GOLD in the CLOUDS : 2019 Book Review #5: The Clockmaker's Daughter

Well. This book is an experience.

It's probably going to linger in my mind for quite some time. It is truly a work of art....the written word that helps your mind to dwell on beauty, time, art, family, friendship, connections, nature, truth.

STORY SUMMARY

The book opens in the first person. It is this underlying voice that is extremely important to pay attention to.

It is the summer of 1862 and the distinguished artist, Edward Radcliffe, and his close friends, are gathering at Birchwood Manor, to paint, engage in photography, and just spend a glorious month in the country. Edward has brought his dear friends Felix and Adele (photographers), his sister Clare and her friend Thurston (another painter) and his little sister Lucy, just 13 years old. He has also brought the lovely girl known as Lily Millington, his muse, this beauty whom he is capturing on canvas. The person he has not invited is his fiancee, Fanny.

By the time their month of creativity and inspiration is over, one woman is dead, one has disappeared and Edward's life has been ruined.

Now it is 150 years later, in 2017, and Elodie, who is an archivist in London, has just discovered a very old leather satchel. The satchel contains a very old photograph of a beautiful young woman in a white dress and a sketchbook of a house with twin gables on the bend in the river Thames. Why does James Stratton's estate have this?? Did he know Edward Radcliffe??

It is a sketch of Birchwood Manor.....but why does this house seem so familiar to Elodie?

Who is the mysterious woman in the photograph? and who is the BB written on the letter found under the frame?

Why does her great-uncle Tip react the way he does when she shows him the photograph and the sketch?

And why is she not excited about her upcoming wedding to Alastair, a very wealthy banker?

Elodie begins to chase some clues to unravel the mystery surrounding Birchwood Manor. And soon she discovers that there are many people whose lives have been touched by this house....and those people are all connected in some way.

There is Edward Radcliffe and his love for Lily Millington who was his model and muse for his most famous, and last, painting; his sister Lucy and the school for girls that she opened in the early part of the 20th century and where Ada Lovegrove came to discover the Blue stone pendant that people have been searching for; there is Leonard Gilbert who was a soldier in the Great War who goes to Birchwood Manor to heal his soul and write a biography about Edward Radcliffe; there is Juliet, a recent widow, and her three young children who go to escape the Blitz of WWII and end up at Birchwood Manor and later Bea, Juliet's oldest daughter is the grandmother of Elodie; and there is the present time where Jack Rolands, a private detective, comes to Birchwood Manor to find the Radcliffe Blue and who meets Elodie.......and discovers love.

and keep your thoughts on Pale Joe......ah....it's a brilliant twist....

And "flowing through the pages like a river is the voice of a woman who stands outside time, whose name has been forgotten by history, but who has watched it all unfold: Birdie Bell, the Clockmaker's Daughter." (taken from the jacket cover)

MY THOUGHTS

This book is outstanding. It's really a work of literary worth and I'm not surprised it's been on the NY Times bestseller list.

The book is divided into 4 sections: The Satchel (where it is very easy to learn just who the "ghost" is and that it is indeed the voice of the ghost telling the back story); The Special Ones; The Summer of Birchwood Manor (where you really find out exactly how the Radcliffe story plays out); and Captured Light (the brilliant ending).

This book is rich with many characters so it's important to pay attention to the main ones. It's easy to discover just who are the important characters that will be a part of the back story as the publisher puts them on the jacket (inside) cover.

The idea of the voice being a ghost is a little gothic but it's what moves the book forward....and it is so easy to guess just where the story leads....which I liked. I also liked that you had to keep guessing as to where Lily/Birdie was going to end up.....I guessed correctly and was very sad when I discovered I was right.....the imagery and also the idea of truth vs false information/gossip and how it affects one's life in this book is just amazing.

There are many themes to this book: love, betrayal, truth vs lies, abandonment, jealousy, art, forgiveness, finding one's self, strength in adversity, bullying, memories and what we keep or choose to forget. I'm sure there are many more but to me, those are the main ones.

It's interesting to note that when the chapter is in Birdie's voice (the spirit), the chapter numbers are in Roman numerals. When it is another story/character the chapter is written out "Chapter Nine", etc.

Birdie is a clockmaker's daughter...most clocks in that century were created with Roman numerals. The book is indeed about time vs timelessness.

You will most likely fall in love with Birdie......and you will shed some tears I'm sure when you find out what happens.

Two quotes that jumped out at me:

"..and I have learned that one must forgive oneself the past or else the journey into the future becomes unbearable" (pg 248, The Clockmaker's Daughter, by Kate Morton, c.2018)