Tomorrow Will Bring Sunday’s News: A Philadelphia Story, by Beth Kephart

Kephart begins by plopping the reader into the blurry world of her protagonist, Margaret Finley D’Imperio (Peg or Peggy throughout). Peggy is on her deathbed struggling to conjure memories while awaiting a visit from her granddaughter. Though the story is rich with Philadelphia history in poetic prose, the plot relies on Peggy’s wandering and withering mind to tell a story that no-one else knows.

In her acknowledgements, Kephart calls her grandmother “the great love of my life.” She explains that she started with the truth of her grandmother’s life and eventually extended it through fiction. Her novel is based on Peggy’s story and their relationship, jumping on a timeline beginning in 1918, when Peggy was 16, to 1969 Philadelphia, as she lies in bed dying of cancer. Vignettes shed light on how Kephart has kept her grandmother’s memory close over the years, including wearing her pearl necklace.

Philly as a main character

I’m partial to stories about Philadelphia, especially ones that teach me something new and feature the city as a main character and not simply a backdrop. Peggy’s beloved city, the “Workshop of the World”, quickly transitions its production toward the war effort for the “doughboys”—including her boy, a produce-seller at 12th and Market.

Peggy and her boy first meet on the banks of the Schuylkill. He was playing the bugle, and she was reading Emerson. The pair walk around the city and speak of their dreams, continuing the conversation through letters when the boy is drafted.

This book brings history to life in a tender way through the development of several female characters, including Peggy, her mother, and her best friend, Lani. These relationships between women who support one another while supporting the war effort and battling discrimination are inspiring.

Kephart pulls headlines directly from old news clippings to explain the nuances of the time, including intensifying racial and ethnic tension, the Suffragist Movement, and the devastation of the 1918 pandemic, after thousands of Philadelphians caught the flu and died following the Fourth Liberty Loan Parade. I learned about the story of Adella Bond, and

the Great War and its effects on the Finley family’s life. As with any great Philly story, the neighbors play a significant role.

Paths for difficult times

Peggy is from an immigrant family and her father works a blue-collar job that intensifies with the onset of the war. Peggy takes a job as a doffer at Fleisher’s, inspired by her lover (simply known as “the boy”), who dreamed of working in textiles before being drafted, sent to Camp Meade, and then to battle overseas. While her life at home is changing every day, Peggy looks to the news for clues about the well-being of her beloved boy with the gap in his teeth.

Along the way, Peggy benefits from the cultural offerings at Fleisher’s, including weekly concerts. This story reminded me just how deep Philadelphia’s art history goes, and how prominent families, like the Fleishers, have contributed to that legacy.

Tomorrow Will Bring Sunday’s News reminds us that external forces can change the course of our lives, and that connection and community are the only path through difficult times.