Tracy Chevalier - A Single Thread

Violet is 38.
The First World War took everything from her. Her brother, her fiancé – and her future. She is now considered a ‘surplus woman’.
But Violet is also fiercely independent and determined. Escaping her suffocating mother, she moves to Winchester to start a new life –a change that will require courage, resilience and acts of quiet rebellion. And when whispers of another world war surface, she must live with a secret that could change everything…

Comment: I got interested in this book some years ago, mostly because it had a blurb which made me think about a single woman facing obstacles but learning to have a satisfying life at a time women didn't have many options if they wanted to have a fulfilling life. It also helped that, like many others, I have liked reading Girl With a Pearl Earring, the author's most famous work. Then, I convinced my friend H. to buddy read it.

I figured this book might also be a compelling one and the idea of it certainly was. In this book we follow Violet, a 38 year old woman who after WWI is considered a "surplus woman", considering the difference ratio from women and men due to so many lives lost at war. Violet lost her brother and her fiance and her prospects never changed and now she works for a little independence. Her main act of rebellion was to move out of her mother's house so she can have her own life. She care for her mother of course, but she is a difficult woman to please and endure. However, Violet struggles and being independent means she has to go without some things. In an attempt to battle loneliness she attends a service at Winchester cathedral and learns about the "broderers", women who embroider in a specific style. As she decides to join them, she gets something to occupy her time but also a new set of friends and acquaintances, among which  bell ringer Arthur, a fascinating but married man. As her existence goes on as quietly as it has always been, will Violet find what she is looking for in life?

I confess I expected something a little more objective when I started the book. I thought the end game would have a more specific goal in mind but this novel is slow paced and it doesn't lead to any thrill seeking scenarios nor does it offer a cute romance or cozy finish for us to feel Violet's life had this big purpose or why she had to go through the problems she had.

I missed a more obvious plot centered story, that's a fact. It felt as if things were being said, Violet was doing this and that dealing with feelings, with what others did/caused around her and I thought, certainly there is a reason why this was included, how can this matter when we get to the climax of the story or for how it's going to end? After all, there didn't seem to exist an end game and this was truly only an episode on Violet's quiet life and how what she faced must have been what so many other women in the 1920s and 1930s lived through.

In terms of historical content, I can't say I fault what the author chose to include, and I did learn a lot about this time period, this specific situation between wars and how society still judges some social groups over situations out of their control. It was also interesting to learn other things, which I confess I never thought about, namely how specific are the sounds of bells, how they work, also the embroiders and why some patterns were chosen, how the specific type of embroider mentioned in the novel is different from others, and the most obvious detail which I didn't know anyway, Jane Austen is buried at Winchester cathedral. It made me want to google it and see images.

Violet is a fascinating woman, for certain. She has her own mind, she is strong and clever but she is still forced to certain behaviors because of society and her time. Looking at examples like these, especially in fiction books with a drama tone, one can wonder how those women who thought for themselves coped, pushed behind a set of rules which they could not escape if they wanted to maintain their reputations and the friendship/respect of their closest friends and family. Violet isn't the only example in this book of this subject and the author, again, left a lot of food for thought. I also think her personality isn't always showed in the best light. Her acts of rebellion, while understandable, made me think the goal was to present some of the most unfair aspects of women like her, and not a truly likable, if still fictional, heroine.

However, it felt as if Violet's path had no way to run. Her choice of friends, the options she makes to keep her sanity and self respect can be seen differently depending on the perspective, but the actual actions she does, the choices she makes while the story unfolds can seem too stagnated. At the same time, what could she do? But I imagined the plot would have a more specific purpose, that something more satisfying, more definitive would happen to Violet, something that would reveal to her a path she would be happy with. I suppose some readers would say this happened, that this was accomplished with a surprising twist at the very end, but I still feel there was some build of expectations and as if something else would happen and in the end, it didn't.

I think the overall effect of how this was written made me think the pace was a bit too slow most of the time. I don't mind this but I kind of would have liked seeing something different, something to make Violet feel she would be gaining so much more than she did. Her frame of mind never really improved, and if not romantically - which could be too convenient perhaps - at least I hoped her friendships with the other embroiders and the sense of community she gained would have touched her life in an even more decisive way. She found some happiness in life in the end, but at the still expense of some bitterness over things she could not change.

