![]() And while what she finds isn’t what she anticipated, she is liberated in a way she could not have imagined. Ultimately, the five weeks they spend together will transform their lives forever.įor Cora, the city holds the promise of discovery that might answer the question at the core of her being, and even as she does her best to watch over Louise in this strange and bustling place she embarks on a mission of her own. ![]() Young Louise, already stunningly beautiful and sporting her famous black bob with blunt bangs, is known for her arrogance and her lack of respect for convention. Cora Carlisle, a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip, has no idea what she’s in for. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old chaperone, who is neither mother nor friend. Only a few years before becoming a famous silent-film star and an icon of her generation, a fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita, Kansas, to study with the prestigious Denishawn School of Dancing in New York. The Chaperone is a captivating novel about the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922 and the summer that would change them both. Here I was going to write out my own version of the plot outline, but, really, life’s too short. Right from the very first scene, where our protagonist Cora Carlisle appears engaged in one of her civic-improvement projects – this particular one is collecting children’s book donations for the local library – the scene is being set up all around her, figurative stage hands pointing at clues and the authorial chorus monologuing away so we don’t miss a thing. I quite liked this book – I really did – but the whole time I was reading I had that “you are being educated” feeling which is dreadfully difficult for the writer of historical fiction to completely avoid. ![]() And there are always those slightly bothersome seeds… Sweet and refreshing and welcome while it’s being consumed, but once it’s down to the rind you realize it doesn’t really count as food. To continue with the food analogy, I was going to compare this one to a box of chocolates, or a big slice of layer cake, but mulling it over just a mite more, I’ve settled on watermelon for my comparison. The Chaperone was all over the bestseller lists earlier this year, but seems to have faded quickly as readers seeking the latest literary thrill gobbled it up, found nothing worth spending much time digesting, and inexorably moved on. A decently well-written addition to the “women’s fiction” shelf, which, if it feels like damning with faint praise, is how I’m feeling about this one right now. The several key sex scenes are safely veiled in allusion. I’d expected something a bit more graphic, from all the hype. You know, the only real surprise I found here was how mild it was.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |