4 Stars
This historical novel is set between June of 1950 and November of 1954 in Washington D.C.
Briarwood House is an all-female boarding house. With the arrival of the mysterious Grace March, the place comes alive. She starts holding weekly dinner parties in her attic room. The seven boarders and various acquaintances form a family of sorts, but a shocking act of violence threatens to tear them apart.
Chapters focus on the female boarders: Nora, a policeman’s daughter whose romantic relationship threatens her dreams; Fliss, an English woman raising a child alone and struggling with post-partum depression; Bea, a frustrated female baseball player; Reka, an embittered refugee from Hitler’s Germany; Claire, a young woman who has a secret lover and dreams of owning her own home; Arlene, an unquestioning supporter of McCarthyism; and Grace, who listens to, encourages, and assists everyone but reveals nothing about herself.
Though there are several characters, it is not difficult to differentiate among them. Their backstories, which are very different, explain their motivations and behaviours in the present so the readers’ initial impressions may change. The chapters devoted to individual characters reveal their secrets, struggles and dreams. Each emerges as a complex character with both strengths and flaws. In each chapter, we also see Grace’s influence and consequently how each woman attains some self-knowledge and achieves some personal growth.
Between the character chapters, there are some interludes from Thanksgiving of 1954 which include the perspective of Briarwood House itself. There’s been a murder, but the reader does not know the identity of either the victim or the murderer. Obviously there’s a lot of suspense here. As each character is developed, the reader is left to speculate why someone might kill her or why she might kill someone.
There are some male characters including Pete Nilsson, the teenaged son of the selfish and domineering landlady, a mobster, an FBI agent, and a Black jazz musician. Most of these are developed to some extent, but it is definitely men who are the main villains. And that includes Senator Joe McCarthy who fueled fears of widespread Communist subversion.
It is obvious that the author did a lot of historical research into the political and social climate of the 1950s. The book addresses a number of issues of the time: McCarthyism, the Korean War, the women’s professional baseball league, organized crime, police corruption, domestic abuse, contraception, classism, racism, sexism, poverty, and sexuality. The historical notes at the end of the book clearly explain how the author incorporated historical facts into each woman’s story.
Though the novel examines many serious subjects, there are some lighter touches. For instance, recipes for the dishes that the women contribute to the dinner parties are included. Each ends with an apt, tongue-in-cheek comment about when to consume it. The music references add local colour: “eat when hungover or when life is in danger of spectacularly imploding in all directions, while listening to ‘Wanted’ by Perry Como.” There actually was a fruit salad called a Candle Salad?!
My one objection to the novel is its pro-American tone. Yes, there are attempts to show that the U.S. is not a perfect country: “Lady Liberty had taken her in, after all – and many others – and Reka would never lose the bone-deep thrum of thankfulness for that. She just wished that so many of the huddled masses this country took in hadn’t found themselves treated like a resource: stripped of what little they’d brought with them so it could be given to someone else, someone better off.” But the overall message is that the United States is better than the rest of the world. As a Canadian, I find this pro-America rhetoric in so many American books and films annoying at the best of times, but in these days of MAGA, that message is distasteful.
This historical novel will appeal to readers who are interested in women’s perspectives on events and issues of the 1950s. The events of Thanksgiving 1954 and its aftermath may require some suspension of disbelief, but the book has been carefully researched and provides an entertaining read.
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