The Girl Who Wrote in Silk – Kelli Estes

Novel Conversation’s Book Club – January 2018 Book – The Girl Who Wrote in Silk, by Kelli Estes

Thanks for coming to our book club meeting last Wednesday. For those of you that missed it, once again it was a very spirited discussion. Seriously, when isn’t it? We talked about The Girl Who Wrote in Silk, by Kelli Estes. So where to start?

How about the kind of novel it was? Many of us were expecting it to be more of historical fiction, and while the author did bring a lot of history into play, many felt it was written more as a romance novel. From a historical perspective, there was at least one case where the actual events were not as graphically devastating as the author portrayed them. I am referring to the horrific incident with the ship full of immigrants that’s described in the book. Now, that’s not to say the actual events were less traumatizing, but the consensus in the room seemed to be that the author’s liberties with making it even worse could be perceived as “cheapening” the actual historical event. In the end, we decided this was probably because it was written with romance in mind and that may have guided (misguided) the author’s inclinations. The reason this even came up was because many of us were doing our own research to find out what had really happened, what was true and what was not. Not a bad thing when a book causes you to seek out more information, is it?

Obviously the book explores the racial discrimination that existed in our country over a hundred years ago. Disclaimer: I am speaking about specific events as they relate to the book because clearly, racial discrimination still exists today. The book is focused on the discrimination the Chinese people experienced in Seattle in the late 1800’s and tells the story of Mei Lien, juxtaposed with modern day Inara , taking place in current times in Seattle and Orcas Island. The relationships the women have with their fathers are very different, probably due to the cultures and centuries they were raised in. The contrasts with family relationships between the two women, more than a century apart, are fascinating.

Without going into too much more detail, assuming some of you may not have read the book yet, some of us came to the conclusion that it could be classified as a good beach read. Others did not care for the book because it was written like a romance “beach read” novel and the depth was just not there. Either way, it’s a quick read, so if you haven’t read it, check it out. And yes, I enjoyed reading the book and thought it was a good story – worth the time it took to read.

Thanks again for everyone’s participation. Our book for February is Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterly. Looking forward to that discussion on Feb 28. See you then!

If you’re interested in more information about this book, please check out my favorite Good Reads review.