| |
1 |
A Star for Mrs. Blake: A NOVEL
Author:
Smith, April
|
| |
|
Class:
Fiction
Age: Adult
Language: English
|
LC: PS3569.M
Print Run: 60000
|
|
ISBN-13: 9780307958846
LCCN: 2013023987
Imprint: Knopf
Publisher: Random House
|
|
Pub Date: 01/14/2014
Availability: Out of Print Confirmed
List: $24.95
|
| |
Hardcover
|
|
|
Physical Description:
|
329 pages ; 25 cm
H 9.52",
W 6.55",
D 1.27",
1.3663 lbs.
|
|
LC Series:
|
|
|
Brodart Sources:
|
Brodart's Insight Catalog: Adult
Brodart's TOP Adult Titles
|
|
Bibliographies:
|
|
|
Awards:
|
Booklist Starred Reviews
|
|
Starred Reviews:
|
Booklist
|
|
TIPS Subjects:
|
Historical Fiction
Military Fiction
Romance
|
|
BISAC Subjects: |
FICTION / War & Military
FICTION / Romance / Historical / General
FICTION / Women
|
|
LC Subjects:
|
Cemeteries, France, Verdun, Fiction
FICTION / Contemporary Women
FICTION / Historical
FICTION / Romance / General
Historical fiction
Love stories
Mothers and sons, Fiction
Parental grief, Fiction
United States, History, 1919-1933, Fiction
War stories
World War, 1914-1918, Fiction
|
|
SEARS Subjects: |
Cemeteries, Verdun (France), Fiction
Grief, Fiction
Historical fiction
Love stories
Mother-son relationship, Fiction
United States, History, 1919-1933, Fiction
War stories
World War, 1914-1918, Fiction
|
|
Reading Programs: |
|
|
|
| |
| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Adult Titles | 10/01/2013 |
| Meet the five American women, all Gold Star Mothers, whose lives are unexpectedly whisked to new places on the winds of change during a trip to visit their soldier sons' graves in 1930s France. 352pp., 60K, Auth res: Santa Monica, CA, Tour |
|
| Starred Reviews: |
| Booklist | 11/15/2013 |
| Smith, author of five thrillers starring FBI Special Agent Ana Grey, here offers a heartfelt glimpse into a little-known episode in U.S. history, the journey taken by mothers of U.S. soldiers fallen in WWI to visit their sons' graves in Europe. Smith focuses on five mothers whose sons were buried at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in France. Their unofficial leader is Cora Blake, a single mother from Maine. She's joined by an Irish maid, the wife of an immigrant Russian chicken farmer, a woman who's been in and out of mental institutions since her son was killed, and a wealthy Boston socialite. Smith deftly spotlights moments along their sojourn, from the giggling fits brought on by the French delicacies they are served on board ship to the tears they shed when confronted by the stark white lines of marble stones where their sons' remains now lie. Side plots revolve around an American journalist, badly disfigured in the war, who befriends Cora and publishes her story in a French newspaper, and the practice of racially segregating these mothers, even in their grief. Smith's foray into historical fiction is captivating and enlightening. Donovan, Deborah. 340p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2013. |
|
| Journal Reviews |
| BookPage | 01/01/2014 |
| April Smith, creator of the popular Detective Ana Grey novels, makes a change of pace with A Star for Mrs. Blake. This moving and surprising novel is the account of a Gold Star Mother's sojourn to the fields of Verdun where her only son was killed, along with so many other young men, during World War I. The reader would expect such a story to be moving, but what's surprising is the toughness that Smith gives to her characters, especially Cora Blake, the Gold Star Mother. But why shouldn't she be tough? When we first meet her, it's during a freezing cold Depression-era Maine winter. Her parents are dead, her son is dead and she's raising her motherless nieces. She and the girls are saved from penury when she gets a job in a sardine cannery that she must walk to because there's no more gas to fuel the bus. Somehow, she's managed to survive: She even has a suitor. Then, the letter comes, inviting her to visit the grave of her son in France. She decides to look forward to her voyage the way her seafaring parents looked forward to their trips around the world. Cora's sojourn puts her in more modest company, however. She becomes part of a group that includes an Irish housekeeper, a Jewish chicken farmer's wife, a socialite and, almost, an African-American seamstress. The near inclusion of Mrs. Russell is our first reminder that, Depression and fallout from World War I aside, things aren't quite right in America. Still, most of the folks Cora meets are delightful company, including her minders, the plucky nurse Lily Barnett and the upstanding, infinitely patient and cheerful Lt. Hammond. Cora also strikes up a friendship with journalist Griffin Reed. Disfigured in the war, he's a morphine addict who's being kept by the artist who helped design the mask that conceals his wounds. But as entertaining as the trip is, Smith, a lucid writer with a detective's eye for detail, doesn't let us forget the painful event that launched her heroine's journey. Reed's shattered face, rows of gravestones on a field, live ordnance found too near to a picnic area--all remind the reader of the grotesque wastefulness of the war that began a century ago. Through Cora Blake's story, Smith explores the experience of some of the good, ordinary and resourceful people who were caught up in it. Arlene McKanic. 352pg. BOOKPAGE, c2014. |
