Triangle

By Katharine Weber

On March 25, the 108th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire will be observed. The fire, which broke out near closing time on a Saturday afternoon, killed 146 workers, mostly women, many of whom jumped to their deaths to escape the flames. It was the 9/11 of its time.

The tragedy spurred major reforms in working conditions in New York City’s sweatshops and helped unions gain acceptance.

Triangle tells the story in three voices. Esther Gottesfeld, the last living survivor of the fire at 106, is heard from only indirectly through interviews and trial transcripts. She has kept key secrets for a lifetime. Ruth Zion is a self-serving feminist researcher with a nose for missing information and an astute ability to suggest what fits into the blanks. Internationally renowned composer George Botkin marries Esther’s granddaughter, Rebecca, a genetic researcher.

As Ruth digs into the story, asking questions about how Esther survived when her sister and fiancé didn’t, and what her role had been during the factory owners' trial, George and Rebecca are impelled to do their own investigation to find the answers before Ruth prints them.

The investigation changes George and Rebecca, and their relationship. After years of living together, they decide to marry and adopt a Chinese baby. George begins to create a composition that  ultimately gives expression to the profound losses arising from the fire.

While Triangle is lyrically written, it leaves some jangling notes. A significant portion of the book is devoted to Botkin and how he composed music using mathematical and biological sequences. At a certain point, Triangle reads as if it were two small books that have been pasted together.

Ruth Zion is painted as a repelling, cartoonish, self-absorbed woman. George and Rebecca fight her attempts to answer haunting questions about the fire. For example, the women who worked in the factory were mostly poor immigrants. Who took care of their children while they worked? Is there a chance that they brought their children with them? Did children perished in the fire? Were the owners and managers of the factory guilty of more than life-threatening working environments and slave-like conditions?

The tension between an individual’s right to privacy and the value of full revelation of the facts about a major tragedy is taut in this book. The short shrift that Weber gives Ruth Zion seems to suggest that she feels some facts are better hidden than revealed.

One thing that has always troubled me about this book is how limited its presentation of the fire itself was. Mariah Fredericks, author of a CrimeReads article, "A Look At Gilded Age Crimes, Then and Now," points out that the death toll was so high because the factory owners refused to put safety measures in place. By leaving the building a fire trap, the building would go up in flames more easily if they ever needed a fire for insurance purposes. While the owners had to pay $75 per victim in a civil suit, insurance paid them a $400 per victim. The fire was effectively a one-time profit center.

About the Author: Katharine Weber (1955 - )

Katharine Weber made her debut with the novel Objects in the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear. Her other works include True Confections, The Little Women and The Music Lesson. All three novels were named as Notable Books by The New York Times Book Review.

Triangle won the 2007 Connecticut Book Award for Fiction and was a finalist for the 2007 John Gardner Fiction Book Award and the 2007 Paterson Fiction Prize.