So, she asks, why not tell the story of her grandparents? This is the question of the afterward of Brooklyn Rose, which is the book I'm writing about today! Wow. What a coincidence. Rinaldi's grandmother was a fifteen year old girl from a southern plantation. Her husband was a silk merchant nearly twice her age. Rinaldi never knew her grandparents, but she decided to meet them by creating a story for them, and it's a beautiful one.
Brooklyn Rose is told in a journal form by Rose, and it covers just under a year of time. It's a busy year for the fifteen year old, who recieved the journal she's writing in for her birthday, December 16, 1899. The first pages are filled with normal concerns of a fifteen year old. There's a mean girl at school, she's got an older sister and a younger brother. Is her sister going to get married. She talks about her home in South Carolina, and the servants who work with them. On New Year's Eve, she meets Rene Dumarest, a silk merchant from Brooklyn, New York (although he was born in France). The same night, her sister Heppi gets engaged, with the wedding set for Valentine's Day. Rose notices Rene watching her and being very kind to her family, but she doesn't think much of it until the mean girl at school says something. The day after her sister's wedding, Rene proposes, but gives her time to think, respecting that she is so young. After an accident, she accepts and her wedding is set for barely a month later. Fifteen, newly married, and running her own house in Brooklyn, Rose manages pretty well until Rene's mother comes for a surprise visit. She starts to make her mark in their neighborhood and help the less fortunate. But Rose's youth is confirmed when Rene's mother Charlotte comes to visit. Charlotte is the type of mother in law I don't want. But she makes Rose feel like even more of a child than she is. Rene doesn't want to interfere, he wants Rose to find a way to stand up to Charlotte. Before she can do that, she has to do a little soul searching herself.
The one thing that I wish this book had a bit more of is what happens after? According to Rinaldi, her grandparents had five children, and they went home to her grandmother's plantation for each birth. But the afterward also emphasizes the youth of her grandmother--there's a story she tells of "Rose" (We have no reason to believe that her grandparents' weren't named Rose and Rene, but no reason to believe they are. Rinaldi refers to them by these names, but it could be truth or it could be because that's what she named the characters in the book.) having to be called in from jump roping to feed the baby. I wish that we could have seem more of Rose and Rene as they aged. That is one of the great things, though. Since we know they had a happy marriage, we can imagine the life for them that we want.
I'm off to work on next week's books! Go read something and tell me why you enjoy it!
No comments:
Post a Comment