A green lace corset connects the stories of two young women whose lives are separated by a century in this final volume of a trilogy.
Anne McFarland is taking a much-needed vacation from her teaching position at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In Flagstaff, Arizona, she wanders into a vintage resale shop and discovers a tempting corset with its matching “flouncy” skirt. Anne, a character in all three of Hall’s novels, is a collage and mosaic artist and a collector of a variety of esoteric items—her “found objects”—many of which wind up in her works. Still coping with her recent breakup with her fiance, Sergio Parmeggianno, she is also struggling with her application for an artist-in-residence grant from the museum. The author, an artist herself, spends considerable time elaborating on Anne’s creative process. Although this occasionally slows down the drama, it also provides a primer for budding artists. The second tale, which alternates with Anne’s saga, is set in 1885. Twenty-five-year-old Sally Sue Sullivan is traveling by train from Kansas City, Missouri, to spend a week caring for her sick aunt. A tall, handsome man with “steel-blue eyes” sits across from her. Before long, with building terror, she realizes those are the eyes of the bank robber who recently held a gun to her chest after killing a guard. Her fears are validated when Clifford Canyon, spotting Sally Sue’s flicker of recognition, surreptitiously takes her hostage, bringing her to a farmhouse on an isolated parcel of land outside Flagstaff. As the two narratives progress, each woman faces a series of life-changing decisions. Anne is trying to maintain her independence from Sergio, who wants her back, and Sally Sue keeps looking for a way to escape from Cliff even as they form a complicated co-dependent relationship. Through Hall’s depiction of Sally Sue’s eventual determination to become self-sufficient (learning horseback riding, cooking, and shooting a gun), the author paints an informative portrait of the rigors and dangers of frontier life. The book’s ending creates the potential for a new work related to the series.
A light, pleasant summer read that focuses on two women carving their own paths.