This
turn-of-the-century novel is a combination romance/suspense, but not in the terms many
have come to expect. It’s the tale of one woman’s struggle against a
male-dominated society, spousal abuse, and the growing movement for women’s rights.
Emma Brandenberg
is married to a much older man, Philip, mayor of their town of Hollybrook, Massachusetts
in 1897. She’s desperately unhappy with her marriage, but is at a loss what she can
do about it… until the arrival of a woman’s hat maker named Freddy Ash. It is
his arrival in town and the opening of Ash’s Fine Parisian Millinery that sets the
town on its ear and shows not only Emily but the other women in town, that times are
changing and the men folk better just get used to it.
Ms. Karp has
written an exquisitely plotted tale of female angst with her portrayal of Victorian
expectations and morals, and sometimes backward logic. In Emma, Ms. Karp has put her
finger on the pulse of every woman’s desire since the beginning of time to be
cherished and respected. Her characterizations jump off the page and become real,
three-dimensional friends who dwell in the mind for days after the last page is turned and
illustrates that women have indeed come a long way.
Reviewed by
Denise M. Clark -- Denise’s Pieces Author Site
& Book Reviews
March 4,
2003 |
