A Fall Of Marigolds

by Susan Meissner

[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.