Review 233: A Single Thread

A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars



This is a quiet slow novel about Violet Speedwell during the time between world wars in England. She managed to move away from her complaining mother, always referred to as Mrs. Speedwell. Violet is mourning her finance and brother died in the war, and her father who made life with mum tolerable. Now Violet is in Winchester trying to make her own way, trying to figure out what to do with her life, give it purpose. She stumbles upon a group of broderers in the Winchester cathedral embroidering kneelers and cushions for the church. It is with this group of women Violet makes a few friends and finds purpose. As a stitched item may be used for a hundred years, or perhaps more.

Violet finds it difficult to make ends meet, with her typing salary and expenses living in a boarding house. Her daily meals are often not enough, yet she’s manages somehow. When one of the three women leave unexpectedly to marry quicker than planned due to a pregnancy, Violet finds discusses with the manager a plan for not filling the position, and giving herself and other typist a raise.
Meanwhile Violet finds herself deeply attracted to a married man, twenty years her senior. It is a relationship that cannot be, but they do develop a friendship and he introduced her to the ringing of the bells, which Violet takes a great interest in. I had to wonder if she was interested on her own, or was it due to Knight’s passion? This part of the book becomes somewhat predicable.

While this is slow and there isn’t much action to the book, after reading it I found myself thinking back on the characters. The book says a lot about the time and situation, England have a “surplus” of women after the war. Society then was very strict about what women could do and Violet was pushing those boundaries.

Somehow though, the book didn’t feel very British to me. It is set in England and a few things were nods to that, but overall it had more of an American feel with the language. Perhaps it was the author not knowing the slang and sayings of the British in the 1930s? The book does have many details of stitching and bell ringing, details at times become a bit tedious.



I received a free copy of this book at a library conference. I was not required to write a review, but felt like it and, of course, the above opinions are my own.