A Fall of Marigolds

I really enjoyed this book. There were many themes in it that I will be pondering for some time: an ‘in between place' that we retreat to when dealing with tragedy and how you can get stuck there; objects that have a history and story to tell - do we pay enough attention to that story?; across centuries some human stories repeat themselves, although we sometimes feel like what we experience has never been experienced before.
I look forward to my book group discussion about this one!

A Fall of Marigolds I gave 3 1/2 stars to. It was about Clara in 1911 who lost someone she cared about in a Shirtwaist fire and then goes to work as a nurse on Ellis Island. There she meets Andrew who's new wife Lily has died from Scarlet Fever as they were on a ship from Europe to America. She helps Andrew to get better and in the process brings him a scarf that had belonged to his wife Lily.

Then in 2011 we meet Taryn who lost her husband during 911 when she was getting ready to tell him that he was going to be a father. She had the scarf on her at the time and it's the story of this scarf of marigolds and how it connects these two stories and the women who had it.

This was selected for book club, and since I'm not going to make it to the meeting, here is my tangle of thoughts.

1.
This book was WAY better than the cover would have led me to believe (to me, the cover is very boring). It's about tragedy and guilt in New York, and both story lines effectively and beautifully covered that subject.

2.
That said, there were only like four chapters from Taryn's perspective in 2011, as a survivor of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and it seemed like the author was way more interested in exploring Clara's story in 1911, post-Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in Manhattan.

3.
I didn't know about the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire before this book. Learning!

4.
Taryn's story was also really good, and I wanted more. If I couldn't have more, I'd rather this book not include her part at all. I didn't need to know how the scarf had gotten from Clara in 1911 to Taryn's customer in 2001. The scarf felt important in Clara's story, and it felt more like a device for talking about the parallel tragedy in Taryn's, and I wasn't crazy about that. Taryn's story is/was important with or without the scarf.

5.
There's so much feeling in Clara's story. Her life on Ellis Island would have been a great book on its own, with Mr. Gwynn and his dead wife storyline, and Dr. Randall sticking his nose into Clara's business (sometimes I wanted to tell him to back off, buddy). But I also loved the Taryn portions. I don't know what I want. I wanted Taryn to get a fair portion of story, but also this is the part of the history that I lived through and know and I wanted to read about it still.

6.
Is it possible for this to be a perfect book and also for me to be insanely frustrated that it wasn't some inexplicable thing I was expecting it to be? “Ode to a Grecian Urn” is fitting, I guess.

7.
I was glad there was conversation about how quickly you can fall in love with someone and grieve that person even if you didn't know them well, but also sometimes I wanted to shake Clara and say “girlllll, just because someone expresses interest in you doesn't mean you have to go falling in love with every one of ‘em.”

8.
There are absolutely no loose ends at the end of either storyline. You may love that or hate it. I didn't need everything to wrap up quite so neatly. I was okay with Clara going to Scotland and not finding out if she ever made it back to Ethan. I was okay with Taryn never knowing whether her husband had known about Kendal. And those are just two of many things that I didn't feel needed to be spelled out explicitly. Life doesn't always wrap up neatly, and that's okay.

9.
So. In short (long), I loved the book (5 stars) and I also have lukewarm feelings about things in it (3 stars), so I'mma average it out and call it 4.