The Last Days of Ellis Island

In the early 1920's, before immigration quotas were established, my great-grandparents and their extended family emigrated from Europe to the United States. They were poor immigrants traveling in third class "steerage", arriving at the Immigration Station on Ellis Island. Where were you born? Can you read and write in your native tongue? What is your trade? Do you have a sponsor...where will you live? What is your plan for a new life in America? When I visited Ellis Island, I proudly viewed some of their names etched on the American Immigrant Wall of Honor.

"They carried all their dreams inside their luggage, packed inside the trunks...baskets...suitcases...brought...from their previous life... there was everything they had sealed up deep inside their hearts...the anguish of separation, the pain of calling up faces they would never see again...theirs was an exile without return".

John Mitchell was "the guardian and last resident" of Ellis Island. He spent 45 years as a "gatekeeper" to America. Over the course of the last 9 days before Ellis Island closed, he chose to write a diary. It was an accounting of a solitary life of his own choosing. The diary entries start on November 3, 1954. "Everything that follows took place at sea...two ships docked here, once upon a time. For me it was as though they never left again...everything I believed to be solid burned to ash". The Germania docked on September 27, 1920. Five people died at sea... "bygone happiness...would never return...my links with the world...the city...without purpose, it no longer had any meaning for me. I tired myself out working...maintenance, repairs, cleaning...".

On April 23, 1923, the Cincinnati docked. "In spite of the small number of those who were turned away-the fear that they might find themselves among the deportees caused them unspeakable anguish". Imagine a chalk mark on your clothing that would send you to the Board of Special Inquiry. Could you stay in the US or were you denied entry?

John Mitchell had committed a transgression. "I believed myself up until that point to have exercised my responsibilities with integrity...". Mitchell was haunted by his guilt ridden memories. He was unable to right his wrong. He declined to emerge from his self-inflicted lonely prison. On November 12, 1954, after processing over 12 million immigrants, Ellis Island was closed for immigration.

"The Last Days of Ellis Island" by Gaelle Josse, although a work of historical fiction, described accurately aspects of the journey and arrival at a new land as experienced by many of our forebearers. An informative, enjoyable read.

Thank you World Editions and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A strangely compelling read. I say strangely compelling because I didn't really like or connect to the main character, I'd say I disliked him and consider him to be a rapist - though the author goes to quite some lengths to convey his regret which left my feeling uneasy. The story also really seemed to lack depth and didn't explore the lives of the immigrants coming to Ellis Island at all, which is what had originally peaked my interest in the title

But, for all that, I did find myself unable to put it down - maybe because I was racing through hoping for a plot to emerge.

November 1954. Ellis Island is officially closing. John Mitchell, Commissioner of Inspectors, has lived here for so long he fears having to leave. During the last days of his tenure his memories of co-workers and immigrants seep through. He recalls fondly his beloved wife who died young from typhus, buried on this island. He also recalls a rather disturbing brief encounter with a deeply troubled Italian woman and her disabled brother. John views this island as a ship; he is the pilot steering his passengers and often deciding their fates. Gaelle Joss’ voice, though melancholic, is haunting; the translation does her justice. This is a novel about love and human behavior. Its message is enduring.

Only 96 pages, but so powerful!

As the book opens, the Bureau of Immigrations Commissioner, John Mitchell, is preparing for the closure of the immigration inspection office on Ellis Island. In his solitude, he reflects on the 45 years he has worked there. Feeling a need to rid himself of the past, he begins writing a diary. He has nine days to exorcise the ghosts of the island’s many temporary inhabitants that haunt him. The author writes: “I am the captain of a phantom ship that has been abandoned to its ghosts.”

Through the author’s elegant writing, I could sense the emotions Miller experienced each time a new group of immigrants disembarked. “I was always moved at the thought of all these people who had risked their lives on board for a fate as yet unknown.” Miller bared his soul, revealing the struggle he went through the two times he let his personal interests override the rules of his position. “There was too much love, too much pain on those pages.”

This book makes me want to return to Ellis Island and see it this time through the eyes of John Miller. I think the author stated it beautifully in saying the Museum of Immigration now “guards the memory of all those exiles”.

I received this book from the publisher with no expectation of a positive review.

Gaëlle Josse’s The Last Days of Ellis Island consists of a series of journal entries written by the outgoing Ellis Island Station Commissioner, the last person left on the island as the immigration center prepares to permanently close in late 1954. Alone in his office after 45 years in which he rarely left the island, John Mitchell is haunted by ghosts from his past: his wife who died on the island after only a few years of marriage, a young Sardinian woman in need of help but who left him feeling guilty for thirty years, and a handful of others, including immigrants and co-workers. One by one, the Commissioner brings them to life through his writing—part memoir, part confession, always heartfelt and sometimes heartbreaking.

