Books Reviews

The Chaperone – Book Review

By Angela Youngman Sep 17, 2012, 17:15 GMT

USA Today\'s #1 Hot Fiction Pick for the summer, The Chaperone is a captivating novel about the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922 and the summer that would change them both. Only a few years before becoming a famous silent-film star and an icon of her generation, a fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita, Kansas, to study with the prestigious Denishawn School ...more

Cora Carlisle seems to have a perfect life - a happy marriage, children and a good background.  Her neighbors regard her as being the ideal chaperone for their pretty daughter who is about to attend a short dancing course in New York. It is a journey which will change both their lives.  Cora has a secret past providing questions that need answers.

Young Louise is determined to make a career on the stage but for both the question is whether the cost will be too high.  Neither knows where the journey will eventually lead them.  Their lives constantly intertwine over the years. An intriguing story.

Personally, I found Cora's story slightly more interesting than that of Louise.  It offers insights into the problems faced by women in the early twentieth century, covering issues such as homosexuality, contraception and education as well as portraying the glitzy side of New York life complete with speakeasies, prohibition and theatre glamour.