Play Book Tag discussion

A Single Thread – Tracy Chevalier
Book on CD narrated by Fenella Woolgar
3***

From the book jacket: 1932. Since the Great War took both her brother and her fiancé, Violet Speedwell has become a “surplus woman,” one of a generation destined to remain unmarried after the war killed so many young men. Yet Violet cannot reconcile herself to a future spent caring for her grieving mother. Setting out for Winchester she finds both a job and a room of her own in a boardinghouse. Violet also falls in with the broderers, a group of women charged with embroidering cushions and kneelers for the grand Winchester Cathedral. She finds friendship in her new circle, fulfillment in the work they create, and love.

My reactions
This is a selection for my F2F book club. I have read and greatly enjoyed other works by Chevalier, so was looking forward to it. But I come away a little disappointed.

I suppose if I had read the jacket blurb I’d have known there would be a romance and my expectations would have been different. But I really wanted to know more about the cathedral, its history, and the work of the broderers.

Chevalier managed to include issues of the era’s expectations (or lack thereof) of women, and a lesbian couple’s struggles to find acceptance. She also includes the beginnings of the Nazi party with Hitler’s rise to power and hints at what is coming.

I really liked Violet, and several of the women she came to know and befriend. Her landlady was a peach, and Miss Pesel was a treasure. I thought she treated Violet’s relationship with Arthur fairly, and realistically. But I wish the author had left out the romance.

Fenella Woolgar does a marvelous job narrating the audiobook. There are many women characters and she managed to give them sufficiently unique voices so I was never confused about who was speaking.




LINK to my review