Book Review: The Address by Fiona Davis

The Address
by
Fiona Davis

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I’ve always enjoyed reading stories set in New York and have been meaning to read The Address for a long time. In this 2017 novel by Fiona Davis, Sara Smythe and Bailey Camden live in New York, one hundred years apart. They are connected in indeterminate ways to the 1885 murder of the fictional architect Theodore Camden. Set in 1884 and 1984, their narratives revolve around the famous Dakota, an apartment building in New York.

The Dakota is a real place. Located on the northwest corner of 72^nd Street and Central Park West on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, its tenants include famous musicians, artists and actors. It’s also where John Lennon was murdered in 1980. When it first opened in 1884, the Dakota was actually in a remote part of NYC, if you can believe it. Designed to attract the newly wealthy, the building opened its doors to a full staff and plenty of luxuries.

Sara’s story begins in 1884 when Theodore Camden recruits her from the London Langham Hotel to become the first managerette (how do you like that job title?) of the Dakota. Unmarried and in her thirties, Sara works as the head housekeeper. She’s ready for a change, however and drawn to Theodore’s charms, despite the fact that he’s married with three young children. In a bold decision, Sara quits her job and crosses the Atlantic to start a new life during New York’s gilded age. She lives at the Dakota and confidently manages a large staff of housekeepers, porters, maintenance crew and the tenants’ maids. Unable to resist their mutual attractions, Theo and Sara begin an affair that leads to Theo’s ultimate death and the end of Sara’s career.

Jumping to 1984, interior designer Bailey Camden must rebuild her life after a struggle with drugs and alcohol. Out of rehab and jobless, she visits her wealthy cousin Melinda Camden, who lives at the Dakota, in the same apartment where Theo was murdered. Bailey’s family connection to the wealthy Camdens began when her grandfather became Theodore Camden’s ward. Melinda will soon inherit trust money, but Bailey, whose family has learned to live without, will not. In a gesture of seemingly good will, Melinda hires Bailey to redesign her apartment and agrees to let her live there until she gets on her feet. When Bailey discovers personal items belonging to Sara and Theo’s family, she will soon learn more about the affair and just how she fits into the Camden lineage.

I enjoyed this novel which is part mystery and part historical fiction. Davis explores the messy themes of money, class, inheritance and family and entertains the reader with images of New York’s upper and working classes and the city’s development and its varied architecture. In addition, a special appearance by investigative journalist Nellie Bly provides an up-close look at the horrors of Blackwell Island’s Insane Asylum. I recommend The Address to fans of New York stories as well as readers who like historical fiction, interesting characters and themes of money and class.

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The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin

The American Heiress
by
Daisy Goodwin

Rating:

I really enjoyed reading The American Heiress. It’s light, entertaining historical fiction about a period of thirty years in the late 1800s during which billionaire American families sought the prestige of English and other European aristocracy by matching up their daughters with cash-poor dukes and princes, whose castles and estates were very much in need of American money.

Cora Cash has a domineering mother who is bent on marrying her daughter to English nobility. Cora is, of course, beautiful and well-educated and it doesn’t take long for her to meet Ivo Maltravers – the Ninth Duke of Wareham.

He’s older, she’s still in her teens and their playful banter reminds me of the conversations between Rhett and Scarlett, Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre and Maxim de Winter and Rebecca. It’s been done before, but I never get tired of it. Jojo Moyes does the same thing with Will Traynor and Lou Clark in Me Before You, with a very different setting and plot.

I think Daisy Goodwin does a great job describing this period of time, first with the American elite in Newport and New York, their mansions, exorbitant spending and class distinctions between old money and new money, and later with a different set of the upper class in England. Cora may understand how things work in her American world, but once she crosses the Atlantic, she faces a confusing set of hierarchies and a completely different way of life. She makes a great deal of mistakes and steps into a few traps. We see just where she’s headed, but we can’t stop her!

Here’s the real Lulworth Castle, now open to the public. Goodwin based Ivo’s castle on this one.

There are plenty of descriptions of fashion and what it was like to be wealthy in America and England during the Gilded Age. Goodwin describes Cora’s trousseau in great detail, which includes wedding corsets with solid gold clasps. She has based these details on the actual trousseau of Consuelo Vanderbilt who married Charles-Spencer Churchill, the 9^th Duke of Marlborough.

Consuelo Vanderbilt (Getty Images) – Cora’s trousseau included wedding corsets with solid gold clasps

Goodwin also incorporates artists and portraits in the story, with amusing twists and misunderstandings.   I especially like her character, Louvain, the painter with the bad reputation because he’s a social outsider with a great deal of power over the women he paints. I also like the author’s technique of narrating – third-person – through a variety of characters. Some of them are anonymous, like the girl from the hat shop, but the things they see add important details to the story. This has also been done before, but it works.

Cora eventually grows into her English role and learns how to swallow humiliation with noble grace. She learns how to direct butlers, maids, cooks and footmen with authority, a group whose loyalties are rooted in the way things have always been done, when Ivo’s mother ran the castle. But is this new poise and confidence enough to handle what could be the ultimate betrayal? Loose ends hang until the very last pages, and then they tie up quite nicely.

Goodwin includes Durdle Door, Dorset, in one of her scenes.

The American Heiress is a smartly-written, entertaining story. I don’t think it’s meant to be a scholarly account of this time period. I enjoyed reading it exactly because it was light, but not cheesy. And, although it was somewhat predictable, I thought it was tons of fun!

Do you think everything you read should be heavy and educational?  I don’t!

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