Category: Reading Challenges

#BookReview The Cleaner of Chartres by Salley Vickers

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The Cleaner of ChartresAbout the Book

There is something special about the ancient cathedral of Chartres, with its mismatched spires, astonishing stained glass and strange labyrinth. And there is something special too about Agnès Morel, the mysterious woman who is to be found cleaning it each morning.

No one quite knows where she came from – not the diffident Abbé Paul, who discovered her one morning twenty years ago, sleeping in the north porch; nor lonely Professor Jones, whose chaotic existence she helps to organise; nor Philippe Nevers, whose neurotic sister and newborn child she cares for; nor even the irreverent young restorer, Alain Fleury, who works alongside her each day and whose attention she catches with her tawny eyes, her colourful clothes and elusive manner. And yet everyone she encounters would surely agree that she is subtly transforming their lives, even if they couldn’t quite say how.

But with a chance meeting in the cathedral one day, the spectre of Agnès’ past returns, provoking malicious rumours from the prejudiced Madame Beck and her gossipy companion Madame Picot. As the hearsay grows uglier, Agnès is forced to confront her history, and the mystery of her origins finally unfolds.

Format: Paperback (304 pages)    Publisher: Penguin
Publication date: 23rd May 2013 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

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My Review

20-books-of-summerAs if the 20 Books of Summer Reading Challenge weren’t difficult enough, I decided to make it even harder for myself by constructing my list from the twenty oldest unread paperbacks on my bookshelves. And vowing to read them in date order. Yes, I know. I also decided to adopt a ruthless approach: if a book isn’t working for me, I’ll set it aside, put it in the pile for the charity shop and pick up the next one. It turns out The Cleaner of Chartres is a keeper and, in what I’m sure is going to become a boringly familiar phrase, I can’t for the life of me think why it’s taken me so long to read it.

Chartres Cathedral LabyrinthThe story of Agnès past, revealed in small sections alongside present day events, is compelling and emotional. It’s a story of loss, cruelty, mental trauma and despair followed by a gradual step-by-step rebuilding of her life once she arrives in Chartres, drawn there by nothing more than the memory of a picture of the interior of the cathedral that hung on a wall.

What really brought the book alive for me was the wonderfully drawn cast of secondary characters, such as Agnès’s dogwalker friend Terry, artist Robert Clement, obsessed with creating a painting of the Madonna, and cathedral restorer Alain Fleury who can’t help sharing his knowledge of the history, architecture and legends associated with the cathedral. ‘Information bubbled out of him like champagne.’ Then there are Madame Beck and Madame Picot, two ‘friends’ who have made acquiring and disseminating town gossip something of a competitive sport.  I also loved Abbé Paul, the priest who discovered Agnès sleeping in the cathedral porch and gave her a job as a cleaner. His affection for her is extremely touching.

My absolute favourite character was Dr Deman who I found a very sympathetic figure. He comes to play a significant part in Agnès life and is one of the few people in her early life to treat her with any kindness, to really listen to her and try to understand why she might have acted as she did. Like a lot of the other people in the book, he’s not a one dimensional character. Whilst devoted to his job, he often questions himself – undersells himself, I would argue. ‘He cared – cared passionately – for the things he cared for but his conviction was liable to waver and be derailed.’

The Cleaner of Chartres is a book that exudes warmth but is by no means overly sentimental. There are also some lovely touches of humour, mostly supplied by Madame Beck and Madame Picot. It’s very cleverly constructed, not only in respect of the revealing of Agnès story, but because of the way in which all the characters undergo some kind of transformation whether that’s coming to terms with events in their past, forging a new path in life or renewing a friendship.

In three words: Engaging, emotional, heartwarming

Salley VickersAbout the Author

Salley Vickers was born in Liverpool, the child of communist parents. She grew up in Stoke-on-Trent, living in Barlastan Hall, where her father was warden of a W.E.A. college that taught adult education to Trades Union workers. She moved to London aged three and lived there for the remainder of her childhood.

She wrote her first novel, The Door Into Time, aged nine, thanks to an enterprising primary school teacher. The novel is lost but she believes it has influenced all her subsequent work and she regards her education at this state primary school as some of the most nourishing she has been lucky enough to receive. It is a source of great regret to her, that the current primary school curriculum is so narrow and so uncreative.

Her greatest love is poetry, which she writes badly, and her three grandchildren, whom she sees as often as they allow. She also likes music, especially opera and 60s/70s rock, walking, gardening and dancing. Her first ambition was to be a ballet dancer. One of her greatest pleasures is being able to take her granddaughter to the ballet.

She has worked as a teacher for children with special needs, for the now defunct ILEA, a tutor for the W.E.A. and for the Oxford Department of Continuing Education, a university lecturer in English, a psychoanalyst and she now writes and lectures fulltime.

