Book Review: THE CHOIR

Title: The Choir

Author: Carol M Cram

Publisher: HTF Publishing

Pages: 342

My GoodReads Rating:

Eliza Kingwell is planning to escape from husband Reg to her grandmother’s house in Devon with her five daughters. Life isn’t easy, and Reg is a violent and abusive man. Pregnant with her sixth child, Eliza is desperate to keep her children safe, amid financial struggles and physical abuse. When Reg finds the money that Eliza had spirited away, her Escape Plan is undone.

Meanwhile, Ruth Kingwell, Eliza’s best friend and the stepdaughter of Reg through a previous marriage, is a singer and actress on the stage in London, a darling of the crowds. She is married to James Henton, a wealthy man, a marriage of convenience for both. When Henton kills himself to save his reputation and get away from crippling debt, Ruth loses her position at the theatre and her home, and takes up a job as an adjudicator of choral competitions.

A choral competition, with a generous prize for the best choir and the best solo singer, encourages Eliza to think that all is not lost. Forming a choir, Eliza focuses on winning the prize and earning her escape. But is she good enough to win?

 

The book is written in the 3^rd person past tense PoVs of Eliza and Ruth in alternate chapters. It is set in October 1897, in Briarstown, East Yorkshire, in the PoV of Eliza and in London and other places in the PoV of Ruth.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

The author gives us a taste of the reality of the times. The author tells us that the stench of the privies pervades the air, and the men and young children as young as 13 years of age work long 14-hour shifts at the mill. It is also a time when unwanted pregnancies lead to botched miscarriages.

The descriptions are minimal, yet the right phrase opens our minds to the world. For instance, she puts in a stray mention of the Art Nouveau movement and the custodial experience of Oscar Wilde, rooting the story in its point in history.

The new threshing machines, that make an appearance as the Industrial Age comes into its own, render people like Eliza’s father, who doesn’t know how to use them, unemployable,

I was invested in both the Main Characters. Close to the turn of the century, both women use their innate capacities to get ahead and to imagine a better future for themselves.

Eliza’s daughters were all sweet. I liked Gladys, in particular; a voracious reader, she doesn’t want to stop to eat because she has reached an exciting bit in the book she is reading. Even the minor characters were sweet.

The structure of the plot, with the parallels in how doors shut in the faces of Eliza and Ruth, was interesting.

What I liked most was the language of the author’s similes:

the blood and sadness that flowed from her body, thick and sluggish like the wake of a barge sliding slowly down the canal.

Fear twisted through Eliza’s body like a sapling in a hurricane.

A keening sound like the screeching of unoiled machinery razored the air.

…the axle around which her family rotated.

The word hung between them like a drop of blood too thick to fall.

Face as pale as a bolt of unbleached linen.

Old rivalries and hurt feelings dissolved like the harsh lye soap frothing the wash water

Notes flying off in all directions like bobbins disconnected from their looms.

Grief passing like a shuttle

 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

Compared to the first two-thirds of the book, the last part felt weak.

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

Reg’s actions on the page were nowhere as cruel as we were led to believe. The meek manner in which he gives in is out of place, even in cozy fiction. There should have been more evidence of his wickedness.

Eliza’s mother’s change of heart felt just as unconvincing.

 

ALL SAID AND DONE:

An easy read, particularly if you like stories about choirs. 

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)