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Thursday, April 24, 2014

Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker

I found Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker (#386) by Jennifer Chiaverini curiously devoid of any life.  The only reason I finished reading it was that it's my book club's May selection.  Up to this point, Ms. Chiaverini has written scads of books on quilters and quilts.  This is her first historical fiction stand-alone novel.  Obviously she's done her research on the time period in question - Washington, D. C. during the Civil War years - but that's exactly what it felt like reading this book: a textbook regurgitation of facts.

It didn't make me feel empathy towards any of the real people who are the main characters of this story, especially  Mary Todd Lincoln or her black dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckley.  In fact, if I just wanted to learn the particulars of this period and these people, I would have been better off reading a non-fiction narrative like Becky Rutberg's Mary Lincoln's Dressmaker: Elizabeth Keckley's Remarkable Rise from Slave to White House Confidante. With such potentially marvelous personalities to work with, I am disappointed in this pallid offering.  Not recommended.

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