While reading the Rose of Winslow Street I was
reminded of Dickens’ Bleak House and of The Apothecary’s Daughter by Julie
Klassen.
Stay with me here: the former because it involves a piece of
property that two parties desperately want and lay claim to and a strong-willed
legal battle: the latter because Liberty Sawyer’s investment and knowledge of
botany rivals The Apothecary’s Daughter regency-infused methods of
pharmaceuticals. A stronger offering than Camden’s inaugural novel, TheLady of Bolton Hill, Camden has applied her penchant for strong research and
bold, non-flowery writing to write of the struggles and triumphs of a young
Romanian immigrant and his two sons and a young woman whose lifelong shame of
illiteracy has forced her to build an invisible wall. It will take a crisis of
faith and the unravelling of years of secrets to bring these two together and
sever the barrier between them.
I was impressed by this novel on two fronts: the
first in Camden’s natural flow and ease of storytelling and her insertion of
knowledge without infusing a sense of overladen fact-dropping; secondly by the
slow and easy and quite believable depth of characterization: from initial
remonstrance through kind and gentle understanding. Camden paints quite a
different portrait in the trials and travails of Michael Dobrescu, the swarthy strapping
ex-soldier, his two sons and his compatriots. Moreover, she dallies with the
fragments that will sew together the larger revelation, pulling the reader
along with finesse. She is a fine storyteller and her strong talent and
ease of verisimilitude helps stretch a bright canvas of late 19th
Century New England life.
I really enjoyed her attention to historical detail: from
the flow with which she expels descriptions of botany and the perfumes and
illustrations of soaps of the day, to a monumental eclipse, through the
prejudicial slighting of Michael and his family and more still to the
over-arching legal battle over ownership of the house on Winslow Street. There
is also dichotomy to the eponymous rose and readers will soon grasp the many
symbolic inferences of the flower to the characters and their growth.
This book was provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group
and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
From Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group
Buy it at Amazon
Visit Elizabeth Camden on the web
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