The Forgotten Seamstress

The Forgotten Seamstress By Liz Trenow

Review by Katie Rose

                A mixture of the no- so-distant past and the present, The Forgotten Seamstress tells the story of two women separated in time, but intimately connected. This story fits into the mystery genre, but it is really more about emotional connection and life.

                The first of the two main characters this story centers around is an old woman named Maria who is being interviewed by a sociologist. Maria used to live in an insane asylum called Helen Hall, and is being interviewed against the advice of her former doctors. The doctors say she suffers from fantasies and delusions about her past, and that not a word out of her mouth should be believed. That is usually a good indication that she is telling the truth. Her story begins as a young girl in a London orphanage in the years leading up to World War 2. She and her friend are picked up to do repair work in Buckingham Palace due to their talent at sewing. It is there that she meets the young prince, (the eventual King Edward of England who gave up the throne to marry an American socialite). From there her life is changed forever as she falls for his charm and good looks.

                Fast forward to modern times, a woman in her late 30’s named Caroline has just lost her job. She had begun to work at a bank to pay off her bills, but her true passion lay in interior design. She got sucked into the comfort of having a steady paycheck, however, and is now stuck without purpose. Her mother is suffering from dementia, and will soon need to be moved into a home. While helping her mom pack up the house Caroline had grown up in, she comes across a remarkable old quilt left to her by her grandmother. She embarks on a mission to discover its secrets, while trying to pick herself up and stop her own life from falling apart.

                Initially this story did not sound that exciting to me, but a local librarian recommended it so I gave it a shot. It is actually pretty good. It took a few chapters to really get going, but once I got the gist of what was going on it really picked up. By the end I was frantically reading it to find out what how it all turns out. The characters of Maria and Caroline are extremely sympathetic. They are both very real women that you feel like you knew or met at some point in your life. Maria’s life is tragic, and really examines the corruption of mental institutions during this time. Completely sane women could be thrown into these institutions just because men wanted to be rid of them, and the treatment of inmates both sane and insane were completely inhumane. 

                Caroline’s struggle is one of purpose and identity. Should she pursue the career she loves? Will she ever find someone to have children with or will she die motherless? Is she doing the right thing for her mother, or is she a horrible daughter for putting her in a home? These are all problems many women, and men, have encountered in their own lives. Caroline’s relationship to the quilt and her desire to discover the truth of it become a much needed distraction as her life becomes more difficult. In the end it helps her learn who she is, and what she wants from life.

Final Recommendation? Save this one for a rainy day. It is one of those books that is not going to change your life, but it that right balance of mystery and emotion that is best read wrapped in a blanket with a warm beverage in hand. It has a happy ending that is lightly touched with grief, but after an entire story of misfortunes and obstacles, it leaves you with a great feeling of satisfaction and hope.