The Girl from The Savoy

by Hazel Gaynor | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0062403486 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingGoryDetailswing of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 12/16/2018
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Sunday, December 16, 2018
I got this softcover from an online seller. It's an upcoming selection for my reading group at the Book Cellar. It centers on young Dolly Lane, who signs on as a chambermaid at the luxurious Savoy hotel in London in 1923 - but with dreams of show business. And with some very dark episodes in her past, which we learn about piecemeal through flashbacks and alternate character viewpoints. Among those alternate characters: glamorous actress Loretta, whose musician brother has bumped into Dolly, a "meet cute" where they each struck a chord in the other, and an amnesiac WWI veteran coping with a very, very slow recovery from massive PTSD. Since the timeframes shift back and forth, and some key information is only revealed later in the story, it takes a while to work out how all these characters are related and how their back stories affect their current lives and future plans, but the journey's an interesting one. The scenes of post-WWI life, with the "Bright Young People" on one hand and a "lost generation" on the other, are very effective, and overall I enjoyed the book, though I found some of the plot twists a bit too obvious and coincidental. (Was also a teensy bit let down by the conclusion, but perhaps that's just me; given what everyone's been through it wasn't a bad resolution, just not quite what I'd hoped for.)

For other novels set in this time period, I'd recommend Jacqueline Winspear's "Maisie Dobbs" series; Maisie's an independent private investigator with secret-service and nursing experience, with a much better head on her shoulders than Dotty, but the timeframes and wartime traumas are quite similar.

Journal Entry 2 by wingGoryDetailswing at Little Free Library, Burgess Farm Rd in Dracut, Massachusetts USA on Thursday, March 21, 2019

Released 4 yrs ago (3/22/2019 UTC) at Little Free Library, Burgess Farm Rd in Dracut, Massachusetts USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I left this book in the Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in MA here.]

*** Released for the 2019 Oh the Places We Can Go release challenge. ***

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