Books & Java

The Chaperone

by Laura Moriarty

 

Synopsis: 

 

Only a few years before becoming a famous silent-film star and an icon of her generation, a fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita, Kansas, to study with the prestigious Denishawn School of Dancing in New York. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old chaperone, who is neither mother nor friend. Cora Carlisle, a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip, has no idea what she’s in for. Young Louise, already stunningly beautiful and sporting her famous black bob with blunt bangs, is known for her arrogance and her lack of respect for convention. Ultimately, the five weeks they spend together will transform their lives forever.

For Cora, the city holds the promise of discovery that might answer the question at the core of her being, and even as she does her best to watch over Louise in this strange and bustling place she embarks on a mission of her own. And while what she finds isn’t what she anticipated, she is liberated in a way she could not have imagined. Over the course of Cora’s relationship with Louise, her eyes are opened to the promise of the twentieth century and a new understanding of the possibilities for being fully alive.

Drawing on the rich history of the 1920s,’30s, and beyond—from the orphan trains to Prohibition, flappers,  and the onset of the Great Depression to the burgeoning movement for equal rights and new opportunities for women—Laura Moriarty’s The Chaperone illustrates how rapidly everything, from fashion and hemlines to values and attitudes, was changing at this time and what a vast difference it all made for Louise Brooks, Cora Carlisle, and others like them.

My Review:

 

I loved this book. A truly good piece of well-written historical fiction. The story of an orphaned girl from New York who ends up in Kansas as a result of the infamous orphan train program. She is lucky though and ends up with a truly caring adoptive mother and father who raise her to be strong and loved. When her parents die she is thrust into adulthood but marries well. Her marriage however reveals some secrets that challenge her chances of ever knowing happiness. In her longing to find her birth parents she is given the opportunity to chaperone a young, spoiled, very progressive socialite to New York to attend a progressive dance school this is her opportunity to find out where she came from and possibly who her parents were. While the young Louise Brooks (her keep) attends dance classes during the day she visits the nuns that set her off on the orphan train to get answers about her true identity. It is only with the help of the church's handyman that she is able to retrieve her records and make it possible for her to fill the void and longing to find her parents. Her challenge is only exacerbated by the unruly Louise Brooks and her defiant teenage behavior. I won't tell you more as it is such a beautiful read that I would hate to spoil it for anyone wanting to read it. However, I will add that the book does talk a great deal about the famous Louise Brooks who made the bobbed haircut and flapper look so popular in the 20s during the age of silent movies. That part of the story was fascinating. I did a little of my own research about Louise Brooks and she really was quite a character. I actually listened to an audio version of the book brilliantly narrated by Elizabeth McGovern. This wonderful book is one of the many reasons I love - no, adore - historical fiction SO very much.