Don't Ya Know

by Suzanne McLain Rosenwasser

The fish oil factories of the 19th century are gone from the Long Island coastline in New York. A ferry ride away from the mainland on Corycian Island, a new culture is born. A grand hotel, a Christian campgrounds, a Catholic convent, and a spiritual colony challenge the ancient belief of the locals that "all-a-wanna," all together, is the "tru-way."

312 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2015

About the author

DON'T YA KNOW is my first novel. It is a tale of wonder and whimsy that takes place during the turbulence and transition of the 1900s on a small island off the coast of Long Island, NY.

I grew up in Manhasset, a Long Island town loved by all who shared its early decades during the expansion of Long Island's North Shore. My published stories are memoirs of my years spent there in two gift-sized volumes - MANHASSET STORIES.

I am a retired high school English teacher who has been a published, freelance writer since the mid80s. My essays about Manhasset have appeared in the New York Times, Long Island Woman, and many other magazines and newspapers, earning both New York and Long Island Press Association awards. My fiction appears in the Copperfiled Review and Ether Books.

Reviews

[Trisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We tells our story to keeps it. We tells it and pass it 'round"

This is a story of a small island. You move through many years and generations and see how the sins and spoils, love and hate pass down through families. It's a story about failure and redemption. But it's also a story about small town life.

Imagine living on an island. An island that becomes a tourist town in the summer: population 2000 Fall to Spring, 10,000 in summer. Those in the small town know many things about each other - secrets, both big and small - and you travel these stories and through time with these people and their struggles and successes.

It's a very interesting story, adding lore of the natives, the times of war and even the right to vote and KKK and even through the tragedy of Mother Nature.

Take the journey Suzanne McLain Rosenwasser offers you. You won't regret it.

[Tabitha Ormiston-Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovers of Steinbeck's Cannery Row books will be captivated by this original offering. Set over the first half of the twentieth century, the book chronicles life in that creature unknown to real life America, a truly multicultural community. It's a rambling, relaxed book that meanders down through the years, pausing here to spotlight a character, there to investigate an event, and with its casual, gossipy tone the reader feels almost as if he is listening to gossip, or hearing Grandpa's reminiscences.

The book opens with a description of a series of odd events occurring in the community. As the years roll by and the plot develops, issues such as racism and religious bigotry are examined, and the book concludes with lovely symmetry where it started, with the strange events of the opening chapter now horribly understood. The overall message, however, is one of hope, and the flavour of the book was to me sharply evocative of the warm-hearted, multifarious denizens of Cannery Row. It's a beautiful book, and the teaser chapter of its sequel provided at the end has left me thirsting for more.

[Bobbyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun read with wisdom thrown in.

[Carla]

Much to admire in this richly considered novel, which manages to incorporate intriguing history.

[Laura Novak · Rating 5 out of 5]

If a book could sing, this is the song I’d play over and over. Moving, melodic, winsome, and witty, Don’t Ya Know is an epic that touches every chord and hits every note. Spanning 29 years, the novel takes place on a fictional island off the coast of Manhattan and Long Island. But these aren’t just any years, 1900-1929 are pivotal years in iconic American history. Spiritualism, religion, Prohibition, the First World War, and the suffragette movement are all covered skillfully by Ms. Rosenwasser. The characters who populate Corycian Island are richly drawn and moving, and quite frankly, hilarious in some cases. They are also on a collision course as they try to change with the times, and the outsiders who bring new ideas to the island - or not. Sisters marry, families grow, and favorite sons go off to the battle fields of France. But at the root of the story is Nuna, a native daughter who knows that the spirit of the island is sown in the soil, and the Oonah (my favorite of her brilliant expressions) of every person who lives there is ever present. I loved every character, their movements, dialogue, and intent … but perhaps none as much as the very naughty Josiah Remie. For it is this ignorant, recalcitrant islander whose refusal to move with the times that sets Don’t Ya Know - and the true meaning of the title - in motion. A beautiful, lighthearted epic, which even made me cry at one point, Don’t Ya Know is a lovely book that I do know I’ll read again.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story (or stories) of residents of a small (fictional) island off the coast of Long Island, NY. Nuna Shellfoot is the constant thread in everyone else's story on the island. There is just so much in this book, it's hard to pin down in a review. Beautifully written book with rich characters, I loved it. This is the first in a series, and I can't wait to see what the next book brings. Highly recommended.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story! From the very beginning I was pulled in by a shocking event that sets the stage for a cast of well developed, eccentric and powerful characters that you will adore, abhor and miss when the story ends.
Don’t ya know is set on an island in NY in the early 1900’s where indigenous people and city folks meet, marry and either unravel or become enlightened as they grapple with the dominant and guiding themes of the times. The author is a master story teller!

[Joseph Rigo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do something nice for yourself . . . read this book!

Were I limited to a one sentence review the headline above would be it.

But . . . as I’m not . . . From its opening pages, Suzanne McLain Rosenwasser drew me in with the lyric charm of her “Don’t Ya Know”, the story of Corycian (pronounced Core-seen) Island and the people who inhabit it.

We begin in the early 20th Century, 1924 and stay through that strange American time until 1928. The author provides as odd and engaging a collection of personalities as those who inhabited Steinbeck’s “Cannery Row”. I’ve seen this point of comparison in other reviews listed here – I was surprised by how quickly I came to agree.

Corycian Island, geographically fictional, which the author places at the farthest point Long Island’s east end – a relatively small and oh-so-long inhabited place of spirit, history, rolling laughter and joy. A place of beauty and calm realistically marred by the unavoidable anger, fear and heart breaking death, which we all must endure together - in the patois of Corycian’s original residents – “All-a-wanna”.

Rosenwasser is a gifted writer who sets her story as beautifully as the fine dining tables of The Strand Hotel; as warmly as an evening spent at The Captain’s Guest House, experiencing the friendship between Nuna Shellfoot – the almost the last of kind spiritualist, and Eula Morely a descendant of the Quaker refugees who came to Ke’was End in the 1700s.

Ms. Rosenwasser promises a return to her ‘Eye-land of de Gods’ with “Healing Properties 1929 – 1950s” – I look forward to it.

This is a story I believe will stand up easily when I read it again. So, do something nice for yourself and read it the first time.

[Theresa Sivelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the story was well told and imagery was good. It just wasn't a story that really grabbed me and pulled me in.

[Mary Schwarz Sheppard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our book club has read a number of historical fiction novels; some of which I've enjoyed, some not so much. "Don't Ya Know" by Suzanne Rosenwasser is, by far, my favorite. Set in early 20th century Long Island, the story introduced me to a time and place with which I was unfamiliar. The characters are richly drawn; some you will love, some you won't and some will have you laughing out loud. But even the "bad" characters get to you in some way. Ms. Rosenwasser has carefully written dialect for the native characters. That, and the vivid descriptions of settings allowed me to get deeply into the story. You know the feeling... you are so caught up in the story that when you stop reading, you have to clear your head for a moment and come back to the present. I love that feeling!
As a southerner, I sometimes felt I was reading about the Gullah/Geechee cultures of South Carolina and Georgia, so it was fascinating to learn about the island culture of a northern state. Also new to me was the spiritual movement of that time. You will appreciate the considerable amount of research the author did for this book. I want to know more about this time, this place and these characters. Hoping for a sequel!