The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier

The compelling story of two women, born four centuries apart, and the ancestral legacy that binds them. Ella Turner does her best to fit in to the small, close-knit community of Lisle-sur-Tarn. She even changes her name back to Tournier, and learns French. In vain. Isolated and lonely, she is drawn to investigate her Tournier ancestry, which leads to her encounter with the town's wolfish librarian. Isabelle du Moulin, known as Le Rousse due to her fiery red hair, is tormented and shunned in the village -- suspected of witchcraft and reviled for her association with the Virgin Mary. Falling pregnant, she is forced to marry into the ruling family: the Tourniers. Tormentor becomes husband, and a shocking fate awaits her. Plagued by the color blue, Ella is haunted by parallels with the past, and by her recurring dream. Then one morning she wakes up to discover that her hair is turning inexplicably red...

Dear Dewey,

Well, it is that time again. I read a book that you read, so I am counting it as one of the reads for the challenge held in your honour. After reading The Road, and getting rather depressed by it all, I tried to find something a little more cheerful. While there are a lot more cheerful moments in this book, though, it is still a rather depressing book. I have to say, if the book cover you used for the review is the one you read, I like your cover so much better than mine! Mine has the same woman on the front, but the top and bottom of her are cut off in order to include the title and the author. Mine is a second-hand copy, though, likely bought with credit, so I guess I shouldn't complain!

I also read Girl With a Pearl Earring and didn't like it as much as this book. I know that people loved it, so I am glad you are with me on it just being okay. I like her writing enough to keep buying her books, though, but I generally wait until I find them at the second hand store. I was interested in reading this book because of the tracing of her family tree and tracking down her ancestors. That is a subject that I have always been interested in, so I enjoy reading books about others trying to figure out where they came from. You said that you liked two things the best about the book: "the French history and Ella’s story". I agree with you there. I don't know a lot about French history, but my family is from France, so I really should study it more. I also really liked learning about Ella and watching her character develop.

There are two main characters to this book because the chapters switch back and forth. One chapter is about Ella, living in the modern time, and the other chapter would be about Isabella, who turns out to be one of Ella's ancestors. Near the end, the two stories become intertwined, though, and I found myself really enjoying that. I do enjoy that we seemed to be of the same mind about this book. What Isabella went through in the past was depressing. I didn't do a very good job finding a more cheery book! As her story progressed I couldn't believe what she went through! You thought the same. I hope that most people would think the same... I won't say anymore. People will just have to read it to see what we are talking about!

Once again it was great to read a book with you!

Until next time!

P.S. I didn't know this was her first book and first came out 11 years ago! I guess I am reading rather out of order!

Falling Angels - Tracy Chevalier [June/06]

I just recently read Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, and then this novel, the second one she wrote, won book of the month for the Historical Fiction forums that I belong to. It is only for next month, July, but since I am a little slow in reading this months, I decided to be early with next. While Girl with a Pearl Earring was about a painters life, this novel looks at a family.

From the back of the book:

Tracy Chevalier, bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring, again dazzles us with an elegant and daring novel. Told through a variety of shifting perspectives - wives and husbands, friends and lovers, masters and servants, and a gravedigger's son -Falling Angels follows the fortunes of two families in the emerging years of the twentieth century, Chevalier's second novel is a superb follow-up to the bookThe New York Times called "marvelously evocative" and The Wall Street Journal deemed "triumphant."

This novel opens on the new year, 1901 to be exact. Kitty Coleman has woken up in bed by another man, her husband was trying to get her to let him back in her bed, and this is how he chose to attempt it, by swinging every New Year's until she comes back. This is the year that Queen Victoria has died, and the scene where the Coleman family goes to the graveyard is when the novel truly begins. Their 5-year-old daughter, Maude, meets Lavinia Waterhouse, the family that has the grave next to their's, and decides that she is going to be her best friend. It is two years, though, before their paths cross again, when the Waterhouse's move in next door to the Coleman's.

The families don't get along like normal neighbours tend to. Kitty does not like Gertrude Waterhouse, and Gertrude is jealous of the fact that the Coleman's have a bigger house. The husbands try and get along, it was actually the Coleman husband that told the Waterhouse husband about the new house in the first place. It is really the daughters that are the connecting forces to that house, spending their childhood together and growing into their teen years with one another.

Another character in the novel is Simon Field, a grave-diggers son. He meets Maude and Lavinia on the day that they come to the graveyard on the day that the queen has died. He makes appearances from then on, telling the story from his own eyes of these two family that by the end of the novel will face great tragedies, the both of them. The Coleman's servants also take up the story from time to time, so you can see the story from their eyes. Even Grandmother Coleman has her two cents in the novel from time to time.

It is really a novel about coming of age in a new century. Kitty becomes involved in the suffrage movement, Lavinia and Maude trying and make their differing personalities into an appropriate lifestyle, and the other characters get carried along with the action. There is also Ivy May Waterhouse, Lavinia's younger sister. She does not say much, but she is to become an important character to these two families and we help decide how they live out their future. Her quiet presence ends up making a big noise near the end of the book.

This novel does a wonderful job of showing the interaction of family members, friends, and servants, but at the same time captures what life is like in early 20th-century England. A great family novel and historical novel.

4.5/5

Girl with a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier [May/06]

This is one of those historical fiction novels that many people have read and loved, so I felt that it was about time that I took the time to read it. I own two other Chevalier novels, Falling Angels and The Lady and the Unicorn, but this is the one I decided to read first. It seemed only fitting after reading Susan Vreeland's novel earlier this month, as both novels follow a painting by Vermeer. Not the same painting, of course, but the same artist.

Taking place in the 1660's, Griet's father has lost the use of his eyes in an explosion and has been unable to work since. With no money coming in, the family is forced to look for employment for their oldest daughter. This comes in the shape of as a housekeeper for the painter Vermeer and his family. Very strict about how his workshop is kept, they are looking for a woman that can make the room look like it wasn't touched. Griet is used to that living with her father, because since he is blind she is always leaving things in certain places so he can easily locate them.

With this job comes a whole new life for the young woman. She is treated harshly by many of the family members, and has to learn to defend herself to keep her position at the house. Vermeer likes her, though. He has little to say to her at first, but in one brave moment she adjusts a prop set up for one of his paintings, an adjustment that he agrees with. Suddenly Griet is helping him create his paint, sitting in for patrons that are not available on particular days, and gaining the respect of a world-class painter. She also catches the eye of one of Vermeer's seductress patrons and before she knows it, she is being painted.

The oppurtunity could be a glamorous one, but Griet has a good head on her shoulders. When Vermeer tries to make her look like something she is not, she refuses and demands that housekeepers do not wear fancy clothes and strike fancy poses. As a result, he paints a simple woman, with the only added adornment a pair of pearl earrings. Earrings that lead to the hatred of the family getting to her, and ultimately causing her to leave her position and get married instead. But, for a time, she was considered Vermeer's muse. He did not paint a lot of paintings, but with her help he was painting quicker and created a world class piece of art. Even if he was one of those artists only really appreciated after he was dead.

I liked this novel. It was not a complicated read, but it was interesting to see the 1660's through the eyes of a housekeeper in the employment of Vermeer. It also takes place in Holland, a place that is not touched as much by novels, so you get to experience what life was like in this time and place. I think that Chevalier is a worth-while author to get interested in, and look forward to reading the other two novels I have by her.

4.5/5