Rainy Days

It must really be fall, because we've had rain this week. Such a relief from all the hot weather this summer.

I recently read a historical novel called Unmentionables by Laurie Loewenstein. It's set in 1917 in a small town called Emporia, where people have gathered for the annual Chautaqua circuit show. The protagonist Marian Elliot Adams is a feminist lecturer whose subject is women's undergarments, and how women need dress reform so that they can do practical work free of restrictive fashion. Then she meets some residents and gets injured, forced to stay in the town until she recovers.


To be honest, I thought Marian would talk more about these "unmentionables" throughout the book, but no, we just get her initial lecture on clothes, then mostly she talks about feminism and other social issues with people in town. Well "unmentionables" might also refer to these hidden secrets and difficult topics that people don't dare to discuss openly. Anyway, another main character is Deuce Garland, a local newspaper editor with a young feminist stepdaughter who idolizes Marian. One of Deuce's ancestors married a black woman years ago, and he's always a little bit embarrassed about this, trying to fit in with white society while always running away from any of the local black people.

As Deuce and Marian interact, she helps him get over this fear and shame; he also lets his stepdaughter Helen leave town to move to the city and work more for women's suffrage. In turn, Marian is also changed by her time in Emporia, falling for Deuce, but feeling that she has to leave again. She eventually decides that her lectures are not making a difference, so she decides to join the war effort by volunteering to provide aid to French civilians whose villages were ravaged by occupying German forces. She does return to America with a new mission to lecture and fundraise for the relief effort, and she comes to visit Deuce and Helen in Emporia. Other things happen regarding race, sexism, as well as anti-German prejudice against people who supposedly aren't contributing enough to the war effort.

The novel goes into some of these political issues, trying to show the changing world become our modern world. It was fairly interesting historically, though usually I only read period books because I'm looking for a mystery like Agatha Christie's old cozies. Reading a straight novel with no puzzle to solve is a little weird.

Still, I am interested generally in the struggle against discrimination like in The Help or in Hidden Figures. I recently saw a trailer for a new movie called Green Book, about a black musician hiring a white driver to help him during his tour through the South. Presumably the "green book" of the title is the negro motorist's guide to safe places where blacks could lodge, dine, and get gas for their car. They needed that guide in the days of segregation and sundown towns where they would be in danger of getting attacked. I hope the movie will be good.