The Harvey Girls by Juliette Fay

I enjoyed this absorbing historical novel set in 1926. Two young women, each with a big secret, train together in Topeka, Kansas, to become Harvey Girls. Billie, the oldest girl in a large hardworking family, is still 15, not 18 as required. She is homesick and a little clumsy, but very kind and charming to the customers at the Harvey House restaurant at the Topeka train station.

Charlotte, six years older, attended Wellesley College before dropping out to marry Simeon. Simeon is a brute, and hits Charlotte. She runs away to be a Harvey Girl, always worried he’ll find her. After training, Billie and Charlotte travel to the Grand Canyon, and are assigned to work as waitresses at the fancy El Tovar Hotel.

Charlotte doesn’t like to get close to the rim of the Grand Canyon while Billie befriends a park ranger and is eager to hike down into the canyon. Both of their secrets eventually cause problems, especially when they both meet men they really like. Charlotte becomes a part-time tour guide and makes a Hopi friend. Billie sends money home and worries about her family. The author has experience working as a waitress, which adds authenticity to Billie’s and Charlotte’s experience as Harvey Girls. A bit dramatic in spots, this is a very appealing read, with an excellent sense of time and place. An epilog fills the reader in on what happened after they left the Grand Canyon. I might need to watch Judy Garland sing “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” again in the 1946 movie “The Harvey Girls”.

Brenda