This is a novel of three women in crisis.  Their stories are told in alternating chapters.  The author does an incredible job tying these stories together at the end of the book.  The first woman is Helen, a native of Key West who finds herself trapped in an abusive relationship.  She married young, works as a waitress and is pregnant with her first child.  She dreams of her fisherman husband's death which she sees as her only means of escape. The second is Elizabeth, a former debutante from New York who is also trapped in an engagement to a New York mobster.  This marriage is the only way she can see clear of a mountain of debt her family is buried under after the stock market crash of 1929.  She has come to Key West in search of a lost brother, a WWI veteran working in a labor camp.  The third woman is Mirta, a Cuban who is on her honeymoon, having married an older man of dubious reputation.  This marriage was brokered by her father in order to improve his political position.  All three of these main characters are very well developed by the author.  They are all sympathetic and likable.  As these women are introduced and the plots are taking shape, we find that there is a hurricane threatening the area.  This hurricane is, in fact, the famous 1935 Labor Day storm, the strongest hurricane to make landfall in North American history.  This storm had sustained winds of 200 mph and virtually destroyed the village of Islamorada on Matecumbe Key.  At least 250 of the veterans sent to work camps in the Keys were killed.  The storm and its aftermath are the thrilling conclusion to this novel and the crisp, articulate writing comes to a crescendo.

     This is a story of survival.  The three women successfully navigate their personal and actual storms, each in their own way.  The novel tells of some very interesting history as well.  The plight of the World War I veterans, chased from Washington, D.C. by President Herbert Hoover as they protested delayed pension payments is touched upon.  The plight of both the rich and the poor during the Great Depression is alluded to as well.  Mr. Flagler's railroad from Miami to Key West plays a role throughout the story, although details of engineering and construction difficulties are not elaborated upon.  The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 is central to the entire novel.  Its devastation is expertly described and those chapters are nothing short of riveting.  Although it may have detracted a bit from the main plots, a little more historical detail as it pertained to the veterans and some more details regarding the railroad would have given the novel a bit more depth.

     All in all, this was a very enjoyable book to read.  It sparked my interest in learning more about Henry Flagler and his Florida Overseas Railroad as well as the veterans' work camps in the Keys during the Depression.  Entertaining and thought provoking is a great combination!