|
| Kirkus Reviews | 12/15/2013 |
| During the early 1930s, the U.S. government arranged for grieving "Gold Star Mothers" to visit the French burial sites of their sons killed during World War I. This historical fiction by mystery author Smith (White Shotgun, 2011, etc.) concerns a woman named Cora Blake and her travel companions. Plucky, no-nonsense Cora is a librarian from Deer Isle, Maine, and a single mother of a son, when she gets the government invitation in 1931. She becomes the member coordinator and organizes the banally diverse group of women assigned to travel together: Jewish Minnie Siebert, who must defy her husband to travel from their farm in Bangor; Irish Catholic Boston housemaid Katie McDonald, who lost two sons in the war; and well-to-do society matriarch Mrs. Bobbie Olsen, who, like Cora, has a secret she's not telling. The fifth member of the party, Wilhelmina Russell, does not respond to Cora's letters, but Mrs. Russell does show up to travel on the train from Boston to New York. Only this is Selma Russell, a black seamstress, stereotypically large and comic--discomforting whiffs of race and class snobbery filter throughout the novel. A snafu has mixed up the two Mrs. Russells, and Wilhelmina, a deeply disturbed middle-class housewife recently released from a mental hospital for the journey, has ended up in Harlem. Assigned to chaperone the women, 2nd Lt. Thomas Hammond fixes the mix-up, with the help of nurse Lily Barnett, by resegregating the women before they board the ship for Europe. By the time they reach Europe, Cora and Bobbie have bonded, while romance between Thomas and Lily is palely flickering. In Paris, Cora meets journalist Griffin Reed. Badly wounded and disfigured while covering the war, he sees the possibility of a story in the women's journey. Throw in Reed's hedonistic lover and a nasty senior officer who resents Thomas' privilege, and the trip goes more than slightly awry. While the line-by-line writing is engaging, this take on historic events is made shallow by broad brush strokes and lots of heartstring pulling. 336pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2013. |
|
| Library Journal | 11/01/2013 |
| After losing her son in World War I, small-town librarian Cora Blake is surprised over a decade later to receive a letter from the U.S. government inviting her to go to Europe to visit his grave as part of a "Gold Star Mother" tour. Looking forward to the adventure, Cora also hopes that she and the other mothers will be able to find the closure that has eluded them for so long. A chance encounter with an embittered journalist gives her the opportunity to tell her story to the world and leads her to discover some unexpected truths about the long-term legacy of the war. VERDICT What initially feels like a straightforward and heartwarming road trip novel becomes more complicated as the women draw nearer to their destination and squabbles over class and personality differences give way to increasing criticism of the government and military bureaucracy. Though some later plot developments are a bit far-fetched, Smith, in a change of pace from her "FBI Special Agent Ana Grey" thrillers (Good Morning, Killer), artfully maintains a generally warm tone while also allowing her characters to ask hard questions about the war and its consequences. Mara Bandy. 336p. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2013. |
|
| Publishers Weekly | 10/14/2013 |
| Smith's sixth novel, a departure from her Ana Grey thrillers, presents the touching story, set in the 1930s, of Gold Star Mothers--the mothers of fallen U.S. service members--visiting their sons' graves in France. Cora Blake lives in Maine, where she is raising her three nieces after her sister's death. Struggling from day to day to survive the Depression, Cora learns of a chance, courtesy of the U.S. government, to see the last resting place of her son, killed in WWII. She ends up being the glue that holds together "Party A," which includes, along with their escorts Second Lt. Thomas Hammond and nurse Lily Barnett, a Boston socialite, an Irish maid, and, temporarily, an African-American woman. The trip's organizers soon correct this "mistake," but the woman's white replacement proves mentally unstable. During the trip, Cora meets down-on-his luck reporter Griffin Reed, who was badly disfigured while covering the war, and whose investigative skills bring her a gift beyond her hopes. Smith captures the mothers' interactions in beautiful detail and delves into the government's not-entirely-altruistic reasons for sponsoring the trip. Several plot threads, however, are unresolved, leaving the reader wanting more at the end of this captivating read. Agent: Molly Friedrich, Friedrich Literary Agency. (Jan.). 352p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2013. |
|
9780307958846,dl.it[0].title
|
|