My Mrs. Brown by William Norwich

I’ve been reading these ~

One is a Pulitzer-winning tale of WWII and the other a intriguing suspense novel from a UK author.  While I’m enjoying both books, (simultaneously –depending on my mood) this Advanced Readers Copy on my Kindle caught my eye the other night.

Like the most popular girl at the ball, I quickly dropped the other two books and started to dance with this one.  (You may go ahead and accuse me of being a fickle reader. Okay, I’ll cop to it — it’s one of my many bibliophile flaws.)

My Mrs. Brown has been called a feel-good book for women of a certain age and I thought – well I’ll just dip in and see if it’s worth reading.  Before I knew it, I was halfway through and only stopped reading when my eyes wouldn’t stay open any longer.  I finished it the next evening in one bout.

The novel is a re-telling of the 1958 novel Mrs. ‘Arris Goes To Paris by Paul Gallico and tells the story of a “woman of a certain age” in a small town in Rhode Island.  Widow, Emilia Brown dresses sensibly, sewing her own clothes in browns and greys.  She lives in a simple duplex and works as the cleaning lady for  the local beauty salon. She looks forward to chatting each evening with her renter in the adjoining duplex – a daughter of a friend, who in her black goth outfits – startles the genteel Mrs. Brown on many subject areas, but eagerly seeks the older woman’s wise counsel…

Everything is going to be okay in the end. And if it is not okay, it isn’t the end.

Mrs. Brown is a frugal, simple woman who admires the beautiful women around her but doesn’t actually care about beauty for herself.  Until the day she is helping inventory the estate of a recently deceased wealthy dowager and Mrs. Brown comes upon the dress, hanging in an almost empty closet:

Black and elegant, it is cap-sleeved with a single-button jacket made of the finest quality wool crepe. …a simple yet exquisitely tailored Oscar de la Renta sheath and jacket, that she realizes, with startling clarity, will say everything she has ever wished to convey about herself.

Mrs. Brown is quite taken with its simple elegance, yet she can’t bring herself to touch it with her work-roughed hands. The dress is simple, yet exquisitely tailored, lined with pure silk and costs more money than Mrs. Brown could ever afford.  The dress is sent on to the auction house with the rest of the grand dame’s valuables, but it awakens an “invincible spring” inside Mrs. Brown. 

Sometimes a dress isn’t just a dress.

She takes on extra cleaning jobs, skimps on her meals and starts saving for the dress – $7,000  –an extravagance that begins to define Mrs. Brown in ways she couldn’t imagine.

The story of how Mrs. Brown gets the money and then journeys to New York City made me smile, and then grin — the scene where she exits Penn Station and sees the New York City for the first time will resonate with anyone who remembers their first experience of that astounding and magnificent city.

Once the story moves to New York City, I must confess, it becomes a bit contrived — but in a good way, like reading Dickens — a fairy tale for grown up women.  Mrs. Brown encounters kindness and help on Seventh Avenue the fashion center of Ne York — at first because she is carrying her mother’s valuable hand-me-down vintage handbag and later, because everyone, including Oscar de la Renta himself, wants to help this quiet, drab lady achieve her dream. He tells her quietly

“We’ve an expression on Seventh Avenue.  It’s music to most women’s ears. ‘I can get it for you wholesale,’ and, Mrs. Brown”, Oscar said, “if I can’t get it for you wholesale, then we’re in a lot of trouble around here.”

From then on, Mrs. Brown’s story concludes towards the happy ending we hope for. The dress is procured and professionally altered to fit her perfectly, a new friend in New York City finds love — even Mrs. Brown’s life is back in her small town is changed- no her life is now charmed — because she got the dress – her dress.

Mr. Norwich (a fashion writer) has portrayed  Mrs. Brown not only as a woman who is not yet past her prime, but as a true lady — maintaining her strength, grace and dignity in a world where the Mrs. Browns are often disregarded.

Most women have wished for such a dress, one which spoke to them, one which when possessed and worn could have a Cinderella affect.*

An unapologetically sweet story, not striving to be great literature, but rather to restore the reader’s faith in kindness, goodness and grace.  Definitely, a feel-good novel.   Now I’ll go back to my other book dates – hmmm, what am I in the mood for?  WWII resistance tale or a creepy country house in the English countryside?

 

*Mine was a black & white, beautifully draped polyester disco dress — don’t judge  — it was the late 70’s, and it was fabulous.

A digital review copy was provided by Simon &  Schuster via NetGalley.