She divides her time between London and Wiltshire, with regular retreats to Corfu, where she has made many friends, both with Corfiots and Albanians. (Photo/bio: Author website)

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#BookReview That Bonesetter Woman by Frances Quinn

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That Bonesetter WomanAbout the Book

Meet Endurance Proudfoot – England’s strongest woman, boldest adventurer and first female bonesetter.

Endurance Proudfoot only wants one thing in life – to follow her father and grandfather into the family business of bonesetting. It’s a physically demanding job, requiring strength, nerves of steel and discretion – and not the job for a woman.

But Durie isn’t like other women. She’s strong and stubborn and determined to get her own way. And she finds that she has a talent at bonesetting – her big hands and lack of grace have finally found their natural calling.

Format: Hardback (448 pages)       Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication date: 21st July 2022    Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

Before reading this book I had very little awareness of the existence of bonesetters or what they did. I now know it involved a combination of the skill of an orthopaedic surgeon in setting fractures and that of an osteopath in treating painful joints. I certainly had no idea there were women who performed such a role. But, in her Author’s note, Frances reveals the inspiration for Endurance was a real person – Sally Mapp – a bonesetter who found fame in eighteenth century England. Other elements of Sally’s life are to be found in the story of her fictional alter ego, Endurance ‘Durie’ Proudfoot.

Durie’s story is a familiar one, that of a woman thwarted in achieving her ambition by discrimination and the social conventions of the day. Although her Aunt Ellen’s belief is that ‘if there’s work a woman’s got a talent for, she ought to do it’, it’s not as easy as that. Firstly, Durie faces opposition from her father who, whilst acknowledging she has skill, holds firmly to the belief that bonesetting is a man’s work.  An unexpected, and initially unwanted, move to London for reasons related to Durie’s sister, Lucinda – plus a helping of good fortune – finally seems to provide the opportunity for Durie to perform the work she believes she was born to do.  Her aunt’s commercial acumen initially brings Durie success but proves disastrous in other respects. Soon Durie is facing some pretty underhand tactics from those who cannot tolerate the idea of a woman bonesetter or, perhaps, feel threatened by her success. Unfortunately Durie’s plainspeaking and inability to ‘flannel’ only inflames the situation.

The three main female characters, Durie, Lucinda and Aunt Ellen, have things in common – determination, resilience and a desire for independence – but exhibit them in entirely different ways. Lucinda, despite coming across as shallow, hard-hearted and even duplicitous at times, nevertheless knows what it will take to succeed and nothing and no-one is going to stop her. Aunt Ellen, whom Durie concedes ‘was a lot more interesting than she’d seemed’ has built a successful business, eschewing marriage because it will mean her husband has control over everything she owns. Durie has an unflinching belief that she has the ‘knack’ of bonesetting and can help people who have been let down by conventional medicine.

There’s a feminist element running through the story. When a rift occurs between Lucinda and Durie, Aunt Ellen counsels them that they are stronger together. ‘All women are. You’ve both seen enough of men to know you can’t count on them. So make sure you can count on each other.’ As it turns out, there is one man that can be counted on.

One of the fantastic elements of the book is the way it immerses you in the life of Georgian London. There are lively scenes at the theatre as the audience’s appetite for sentimental storylines and outrageous adventures is quenched. We visit the coffee houses where patrons peruse the news sheets for details about the latest antics of members of the aristocracy – who they’ve been seen with, what they’re wearing, the establishments they patronise. The Georgian equivalent of today’s social media influencers, if you like. Not forgetting the residents of the Tower of London menagerie who play such an important (matchmaking) part in the story.

There are several heartbreaking aspects to the book: Durie’s erroneous belief that she is responsible for a tragic event; the unworldiness that means she is vulnerable to manipulation and betrayal; and an intervention made with the best of intentions but that is utterly wrong.  In contrast, a particularly heartwarming storyline is neatly brought to a conclusion by means of a touching postscript.

In the Acknowledgments section the author talks about the experience of writing a second novel, including the nagging question: was the first one (The Smallest Man) a ‘fluke’? On the evidence of That Bonesetter Woman I can definitely say it wasn’t a fluke.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster via NetGalley.

In three words: Engaging, fascinating, touching

Try something similar: The Physician’s Daughter by Martha Conway

Frances Quinn Author picAbout the Author

Frances Quinn grew up in London and read English at King’s College, Cambridge, realising too late that the course would require more than lying around reading novels for three years. After snatching a degree from the jaws of laziness, she became a journalist, writing for magazines including Prima, Good Housekeeping, She, Woman’s Weekly and Ideal Home, and later branched out into copywriting, producing words for everything from Waitrose pizza packaging to the Easyjet in-flight brochure.

She lives in Brighton, with her husband and two Tonkinese cats.

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