Michaels, Barbara. Shattered Silk. Atheneum, 1986.
Reason read: Michaels passed away in the month of August. Read in her memory.
Shattered Silk begins with such a benign plot I questioned the seriousness of including it in a More Book Lust chapter called “Girl Guides, Or It’s a Dark and Stormy Night…” (p 99). Karen Nevitt, soon to be divorced, has sought refuge at her aunt and uncle’s home in Georgetown, Washington D.C. under the auspicious of housesitting and dog watching. This is a return to her college roots, complete with old frienemies and an old boyfriend with whom a relationship ended badly. What originated as an escape from a bad marriage turns into a business venture when a family friend urges Karen to start a vintage clothing shop. That’s when the trouble starts. Karen experiences harassing behavior from an unknown person, but no one knows why. The sad thing is, I honestly did not really care to know the reason. Karen’s personality was such that I did not root for her either way. She wasn’t a likeable or believable character. She was just meh. All of the characters were just blah. I didn’t believe them. Why would a cop buy a house for a woman’s business before even asking her?
I will say this about reading Shattered Silk: I know more about taking care of various fabrics than I ever cared to. Even though Michaels introduces Karen as not knowing much about fine fabrics, Karen brings herself up to an expert in record time. Readers will learn about designers, textiles, and even receive fashion tips.
I am always curious about the relationships people have with one another. Exactly who is Karen to Jill and vice versa. What Michaels writes, “They parted with mutually insincere expressions of affection” (p 24), I had to wonder.
Personal connection: When Michaels was describing Karen’s relationship with her mother she could have been describing mine. A mother who asks what you did wrong when you share that a serious relationship is coming to an end. Failure is on you o matter what happened.
Author fact: Peter Mertz’s photograph of Barbara Michaels has her looking like a character straight out of a Victorian romance; big hat, fuzzy cat and all.
Book trivia: this could have been a movie.
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter with the long title, “Girl Guides, Or It’s a Dark and Stormy Night, Good Thing You Have a Flashlight” (p 99). As an aside, Shattered Silk is the first book I am reading for this chapter. Believe it or not, after ten years of this Challenge there are still some chapters I haven’t touched.
~*LunaSea*~ 