Having loved Stead's For love alone, I had high hopes for Letty Fox: her luck. Another chunky VMC, it was very different for For love alone, and also to the Salzburg Tales. This time set predominantly in New York, it tells the story of Letty, and her quest to find a husband. Why is Letty so determined to find a partner? A large part of the book is devoted to her early life, and somewhat mixed up family circumstances. Yet somehow Letty manages to keep sabotaging her chances of marriage. I have read elsewhere on the internet that this book could be read as "early chick-lit", anticipating the concerns of contemporary women, but I feel there are other books of the period which also do that.
Ultimately this book didn't do it for me - there are many other VMCs set in New York which I have preferred, and it just didn't hold my attention in the way that For love alone did. It doesn't put me off Stead, but I will be interested to see what the rest of her novels are like, and whether or not they absorb me in the way that For love alone did, or leave me cold.
Just published once by Virago, with this cover above. I'll happily pass this novel on to anyone else who wants to give it a go - just leave a message in the comments!
Oooh, can I try it please? New York is very much on my mind at the moment! ;)
ReplyDeleteThe Group is a VMC that evokes NYC wonderfully well, I thought, and I know there was another one that you read recently set there... Valley of the Dolls is another one.
ReplyDeleteRachel - you're welcome to have it, but it may take me a little while to get to the PO.
ReplyDeleteClaire - The golden spur was one. Have yet to read Valley of the dolls...
For 'New York' I think Edith Wharton is hard to beat. And I love to the point of adoration, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.
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