This was not my favorite book by Kate Quinn, but I did like it for what it is. I guess I'm used to her writing about a specific time in history that includes historical people. This story takes place in the 1950s during McCarthyism, McCarthy's pursuit of communists living in America. The Red Scare. The main characters are women living in a boardinghouse (Briarwood House) in Washington DC and their various male friends. We are introduced to each of them, peripherally, at the beginning. Then each woman narrates a chapter and we really get to know them. I really liked this method of developing each character. People are often different than their persona. Digging deeper in each life gives the reader a new perspective on them as people, and we gain knowledge about their histories: why they act the way they do; what inner turmoil they might have experienced, or are currently experiencing; why they make the choices that they do. Briarwood House is also the narrator for some chapters. I guess you could consider it yet another perspective, but I kind of thought it was weird. It didn't add anything for me.
Grace March is the woman who brings everyone else in the house together. She is the personification of her name. She treats each person with grace, dignity and respect and she marches forward with all of her many plans. Great name for her! Grace has good insight into other people and always seems to know when someone needs help, support, or simply to talk. Nora falls in love with a gangster (who calls himself a "businessman", which she doesn't buy into). Nora is a strong woman and breaks off the relationship with Xavier even though she loves him because his actions go against her beliefs/morals. She comes from a family of crooked cops and has separated herself from them as well. Fliss is a young, beautiful woman married to a military man who is a doctor, who is in high demand during the Korean War. She is left to raise their young daughter alone, waiting for him to return from the war. This is why she is living in the boardinghouse. Reka is an older Jewish woman who escaped the Nazis during World War II. She was an artist whose prized possessions were stolen from her once she arrived in America. Bea was a professional baseball player in the All-American Girls League, but her career ended due to an injury. Claire is gay and in love with a woman. She had to try to keep this a secret of course since gay people were persecuted in America along with the suspected communists in the 1950s. (And long after of course.) And then there is Arlene, who I really couldn't stand. She was the type of woman who would report anything and everything if it allowed her to advance her career.
Anyway, each of these woman were silently suffering alone, until Grace March moved in. She changed all of their lives for the better. We don't get the scoop on Grace until the end of the book. One insight into Grace comes near the beginning, however. She is talking to Nora about Xavier and his profession and she says, "Violent men who are also smart and strong are not completely lost causes. They can learn different ways, if they choose. It's the weak ones who cause the most damage. Nothing wreaks havoc like a weak man - because they never learn, so they just go blithely on, leaving pain and wreckage behind them."
The historical part of this fiction comes from the characters being blends of real people in history.
Wendy's Rating: ****
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