"The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it." (James Bryce)

Monday, July 16, 2018

A FALL OF MARIGOLDS (Susan Meissner)

I would call this a pleasant book, sad but ending on a note of hope.  The story features 2 women, Clara Wood and Taryn Michaels, living 100 years apart in New York City.  Nurse Clara Wood has suffered the loss of the man she felt she was destined to love.  He died before her eyes in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in 1911 and she has focused her attention since on nursing immigrants at Ellis Island.  In fact, she hasn't left the island in the months since she made the decision to work there out of guilt.  Edward would not have died if he hadn't planned to show her the 9th floor of the Triangle company  on the day of the fire.  She is moved by patient Andrew Gwinn, an immigrant tailor from Wales whose wife, Lily, died of scarlet fever on his ocean journey.  Lily was the owner of the scarf that figures prominently in the stories of both women, and Clara feels a strong sense of empathy for Andrew since she also suffers from grief over lost love.  When Andrew asks her to fetch a pattern book from his trunk, she accidentally comes across some devastating information about Andrew's marriage and struggles with whether to share it with him or destroy the evidence.

Taryn is a fabric expert living and working an New York, where she lost her husband on 9/11.  She witnessed the fall of the twin towers and she also feels great guilt over her husband's death.  She had discovered that she was pregnant and asked him to meet her at the restaurant at the top of the North Tower to share the happy news, but she was late due to an errand, picking up an antique scarf from a client.  If she hadn't asked Kent to meet her he may have survived, and if she had been on time they both would have died.  Now, in2011, their daughter, Kendal, is almost 10 years old and asking questions about her father's life and death.

I didn't love this novel, but I didn't hate it.  I think, for me, it was a little bit too emotional.  I did like the ending, though, which made the whole thing worthwhile.

No comments:

Post a Comment