A Fall of Marigolds

This book was a bit slow to get started. But I was curious about the Triangle Shirt factory fire, that NY generation’s 9/11, which took place in 1911. It was no surprise that the author put together both tragedies, 90 years apart, to weave a story through an inanimate object - in this case, a beautiful scarf that was unwittingly present and a centerpiece in both story-lines. The present-day story primarily occurred ten years later, in 2011, on the tenth anniversary of 9/11. I felt the slow pace of both generations’ stories were very interior explorations of the characters - Clara, an Ellis Island nurse in 1911 and Taryn, a fabric store clerk in 2001 through 2011. Not really explored, but the ‘interior-ness’ of both stories may have been designed by the author to dig-deep on the post-traumatic stress that each woman witnessed. For Clara, her previous employer was the Triangle Shirt Factory, where she was a nurse. She escaped the fire, but watched a man she worked with (and imagined herself in love with), jump to his death from nine stories high. To deal with her loss, she banished herself off-Manhattan Island, to Ellis Island, as a nurse at the immigrant hospital. She never went anywhere else, wrapped in her grief and guilt. She befriends a Welshman being held at the Ellis Island hospital, and during the course she admires the man’s marigold-covered scarf, belonging to man’s dead wife. Taryn, the present day protagonist, felt guilt for inviting her husband to breakfast at Windows on the World at the top of the World Trade Center - a place he wouldn’t have otherwise been that day, to share the news they were expecting a baby. She was late, never made it, because of a woman who insisted she meet to find a match for a scarf - the same antique marigold-covered scarf. Both women had boat-loads of grief and guilt, which took an inordinate amount of time to wade-through. But I’m glad I read it, and was treated to a happy ending/resolution, as the stores were tied together.

“People who say everything happens for a reason usually say that only when they agree with the reason. Those people are not the ones who wish they could fold back time and make different choices. They don’t lie awake at night and whisper, If only . . .” Clara is a nurse working at the Ellis Island hospital in 1911 who struggles with the loss of a man she hardly knew but loved very deeply in the terrible Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. She witnessed him falling to his death. Taryn mourns the death of her husband in the terrible tragedy of 9/11 in 2001. She had asked him to meet her there but she was late arriving. Love, loss, grief, and survivor's guilt tied together by a beautiful scarf connect these women one hundred years apart. The choices they made had unexpected results; results they both struggled to accept. My personal 9/11 connection didn't let me enjoy this book as much as it deserves to be enjoyed. However, I was able to recognize and appreciate the overarching messages: life is full of cross-roads and the choices we make can mean big changes; change is neither good nor bad, it's just... change.

A little schmaltzy, but I'm here for it. Interesting interwoven histories between the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 and 9/11 and their lasting effect.

This tale is told from the perspective of two women, one in this century (Tayrn) and one in the last century (Clara).

About 3/4 of the way through the book, I became a little frustrated because it didn't seem like Tayrn was getting much of her story told. Definitely a 2 or 3-star, I muttered to myself. Towards the end of the book, when Clara decides to do something that I feel was unnecessary to the story, I again muttered to myself - Definitely a 2 or 3-star tale.

But when I finished, Clara last hurrah in Manhattan made more sense, and I felt better. The book left me with a happy feeling. And that was what I was looking for this time.

Smiles and tears, an understanding of our past and how it can influence the future.