Books & Java

Rare Objects

by Kathleen Tessaro  

Synopsis:

Maeve Fanning is a first generation Irish immigrant, born and raised among the poor, industrious Italian families of Boston’s North End by her widowed mother. Clever, capable, and as headstrong as her red hair suggests, she’s determined to better herself despite the overwhelming hardships of the Great Depression.

However, Maeve also has a dangerous fondness for strange men and bootleg gin—a rebellious appetite that soon finds her spiraling downward, leading a double life. When the strain proves too much, Maeve becomes an unwilling patient in a psychiatric hospital, where she strikes up a friendship with an enigmatic young woman, who, like Maeve, is unable or unwilling to control her un-lady-like desire for freedom.

Once out, Maeve faces starting over again. Armed with a bottle of bleach and a few white lies, she lands a job at an eccentric antiques shop catering to Boston’s wealthiest and most peculiar collectors. Run by an elusive English archeologist, the shop is a haven of the obscure and incredible, providing rare artifacts as well as unique access to the world of America’s social elite. While delivering a purchase to the wealthy Van der Laar family, Maeve is introduced to beautiful socialite Diana Van der Laar—only to discover she’s the young woman from the hospital.

Reunited with the charming but increasingly unstable Diana and pursued by her attractive brother James, Mae becomes more and more entwined with the Van der Laar family—a connection that pulls her into a world of moral ambiguity and deceit, and ultimately betrayal. Bewitched by their wealth and desperate to leave her past behind, Maeve is forced to unearth her true values and discover how far she’ll to go to reinvent herself.

My Review:

Kathleen Tessaro can tell a story like no one else. She not only tells you the story but you come to know the characters so personally. This story takes place in Boston during a time when your heritage (Irish, Jewish, Italian, etc.) was considered a detriment to those who ruled society - in the case of this book it is the Van Der Laars and their South African family with questionably corrupt dealings in the diamond industry of South Africa.

Maeve is a young Irish American girl who grows up with her mother in a mainly Italian neighborhood of Boston. After her return from a time in New York, Mae comes back to Boston wanting to put behind all of the things that shamed her from her time in NY. She dyes her hair blonde to ensure her Irish-American heritage does not ruin her chance for employment in a very tough job market. She lands a job in an antiques shop run by two unique antiquarians who take her under their wing to help her realize that she is more than her restrictive heritage and teach her to be proud of who she is and the value of being a "rare object" among so many valuable fakes. She befriends the Van Der Laars and is drawn into their very exclusive circle of society people and parties. However, although she lies about her own background, she finds that even in her simple ways, she just can't compete or catch up to the high-speed lives of the elite.

This book deals with deception, excess, greed and ultimately how the arrogance of someone who has it all leads to their own demise. Great book. Although it was a little slow in the middle, once you reach the end it is so worth it that I couldn't rate it any less than a 5.