Laura Moriarty
Fiction
Was anyone else read forced to read Edith Wharton in high school? I know she’s considered a classic author, but I just could not get into The Age of Innocence. However, after finishing this book, I feel like I should go back and re-read it, just to pick up some more subtleties I may have missed (Edith and her book play a small but significant role in this novel).
The Chaperone is about Cora, a married woman with two grown sons, living in 1922 Wichita. She learns that the fifteen year-old daughter of an acquaintance needs a chaperone to NYC, where she’ll be taking dance lessons for a month. Cora volunteers because she has a few secrets of her own that she needs help uncovering. And of course, when they get to NYC, complications ensue and real truths are discovered. I’d give more details, but this book is so good, I don't want to spoil anything. You should just go out and pick it up.
Ms. Moriarty is a great writer. Her descriptions and her dialogue flow with such ease I managed to finish the book in two days. Cora is a sympathetic character, even if in the beginning she seems rather prudish and stuck-up. But she has her reasons and as we get to know Cora and learn her secrets, we grow to love her. My only teeny tiny complaint would be how the book slightly drags once Cora leaves New York and returns to Kansas. Everything after that isn’t as good. Oh, well. No book is perfect.
Anyone would enjoy this, but especially history lovers who like reading about the roaring twenties.
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