A Fall Of Marigolds

by Susan Meissner

• ISBN10: 1628990112
• ISBN13: 9781628990119
• Publish Date: 1 May 2014
• Publish Status: Withdrawn
• Out of Print: 27 April 2017
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Center Point
• Edition: Large type / large print edition
• Format: Hardcover (Library Binding)
• Pages: 500
• Language: English

Reviews

[Heather]

1911

Clara Wood worked as a nurse in a doctor's office in a building that housed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory on the top floors.  She has a flirtation with a bookkeeper who works at Triangle.  After the fire happens, she doesn't want to return to the building.  She gets a job on Ellis Island.  She nurses the potential immigrants who are too sick to be admitted to New York.

When a man comes in whose wife died on route, Clara is drawn to him because of his grief. When she finds evidence that things weren't as her patient thougt in his marriage, she agonizes over what to do with this info while also working through how to move on in her own life.

2011

Taryn Michaels was on her way to meet her husband at the World Trade Center when the planes hit. Now just before the 10 year anniversary, a picture has surfaced of Taryn and a man on the street just as the first tower fell. Reminders of that day make her realize that she is still carrying a lot of guilt about her role in inviting her husband to go to the Windows on the World restaurant at the top of the Tower that day.

Clara and Taryn are linked by a scarf that Clara's patient's wife owned that eventually being worn by Taryn when her picture was taken on 9/11.

The story is told alternating between Clara and Taryn. I found Clara's story to be more interesting. I had read about the Triangle Shirtwaist fire but didn't realize that it was in a multistory building with other businesses underneath that were unaffected.







I also didn't know much about the treatment of sick immigrants in the hospital at Ellis Island.






This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story

[celinenyx]

Part historical, part contemporary novel about two women having lost their loved ones trying to find out how to live on.

A Fall of Marigolds is a dual narrative between two women, with the emphasis on the story of Clara in 1911. The two stories are loosely linked through a physical object, a scarf. Clara lost her crush of two weeks in a fire, and is left to wonder what would have been if he hadn't died. Taryn lost her husband in the Twin Towers and has never told her daughter of what happened that day.

Meissner has a nicely flowing style that was easy to get into. She is one of those authors that focusses on the character instead of the setting when writing historical. Some historical novels can be bogged down when the author wants to put in all the research they did, but Ms Meissner handles the details pretty well. The historical part of the book is set at Ellis island, where immigrants on their way to America would all have to have their health checked. Reading about life on the island, although never fully focussed on, was interesting. It was clear that the author had a personal affinity with the subject.

I enjoyed the way love in A Fall of Marigolds wasn't the same uncomplicated affair as so many romances make it out to be. Sometimes you can feel attraction to someone for a short amount of time, and lose it after that. Sometimes you fall head over heels for someone in just two weeks. A few of the overrepresented tropes were avoided, and I'm quite happy with how all the threads worked out.

Because this is a book about two disasters, the book was too heavy for me, especially towards the end. The two heroines start asking themselves the questions "was I meant to do this?" "was this meant to happen" and other variations of the same thing. Maybe it's because I never ask myself that question, but this part of the story irked me, and made me want to stop reading. A Fall of Marigolds was a breeze until it got too dark and I just lost interest in the bottomless pits that open up when you start asking yourself the question "is anything ever meant to be?".

A Fall of Marigolds is a good book, a book that will move readers and that will make you curious to early 20th century Manhattan.