Seeing himself as “the last guardian and the last prisoner” of Ellis Island, Commissioner Mitchell feels compelled to spend his last nine days writing his story—a story that for several decades has been largely Ellis Island’s story; yet he will leave most to the historians, instead focusing on a few events personal to him. “I have no children no parents, no family. Nothing but memories, deeply troubling ones,” he confesses; “They are so disturbing its as if all the ghosts in my life awakened as soon as they realized I was leaving, and they will only find peace again once their stories have been told.”

Beginning at 10:00 a.m. on November 3, 1954, and ending shortly after 4:00 p.m. on November 11, John Mitchell records their stories. In so doing, he provides insight into the Ellis Island immigrant experience—to the opening or closing of doors—and, simultaneously, he bares his soul.

Author Gaëlle Josse visited Ellis Island in 2012 and returned to France to let her experience act upon her and to write her unforgettable novel. From the nation that gave us the Statue of Liberty, an idealistic symbol of hopes, dreams, opportunity, and open arms, she now gifts us with her insightful, emotional, and convincing portrait of a well-meaning but all-too-human Ellis Island Commissioner—a man haunted by his decisions.

My thanks to NetGalley, World Books, and Gaëlle Josse for the Advance Reader Copy.

A quirky short read, this book was entertaining in the aspect it told stories about early New York and Ellis Island. Tom was an agent of Ellis Island and tells the story in diary form. Stories of immigrants passing through, how Ellis Island was basically a village upon itself. This is a story of responsibility, love, compassion, and remorse.

I have read several books about Ellis Island and was so looking forward to this one. I want to start with this, the author has a beautiful writing style. With the understanding this is a historical fiction, the story had the makings of being an awesome depiction of Ellis Island’s history. And most of the book is very good, we learned how the immigrants felt and emotions they experienced when they arrived and the story of the caretaker was excellent until he went off track with his obsession with Nella.
I particularly loved the first part when John was recounting his first years and his life with Liz. This is a short quick read, and it is certainly worth 4 stars for the story John tells. I just wish we would have learned more about some of the other immigrants that came through those doors. Otherwise this is a really good story.
I want to thank World Editions and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this book for my honest unbiased opinion. This is a 4-star review. Highly recommend.

I enjoyed this book. It was a quick read and, although I could tell it is a translated novel, the language wasn't an issue. I enjoyed the history of the island, of NYC at that time, and of the narrator. It gave a different viewpoint to the more usual stories told from the perspective of immigrants arriving at Ellis Island.

In the last few weeks, before Ellis Island closed for good, John Mitchell is the only remaining resident. The gatekeeper, the one in charge of the island, it is his job to put the papers in order, transfer supplies back to the government, then leave forever. He sits down, instead to write a journal of his days at Ellis Island, beginning as a young man just arrived as an assistant type worker till the present, covering his marriage, his coworkers, and his thoughts on one immigrant he can't forget.

Told in epistolary style, the journal entries convey Mitchell's story, in order to leave behind a record of his days at the island. The novel itself is shorter than I expected, and a few odd turns of phrase are likely due to the translation. It does feel well researched and made for a quick historical fiction read.

The concept of this book fascinated me. But the book didn’t work for me. For starters, the language felt very stilted. It’s been translated from the French it was written in, so I’m not sure if it’s an issue with the original or the translation.
A well done historical fiction should transport you to the time and place. Despite my familiarity with Ellis Island, this did neither.
The book plods along. It’s written in journal form, so it’s more a series of vignettes than any linear history. I never felt a connection with John, especially when he would have the reader believe that his rape of a Sicilian woman was okay because he “loved” her. A few of the characters were mildly interesting, especially August Sherman, a real life photographer that worked on Ellis Island and Gyorgy Kovacs, a supposed communist who was turned away.
My thanks to netgalley and World Editions for an advance copy of this book.

This was one of those books I was expecting to love and yet didn’t. The writing was quite flat and there was a distance, a disconnect in the way the main character described his life on Ellis island. It was interesting to flesh out my knowledge of Ellis Island. I have visited it many years ago and so it was easy to visualise much of what was described. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

Maybe my problem was I was expecting a more uplifting story about Ellis Island. Instead Josse wrote about the realities of the immigration experience. Reading the story of John Mitchell, the last supervisor and resident of the island, was interesting and I was saddened to think how much I disliked him by the end of the book. The book failed to resonate with me, perhaps it is in the translation?