Two books now under my belt, and both immensely enjoyable. I really like Beatriz Williams. I like her storytelling style. I like that she tells a good historical story with parallel storylines, usually in two different eras. Not everyone can pull that off well, and I think Beatriz can. I like that her characters return in other stories as aunts or sisters or distant relatives. They shift about in the books--in one they are the protagonist and in another they move to the periphery, but you get a sense of a big family with interesting pasts. And her women characters are strong, intelligent and in this case sassy gals.
It probably doesn't matter that Beatriz Williams's books are read in any particular order, but I do plan on working my way through them in the order she published them. Two years ago I read A Hundred Summers and I just finished The Secret Life of Violet Grant. Lily of the earlier novel does make an appearance in The Secret Life, but the story mostly revolves around Vivian Schuyler in the 'current' story set in 1964 and her aunt Violet, who Vivian assumes is dead. Violet, the daughter of a wealthy, well-respected New York family did the unthinkable in 1912. A bluestocking, Violet left home against her family's wishes and with their distinct disapproval and went off to England to study physics.
It's all a bit hush hush now, whatever became of Violet, but out of the blue and a good fifty years later a suitcase belonging to Vivian's aunt shows up at the local post office. Vivian finds a card in her mailbox telling her where to pick it up in the opening pages of the story. Violet is not talked about according to Vivian's mother. It's scandalous what she did. Not just leaving home on her own to study physics. It seems she had the audacity to kill her husband and then run off with her lover. This was about the time the First World War was breaking out. And then she was never heard from again. Until now.
The suitcase is the impetus. For a girl like Vivian, the temptation of a juicy story is too much. Vivian is a modern girl of the Sixties. She lives in Greenwich Village and works in the enviable offices of New York City's elite magazine, The Metropolitan. She's looking for her first big break and this might just be it. If she can get to the post office before it closes that is. With just minutes before the window closes, she manages to get her aunt's suitcase that has been traveling (it would seem) since about 1914! And, Vivian manages, too, to meet a dashing young doctor for whom she falls hard. And so this romp of a story filled with drama and heart break (and lots of scandalous doings) begins.
The Schuylers are all very upper crust, Fifth Avenue sorts. And this being the Sixties, and Vivian such a modern girl, she knows the score when it comes to mumsy and daddums. She may come from money, but she lives in a walk up flat with a roommate and earns her keep through her writing. She's the sassy one. Doctor Paul is a newly arrived physician fresh out of medical school and their romance is electric, but as much as they come together they are also flung apart and the cause is called Margaux, or Gogo as Vivian calls her. Gogo is the publisher's daughter (that would be Vivian's boss's daughter) who usually gets what she wants. Now to be fair to Gogo, she is actually quite a likable character, and Vivian for all her sassiness is a decent young woman, so you can imagine what sorts of trials and tribulations their romance will face.
As for Violet? She is no less impressive but far more sedate. She is an intellectual, but it's the Teens and to go off to England unattended is more than enough. There is a certain naivety about her for all her knowledge. Science and society don't necessarily mix well. You know the old cliché. A young student falling for her professor? In this case, Walter Grant may be a scientist, and one of the top men in his field, but he is not stodgy. His extracurricular activities are pretty reprehensible, but what does Violet know about that? It's his brain that she is attracted to. How she falls into his clutches is questionable. Enter young and attractive Lionel Richardson, now a soldier but formerly one of Dr. Grant's students. More electric (or in this case atomic?) attraction.
Can you see the set up for this page turner of a story? Perfect beach reading (or armchair in the air conditioning reading if that is your pleasure). So far it would seem Beatriz Williams's characters are wholly engaging and the stories hard to put down. No worries about the sheer size of her books since they can still be easily devoured. I already have Tiny Little Thing pulled out and set by my bedside. Tiny (short for Christina) is Vivian's sister, so the Schuyler saga continues.
Oh, and if Vivian's/Violet's stories sound a little run of the mill for this type of book, there are actually some surprising and surprisingly good twists at the end, which made it all very satisfying indeed.