New York Author Shares Heart-warming Coming-of-age Story

There are few historical novels that detail the Irish-American experience, especially in the turbulent times of American history. The novel “When Grass Was Green” (Dorrance Publishing, 2004) is one of them. Written in the first-person point of view by Sarah M. Krazinsky, this historical, coming-of-age story takes place in the early 1900s and features an Irish- American girl as the main character.
 
In the year 1911, Peggy Connolly is even more naive than the small town she lives in with her family and the isolationist America that surrounds her. Europe is on the brink of World War I, and her innocence is as secure as the international politics of the time. The daughter of Irish immigrants is torn between a father who clings to the “Old Country” (Irish traditions) and a mother who embraces progress. Peggy is forced to open herself to the world that is her home.
                                                   
“When Grass Was Green” flirts with historical romance through Peggy’s entangled emotions and her childhood sweetheart Sam O’Connell, but flowers into much more than a love story. The history-conscious Krazinsky successfully and creatively draws a parallel between Peggy’s maturation into womanhood and the nation’s maturation into a reckoning power on the world stage. By its denouement, Peggy is pushed towards realizations and understandings that are painfully timeless.   
 
The title of the book points to the memory and experience of Irish -Americans in the early 20^th century, and Peggy’s life story is just one of them. As a coming-of-age story, the novel narrates the main character’s emotional struggles; as a cross between a historical novel and (somewhat) a social commentary, it gives a glimpse of the social struggles of the growing Irish immigrant community in the 1900s.
 
Krazinsky’s “When Grass Was Green” provides something for avid readers of historical fiction and coming-of-age novels. The book will be displayed at the upcoming 2017 Frankfurt International Book Fair on October 11, 2017.
 
“When Grass Was Green”
Written by Sarah M. Krazinsky
Published by Dorrance Publishing Co., Inc.
Published date: February 2004
Paperback price: $17.00
 
About the Author 
Sarah M. Krazinsky, who has a Bachelor of Arts in History and a Master of Science in Education, comes of Irish stock herself and has a keen appreciation for the struggles of the early Irish immigrants. She lives in New York State and for many years wrote a historical column for the Chemung Valley Reporter. She hopes to reflect the reminiscences of a generation of women who are now passing, and to preserve them for future generations.

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