Community Library Notes
“A Single Thread” by Tracy Chevalier is the story of Violet, a “surplus woman.” That is what unmarried women were called in Great Britain after the first world war. Violet’s brother and fiancé have both been killed in the war, and Violet has moved out of her mother’s house, in 1932, where she listened to constant complaints. She once counted nine of them in one evening. She has a decent job at an insurance company, typing claims for burned houses, damaged cars, and wrongful deaths. Her younger brother, Tom, drives her to her new boarding house. When she arrives there, she shuts her door and makes a cup of tea. She feels strong.
The women who work with Violet (M and O) talk about their affairs with men and Olive has a diamond ring on her finger. A small diamond. Violet sometimes sleeps with men she meets at a bar, but nothing serious evolves. It’s difficult to get by on her salary and she often skips a meal. But she gets breakfast at the boarding house and sometimes treats herself to a movie. At the big cathedral where she went with her mother on Sundays, she saw a “kneeler” with a lovely design embroidered on it. The next day she called the group’s leader, Mrs. Biggins, on the telephone. Violet agrees to go to the next meeting and gets time off work.
At the meeting, Mrs. Biggins told her to organize a cupboard and sort the wool, but when Miss Pesel came in, she was kind and vowed to teach Violet herself so she could learn her stitches by summer break. Chevalier describes the process so well the reader could do it.
When Olive announces she’s going to marry her fiancé immediately, Violet and M (now Maureen) know the reason. Violet and Maureen work extra hours for Olive’s absence. She treats herself to a good supper when her boss agrees to the extra pay. She teaches Maureen to embroider and improves her technique at the same time. She embroiders at all times: at lunch, at teatime, in the evening watching television at the boarding house.
On Christmas Eve she and her family go to the cathedral’s midnight mass. Gilda takes Marjory, Violet’s niece, to look at the kneelers. They run into Dorothy Jordan who seems to be whispering with Gilda. Violet has an uneasy feeling about the two women. Gilda looks happy and a bit guilty. On New Year’s Eve Violet goes to a party with Gilda and Dorothy. They dance together and it looks natural to Violet. As she leaves the party she sees the man from the cornfield, Jack Wells. He sees her and begins whistling, and follows her. She panics and runs to the cathedral.
The next day is complicated. Gilda comes to Violet late in the evening. Dorothy has been fired from her job of teaching Latin and kicked out of her house. Gilda has come to Violet for help. She phones Miss Pesel who says of course, Dorothy can come stay with her for a few days. Some people are tolerant and compassionate and others are not. Dorothy says a few words in Latin and goes to her new room at Miss Pesel’s.
The next evening she goes to the cathedral after the broiderer’s meeting. There she sees Arthur. They sit together and clasp hands. They speak of Hitler and Isaac Walton and fishing. She is thrilled when Arthur suggests dinner for the following week. It’s not really a date; yet it is.
When Violet next sees Arthur, he asks her if she knows the design on her cushion is a swastika. Miss Pesel had designed them and Violet asks her to explain her reason for the design. She tells Arthur the design is not a swastika. They are fylfots, an ancient symbol used for thousands of years. She’s used the design as an act of rebellion and subversion.
On Violet’s birthday, she goes to her mother’s house. Mum announces she’s moving to her sister Penelope’s to help her. Gilda and Dorothy will move into mum’s to live together and look for jobs in the area. Violet and Arthur now meet every week for supper at the Old Market restaurant. One Sunday he takes her and shows her how to ring the bells. Afterward, they bicycle toward her house. They stop in a field and she invites him to join her. They lay together and she tells him they should not meet again. His wife needs him. He agrees.
Will they see each other again? Will Arthur know he is the father of a baby girl with blue eyes like his? Chevalier brings this very British story to a satisfying close. Find it in the fiction room of your Mendocino Community Library.