All in all, this was an OK read, instructive but I wanted something even more special out of the plot.

Grade: 6/10

Tracy Chevalier - Girl With a Pearl Earring

Girl With a Pearl Earring tells the story of Griet, a 16-year-old Dutch girl who becomes a maid in the house of the painter Johannes Vermeer. Her calm and perceptive manner not only helps her in her household duties, but also attracts the painter's attention. Though different in upbringing, education and social standing, they have a similar way of looking at things. Vermeer slowly draws her into the world of his paintings - the still, luminous images of solitary women in domestic settings.
In contrast to her work in her master's studio, Griet must carve a place for herself in a chaotic Catholic household run by Vermeer's volatile wife Catharina, his shrewd mother-in-law Maria Thins, and their fiercely loyal maid Tanneke. Six children (and counting) fill out the household, dominated by six-year-old Cornelia, a mischievous girl who sees more than she should.
On the verge of womanhood, Griet also contends with the growing attentions both from a local butcher and from Vermeer's patron, the wealthy van Ruijven. And she has to find her way through this new and strange life outside the loving Protestant family she grew up in, now fragmented by accident and death.
As Griet becomes part of her master's work, their growing intimacy spreads disruption and jealousy within the ordered household and even - as the scandal seeps out - ripples in the world beyond.

Comment: I've decided to read this book for one of my (two) book clubs. I have to confess I wasn't very excited with it, but I haven't seen the movie and I have the book - I got it as part of a collection I've done by buying a newspaper and there was a promotion selling it with several books priced much cheaper than a normal edition - and when I saw how small it was I got more relaxed because at least if I dind't like it, I didn't have to suffer long.

The book is an attempt by the author to give life to the painting by the artist Vermeer. According to the author, there is no story behind the portrait or any historical note about the girl in the painting. Apparently no one knows who she was, who she represented, where the painter found her or what she meant to him. The author has written a story of her free will, completely fictional. She knew when the painter did the portrait and she used that time of his life and the knowledge about his personal life to imagine a servant living in his house, working for his family, to be the muse used in the painting.

The fictional story starts when Griet, a young girl, is asked to work in the painter Vermeer's house. In there she has to do the chores and deals with Vermeer's wife, mother in law, daughters and other servants. She also has to deal with Van Ruijven, Vermeer's patron and sort of boss. He's a man who takes what he wants and finds in Griet someone unexpected. Grit also feels attracted to Vermeer but he's married and their relationship never crosses any boundaries. 

I think the best thing about the book is the small details the author inserted about the life in Netherlands in the 17th century. So many little things, apparently unimportant, but that give life to the story. Like Griet is protestant and Vermeer's family is catholic and Griet doesn't have the same adoration for the images of religious scenes like most catholics do, or how a girl in those days had to follow a certain conduct and foe Griet having her hair bound and hidden was a matter of self respect and duty, or even how people would react to sickness in those times, all very well mixed with the fiction and giving the author a very god sense of the things behind the plot.

The book is indeed small, but it's richly descriptive, without being boring or heavy because of that. I liked Griet and her quietness. I found disturbing her growing attraction to her boss and knowing nothing would come out of it, but the situation she put herself in because of his art and how it threatened her position were things I dreaded seeing but nevertheless I wanted to know how it ended.

Griet had to deal with many characters while living in Vermeer's house. It was fascinating how she had to learn how to dodge some and to mold her behavior to others. Very interesting and gave a more alive feeling to the story, mostly in her dealings with the ladies of power in the house. Also, this story was a very interesting way of knowing more about the life of someone poor in the house of influent people in those times.

This was a true historical fiction tale and I was actually positively surprised by it. It took me only one day to read it too. The end of the book was rather surprising but not totally unexpected.

I think the author has done a good job trying to present a story behind the famous painting and despite the fact it might not be true - most likely it isn't - it doesn't make the book any less well researched and interesting. 

Some people in the book club for which I've read the book don't agree and say the story was uninteresting because nothing happens, it's just the description of Griet's life there. But I think the beauty of this book is exactly in the things we infer and in the small details that apparently don't matter. I recommend it.