William Norwich

A very short book and reading other reviews 'charming' is how I too would describe it. It would be a great book club book, especially for a group with different age women in it. I suspect it might be seen differently by different people. It was interesting to me that it was written by a man in the fashion industry as it referred to some things about the industry that are so true to me... like there is so little good fashion for more mature women instead of just for young thin twenty-somethings. The author seemed to have some idea how silly some of 'high fashion' is and also what the big city of New York would look like to a newcomer. When I read about the author I was afraid the book would treat a non-New Yorker well. The character development is thin and the story jumps ahead quickly to move it along when I was wishing for more. It does have a fairy tale quality but also some deeper issues. Read it!… (mehr)

This feels like a novel out of 1950 except for the anachronistic references to cell phones, ipads, and f-bombs. Emilia Brown is a simple, plain woman in her 60s who supports herself with sewing, cleaning, and other odd jobs -- her current position is cleaning up at the local beauty salon in her small town of Ashville RI. She lives by an antiquated code of hard work, routine, and meeting basic needs without a lot of frills. "...if she was a scent she was tea with honey, but if she was a color, she was a study in gray.....[which] isn't to say she was sad or threadbare. It's just that in a world where status is measure in how much space one takes up and how much noise one makes....a quiet person like Mrs. Brown falls invisible." (2) She and her cat Santo live in a tiny two-flat next to her best friend Mrs. Fox, both widows. When Mrs. Brown has the opportunity to help catalog possessions of the late Mrs. Groton, a local society matron she has long admired, her life changes drastically. There in her closet is a classic, gorgeous Oscar de la Renta suit in black. It is the exact dignified, simple, timeless outfit that would suit Mrs. Brown perfectly. But it is destined for auction in NY and costs $7,000. Mrs. Brown's life now becomes a quest to acquire the dress and takes her out of her comfort zone in many different ways. With the help of Alice, Mrs. Fox's 20-something granddaughter, an unexpected encounter with a super-model who rooms with her for a short time, and some unexpected kindness from strangers, she acquires the money and heads to NYC for a 48-hour adventure the likes of which she has never had in her simple sheltered life. Hurrah for Mrs. Brown and her late-life courage! The best part is learning why she wanted the dress so badly in the first place. Definitely a feel-good read.… (mehr)

The beginning of this book was frustratingly not my taste AT ALL, and I almost gave up but it was for book club. The second act in NYC was quite sweet. I just will never be sympathetic to narratives that paint people who like kale or use swear words or are young-ish as less good versions of older, more sedate people. It's a stupid narrative that implies a value judgment, and while there are plenty of insufferable millennials, dear lord are there also olds whose polite manners area facade for a whole host of -isms. No. It makes me grumpy.

I did really love her whole day in the city and the fairy-tale feel to the ending, I just would have liked it more if it didn't feel like a morality tale scolding anyone who uses a cell phone and likes Beyoncé more than Queen Victoria. Like, I get that enough from EVERYWHERE ELSE, book. Ugh.… (mehr)