I Just Read About That…

[LISTENED TO: January 2024] No. 23 Burlington Square

I’m not sure why I listened to this book.  There was a recommendation that if I liked a certain author I would like this.  But I can’t find that recommendation now and can’t for the life of me think of what I like that this would have been compared to.

I thought it was a mystery novel but it isn’t (well, there’s a mystery in it, but it’s not a mystery novel).  I also thought that maybe it was the audio book reader, Lucy Scott.  But I hadn’t listened to her before either.

But the reasons for reading it are irrelevant.  And I’m really glad I took a chance on it.

The book starts off with us meeting a young widow, Mercy.  It in 1927 and she is interviewing for a room at No. 23 Burlington Square.  The landlady is Agnes Humphries, a woman who says what is on her mind, but is never mean, just truthful.

Mercy seems like a great candidate and Agnes’ cat likes her.  But instead, she decides to give the room to her niece Clara.  It’s quite a surprise that we barely see Mercy again–only when Clara runs into her later.

Clara is a wild woman, going out to parties after 10PM, which is when Agnes wants everyone in bed.  She is wealthy and beautiful and borderline insufferable.

Until she meets the downstairs neighbor Jemima Smith.  She is a young wife with three children and a fourth on the way. Jemima’s husband is an ass. He makes the money but he spends it on drink and other nonsense.  And he’s mad at Jemima that she can’t give him a boy.

Jemima is a stern feminist–prickly with the rich and foolish Clara until she realizes that Clara is actually making a change for the better.

There is a young man who is after Clara but she is not interested.  Eventually she confides in Agnes that she is gay.  And when she confides that to Jemima, the young mother is shocked.  But…

I can honestly say that I was shocked when Book II started and Stephen Thompson (the third candidate for the room) was being shown to his new room.

Because this book (this could be a spoiler, but I suppose only if, like me, you go in 100% blind), shows three timelines of what could have been depending on who Agnes offers the room to.

What is cool about the way the story is written is that the three (for yes, we will see Mercy again) stories build on the information provides in the previous ones.  So even though outcomes change and people act differently, fundamental truths about the characters remain and are built upon.

But it also means that the end of Book I is no longer true because when Stephen gets the room it means that Clara does not and so her life does not end up the same way.  But then neither do the others’.  In Book I, one of the older residents dies because he is lonely.

But in Book II with Mr Thompson in the house, he makes friends with old Mr Gorsky and it gives the old man a reason to live.

This story is fascinating and the development of Thompson is beautifully crafted.  A man who doesn’t trust anyone slowly learning that he can be friends with people and think about others.

At the end of the book you have to wonder, if someone lies to another person and totally takes advantage of them, but that person doesn’t know and is not exactly hurt by the actions and, in fact, is happier than ever, is that a bad thing?

The answer sort of comes in Book III, with Mercy’s story.

Mercy is from a farm in Sussex.  Her husband was lost in the war and she has fled her terrible mother-in-law to the big city.  She is timid and is working at a department store job she doesn’t really like.  Then she meets Clara who swans in looking for something from Agnes.  While they are talking, Jemima comes home with her cranky children.  And soon the women are bonding.  Mostly bonding at how horrible their husbands are/were.  Clara informs them that she is about to be engaged and they both tell her to say no.

They are very disappointed to find that she says yes.

Some of the other stories play out in interesting ways.  Stephen Thompson comes around to befriend Mr Gorsky again (the reason he didn’t in the first story is because he recognizes Clara from his past and doesn’t want to be seen by her).  That story plays out in a similar way.

And there’s another lodger, Gilbert who is a photographer and is by all accounts, a weird guy.

The way the various pairings play out in the final story is very satisfying.

But the most satisfying of all is the epilogue which is even more improbable but even more enjoyable.

I’m not exactly sure what this story gets classified as.  Goodreads gives it Historical Fiction (true) and Romance (yes, but not exclusively), but there’s a bunch more going on.

It’s sweet and a little sexy and yet it doesn’t shy from violence (a few characters get beaten up).

But I guess since it was written now it gets to live in the rough past of 1927 with a contemporary sensibility (the LGBT storyline is particularly nice).

I don’t know if I’d do another of her stories, but I liked this one.  And the reading by Lucy Scott was quite good.  I found some of her voices to be kind of harsh, but they were probably pretty authentic given how great her male voices were.