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Aug 2020
8:10am, 19 Aug 2020
46,545 posts
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McGoohan
About a third of the way in, I had a realisation about A Single Thread. The more I read, the more I was convinced I was right. Ready?
It is basically a re-imagining of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Following a family tragedy Violet/Harry lives with a annoying/borderline abusive relatives (Violet: her Mum, Harry: the Dursleys).
Things pick up when they go to Hogwarts/Winchester. Unbeknownst to our protagonist, they have a great latent skill - magic/embroidery.
Within Hogwarts Great Hall/Winchester Cathedral they are assigned to their respective grouping, Harry to Griffyindor/Violet to the hassock knitting.
They meet:
- best friends Ron and Hermione/Gilda and Maureen
- a wise old mentor, Dumbledore/Louisa Pesel
- other frostier teachers, Prof McGonagle/Mrs Biggins
- a misguided though not entirely evil rival, Draco Malfoy/Mabel Way
- an evil villain, Voldemort/Jack Wells
There are a series of adventures on the way which highlight Harry's/Violet's growing skills as a wizard/embroiderer. At the end, Harry/Violet has to vanquish their enemy with a wand/knitting needle.
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Aug 2020
8:14am, 19 Aug 2020
46,546 posts
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McGoohan
I'm looking forward to the sequel, Violet Speedwell and the Chapel of Secrets
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Aug 2020
8:18am, 19 Aug 2020
39,878 posts
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LindsD
Hey, you're not wrong! 
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Aug 2020
8:24am, 19 Aug 2020
5,597 posts
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Mouseytongue
^^^ seems legit!
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Aug 2020
8:49am, 19 Aug 2020
52,197 posts
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Diogenes
It's an idea...
If we could post gifs on here I think I would post one of a bucket full of holes rapidly leaking water.
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Aug 2020
8:50am, 19 Aug 2020
46,548 posts
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McGoohan
That'd be the needles all poking through Violet's cloak of invisibility
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Aug 2020
8:51am, 19 Aug 2020
46,549 posts
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McGoohan
Properer review time.
Jane Austen - who gets mentioned in this book a fair bit - was often writing about how powerless women were in her own time. How their own fortunes were often dictated by those of a father, brother or husband.
It seemed to me that Tracy Chevalier has drawn a virtual line from then to now and is looking at women in 1932 as a sort of midway point on the graph. There are more freedoms but they are still seen in relation to men and women who teransgress against this are seen as odd or dangerous (lesbians, single mothers, spinsters).
There's a bit more of the light Jane Austen touches, plot-wise anyway. We have a choice of suitors (Arthur, Keith) who are each unsuitable in their own way. In some ways Arthur is more of a borrowing from Jane Eyre with his mad wife in the attic.
Once I'd closed the book, I considered what had happened in it. Not very much. Woman goes from Southampton to Winchester for a bit then goes back. Knits some kneelers while she's there. Makes some friends. Has a roll in the literal hay. Drinks a fair bit of sherry.
However, I really, really enjoyed it. I read it in two and a bit sittings. The second sitting I stayed up till 1am to finish but thought I'd better go to bed, so I finished it in the morning. Tracy Chevalier has a very free and easy style that keeps you reading. Like Dio, I'd be interested to see what happened to her family next. Not quite sure how I found a story about people embroidering church cushions so compelling.
In the end, it was like a fascinating 'slice of life' from an era that doesn't normally get stories. Or else we'd have a tale about the derring-do and horror of the war her brother and fiance fought and died in.
Negatives? Yes, it's quite sedate. Yes, a lot of the characters are stereotypical. But to be honest, her awful mother rather reminded me of someone. *Draws discrete veil over that sentence*
I scored it an 8.
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Aug 2020
8:53am, 19 Aug 2020
39,883 posts
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LindsD
Good review. Thank you.
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Aug 2020
11:48am, 19 Aug 2020
39,893 posts
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LindsD
What did Liebling think of it?
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Aug 2020
11:53am, 19 Aug 2020
46,551 posts
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McGoohan
She didnae read it. Mrs Greppers is reading it I believe.
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