The Paris Seamstress by Natasha Lester

4.5 Stars

At first I was completely absorbed in Estella's story and when the story jumped ahead 70 years to Fabienne I was really unhappy as all I really wanted to do was read about Estella and find out just how she had an American father, allowing her to escape ahead of the invasion.  I soon got past that as Fabienne sucked me in to.

What I particularly liked about this book was the humanness of all the characters.  Even though the Wehrmacht were terrifying to Estella she never depersonalised them, although there is (fortunately) little of them in the book you always got the sense that they were people first and foremost and war machines second.  In fact, that is true of all the people in the book - nobody is there just to provide one example of human nature, even the horrendous Harry Thaw is more than just his sadism.

I would have liked to learn more about Janie and Sam through the book.  They are constants in Estella's life and clearly her only support network for much of her life in America and yet we see so little of them.  At least she has friends and people to rely on, by contrast her granddaughter, Fabienne, does appear to be truly alone in the world.  Although, I can fully understand why, although I enjoyed her story I never really warmed to Fabienne.  She comes across as very high maintenance (emotionally speaking) and you can see how this would push people away.

Historically there are some liberties taken with events but the depiction of a Paris under occupation is completely heartbreaking.  The way it deals with the choices people made was very well done and I like that Estella, whilst denigrating the collaborators, also accepts that for some women this was their only way to survive or for their children to survive.  Nice to see the women who made this choice not be made out to be less than human as they so often are.

Plot wise the story is well constructed and has a good narrative flow, once you get used to the way we move from Estella to Fabienne and back again.  The only thing that bothered me (and caused me to dock half a star) was that the time shifts became entirely predictable and always left either character on a cliffhanger.  The little fashion details scattered throughout were little gems (or maybe gold silk roses), although it did remind me of Shirley Conran's Lace in the descriptions of Estella's desires for Stella Designs to provide affordable clothing that was suited to a more modern life.

A wonderful tale that does lead you to want to research the Occupation of France and the Resistance.  It also reminds you that Dior's New Look would look just as good today as it did then.