A Fall Of Marigolds by Susan Meissner

A Fall Of Marigolds by Susan Meissner– 364 pages

Book Blurb:

September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries …and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she’s made. Will what she learns devastate her or free her?
September 2011. On Manhattan’s Upper West Side, widow Taryn Michaels has convinced herself that she is living fully, working in a charming specialty fabric store and raising her daughter alone. Then a long-lost photograph appears in a national magazine, and she is forced to relive the terrible day her husband died in the collapse of the World Trade Towers …the same day a stranger reached out and saved her. Will a chance reconnection and a century-old scarf open Taryn’s eyes to the larger forces at work in her life?

My Review: 4 stars

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A Fall Of Marigolds covers so much more than the light title may suggest. Two very relevant, historical atrocities that both take place in New York City, are oddly enough, linked by two women and a simple scarf. The Triangle Shirt Waist Fire in 1911 and the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centers in 2011 are both brought to life through two survivors who are the protagonists in the book.

Having read other books about the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, I was familiar enough with the horrific truths about it, however this story portrayed a survivor who could carry on by putting her own life on hold. Of course I’ll never forget the terrible morning of 9/11 and reading this book really brought the reader into the mind of a survivor and the heavy guilt she was shouldering.

Meissner did a wonderful job of weaving two storylines together and how this marigold scarf was instrumental for both of them. She also succeeded at this in Secrets Of A Charmed Life.

Themes that ran through this book were love, dreams, overcoming guilt, moving forward and understanding the past. I loved her use of the Keats poem, The Grecian Urn, as it encouraged me to read it line by line and try to decipher all its glorious meaning.

Highly recommend this for a great summer or vacation read

Quotes I liked:

Everything beautiful has a story it wants to tell.”

– “Fire is always hungry for things that don’t belong to it.”
– “I want to be able to remember and have it not hurt. I think it’s possible to remember someone you loved and lost and feel blessed that you knew them, even for a short time, without it hurting. Don’t you think?”

-“The heart always wants to believe the best. About everything. I wouldn’t change that for the world. But the heart doesn’t run the show.”