The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier

Through unexpected -though welcomed- intermittent bursts of rain showers we drove to converge upon Diana's home for our July book club meeting.  Her brunch presentation delighted us all with Eggs Benedict, sweet fruit and melt-in-your-mouth blueberry scones.

Synopsis:
Honor Bright rashly decides to join her sister in emigrating from her home in England to the United States of America in the mid-1800's.  Honor's journey is no smooth sailing as she endures severe seasickness, the death of her sister, and the many disappointments of living in a country which is still a bit rough and so unlike her genteel home and church family back in England.  When Honor's new family forbids her to assist any of the runaway slaves which pass through their woods, Honor will have to find her voice and take a stand for what she feels is true to her Quaker beliefs.

Comments:
As we discovered in reading this story, the slaves were not the only runaways. Honor was running away from the heartache and shame of a broken engagement back in England.  Her passive-aggressive traits and constant derogatory comparison of America to England were irritating at times.  A flawed heroine at best, Honor did find the courage to do the right thing despite the risks.  We appreciated her desire to follow what she had been taught as a child: "...everyone has a measure of the Light in them, and though the amount can vary, all must try to live up to their measure." (p.63 Nook)  Honor is in conflict with her husband's family regarding their refusal to help the runaway slaves.  She judged them rather harshly without knowing their past experiences with this issue:  "When an abstract principle became entangled in daily life, it lost its clarity and became compromised and weakened." (p.193 Nook)  However, we found that we could not say without a doubt that we would not have behaved in the same manner as her in-laws had we been in their shoes.  Until our moral convictions and principles have been tested in the toughest of times with our family's lives at stake, how could any of us say for certain which path we would choose?

The truer heroines were Belle Mills and Mrs. Reed.  These two women worked in the Underground Railroad with a much greater risk to their lives than Honor.  Belle's response to the question of why some folks chose to change their thinking regarding slavery and some did not is applicable to the prejudice we still battle today: "I think deep down, most southerners have always known slavery ain't right, but they build up layers of ideas to justify what they were doin'.  Those layers just solidified over the years.  Hard to break out of that thinking, to find the guts to say, 'This is wrong.'" (p.222 Nook) The author did an excellent job of describing the character and home of Mrs. Reed.  As noted on page 193 (Nook), "...the flowers she wore in her hat; the stew so full of onions and chilies; the improvised quilt she had made.  These daily details were the things that fleshed out a person." We agreed that we could see Cicely Tyson playing that role were the book to be made into a movie.

There was a lot of discussion in the book about quilts and we found the comparisons of quilting in America versus quilting in England quite interesting and telling.  The English quilts during that time period were more  time consuming and detailed in patterns while their American counterparts were done more quickly and made use of colorful appliques.  At that time the Americans were busy carving out a nation through the sweat of toil and did not have as much time or energy to spend working on a quilt.  And as Ellen noted, the applique was bright and cheery which the pioneering Americans would have appreciated in a rough and unrefined setting such as a log cabin.  We were surprised at the marriage tradition of having a dozen quilts ready for marriage and a thirteenth made at the community frolic.  Honoring the theme of handmade items, Brenda used her time and skills during our meeting to complete a knitted dishcloth to add to her selection.  She then offered each of us our choice of dishcloth and I chose the green one.

Thank you, Brenda -- I'll think of you every time I scrub a dish or wipe down those dirty countertops! :)

Memorable Quote:
Honor made this observation after an encounter with a runaway slave on her husband's land:  "He has become so used to the journey, she thought, that he has forgotten about the destination." (p.151 Nook)  In our own lives there are long periods of time where the journey can become so consuming of our energies that we fail to focus on the end goal and perhaps lose our hope, joy, and direction in reaching that final destination.

FAB Rating: ***1/2 (3-1/2 out of 5 stars)
Although a good story, it was impossible not to compare this book to Ms. Chevalier's previous novel "Girl with a Pearl Earring" which everyone agreed was much a better piece of literary work.  This book was slow at times with too much time dwelt on discussing quilts, hat making, and a rehashing of the previous chapter's events written as letters being sent back to England.  We felt there was more depth to be explored had the author followed the story of one of the runaway slaves as an additional storyline interwoven into Honor's events.

The Painted Girls: A Novel by Cathy Marie Buchanan

We met at JoAnn's house to take advantage of her crystal blue pool.  Brenda provided a delicious meal of chicken salad, a new type of hummus for us to sample, and her yummy apple-cinnamon sandwiches.  The weather was perfect for eating outdoors and floating in the pool while discussing our June book.

Synopsis:
Sisters Marie and Antoinette van Goethem live in desperate poverty in Paris, France, in the late 1800s.  Their father is deceased and their mother's meager laundress wages go towards her addiction to absinthe.  Both girls will find themselves working in the ballet opera house, along with their youngest sister, Charlotte.  Antoinette and Marie alternate narrating this story sharing their struggles, sacrifices, and forced journey from childhood to adult responsibilities while still in their teenage years.

 
Degas' "Little Dancer of Fourteen Years"

Comments:
"It is about being downtrodden and staying that way.  Hard work makes no difference, he is saying.  My lot, the lots of those around me, were cast the moment we were born into the gutter to parents who never managed to step outside the gutter themselves." (page 96 - Kindle)  The van Goethem sisters are victims of their parents' station in life.  It was depressing and dark at times reading the struggles, injustices, and sadness experienced by the poorest of poor during this time period in France.  However, that true to life depiction is what made this story so compelling.  There were moments of triumph and joy for the sisters.  Marie finds her soul fed through dance: "Sometimes I wonder, though, if for the very best ballet girls, the trickery is not a little bit real, if a girl born into squalor cannot find true grace in the ballet." (p. 220 - Kindle)  However, as Marie and Antoinette will discover, their most marketable asset is that which makes them both powerful and vulnerable.  "I want to put my face in my hands, to howl, for me, for Antoinette, for all the women of Paris, for the burden of having what men desire, for the heaviness of knowing it is ours to give, that with our flesh we make our way in the world." (p. 250 - Kindle)

Marie models for Edgar Degas as a means of earning extra income.  Much of Degas's actual art work is centered on scenes from the Paris Opera where the sisters worked, but his most famous sculpture is the one which the author uses Marie as the model.  His paintings and sculptures were considered 'too realistic' at that time, and is the case with the majority of famous artists, his works were not appreciated and considered investment-worthy until after his demise.

The popularly accepted physiognomies studies during that time period were fascinating.  The idea that certain facial features hinted at a person's innate criminality played a role in judicial outcomes, art, and literature.

Memorable Quote:
"He touched me on the shoulder lightly, and in the touch I felt sadness that girls grow into women; that men crumple, hobbling over walking sticks; that flowers wither; that trees drop their leaves." (p. 250 - Kindle)

FAB Rating: ***** (5 out of 5 stars)
This story was the perfect mix of authentic historic events and figures with a believable storyline intertwined. The author's addition of headline news taken from that year were informative and added depth to the storyline.  Ultimately, this book was a reminder of the strength found in the bonds of sisterhood.  Each of the girls played their birth order role as expected with the tension, intimacy, and love found in the everyday relationships of sisters.  In the end, having one another is what saved Antoinette, Marie, and Charlotte.