Susan Meissner - A Fall of Marigolds

September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries…and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she’s made. Will what she learns devastate her or free her?
September 2011. On Manhattan’s Upper West Side, widow Taryn Michaels has convinced herself that she is living fully, working in a charming specialty fabric store and raising her daughter alone. Then a long-lost photograph appears in a national magazine, and she is forced to relive the terrible day her husband died in the collapse of the World Trade Towers…the same day a stranger reached out and saved her. Will a chance reconnection and a century-old scarf open Taryn’s eyes to the larger forces at work in her life?

Comment: Four years ago, I had read another book by this author which wasn't as great as I had hoped for, but I wondered if it had been a bad first pick. Now, I've finally decided to give another go at her writing and started this one, but I've finished with similar thoughts.

It's 1911 and emigrants arrive daily at Ellis Island. Clara Wood is a nurse there and it is her job to help with the process of them, for many might arrive ill or had been in ships where others had been ill. Clara loves her job and she feels she is being useful, especially because she is still mourning the what if after the death of a man she was sweet on and whom she believed felt the same way towards her. Things start to change when a new batch of patients arrive, in particular Andrew Gwynn, a Welsh man whose wife died on the ship. While trying to help him recovering something from his trunk, she becomes aware of a secret his wife kept from him, but should she tell him about it?

In 2011 widow Taryn still feels the loss of her husband but a recent picture in the newspaper brings attention to her and to what really happened in the day he died...

I chose this book to read rather randomly, and mostly due to the cover, for it suited a topic in a challenge I'm doing. I had read another book by the author which had been praised by many readers but that to me wasn't as marvelous. I hoped a different book might impress me more, but it really seems that the author's style doesn't change from book to book, independently of the story being told.

Comparing the two books now, I can say the writing style is concise and fluid but without matching emotional punch. Things are well written, the characters say and think things that are meant to be emotionally strong but I didn't really feel it. I will say what I said about the other book too, that the author doesn't rick enough in her writing to accentuate passion and intensity in what is happening. Everything ends up being quite bland and one could see how it might be more.

This book follows two narratives, which are connected through a scarf with marigolds, a belonging of Lily, Andrew's wife, and which Taryn in 2011 recovers. The point of the story is for us to see exactly how the scarf went from one place in 1911 to another in 2011. The whole plot and the main connections between the two narratives seemed good enough for me.

My favorite part was the historical one, focused on Clara,which clearly is what the author felt like too, since this is the part that takes longer to be developed. I liked Clara and her sense of duty in the island, doing her part to help these people who come for their dream. I admit I was quite taken by her story and her attempt to help Andrew and what that meant for her interactions with those who worked with her. It was also interesting to see the personal weight the death of her sweetheart had on her, to the point it felt she could not leave the island on her own,such was the trauma.

All the elements connected to Clara and what she does as the new situations pile up felt interesting and did motivate me to keep reading, but I must say that the end was a little convoluted and things didn't exactly go the way I imagined. I don't dislike the end, but,again, I think the author could have been more daring instead of just doing what was easier.

The connection to the contemporary 2011 narrative wasn't that much of a deal, it turns out, and I think this section with Taryn was actually unnecessary. Nothing really important happens in this section to validate/reinforce what we learned in the past and regarding the importance of the scarf. I mean... sadly, I think this 2011 section was only convenient to highlight one more sad event about Taryn and how she lost her husband.

All things considered, this was a good story but didn't go beyond that and it totally could have. Perhaps I'll read more by the author but now my expectations are going to be more specific.

Grade: 6/10