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A Star for Mrs. Blake: A Novel
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A Star for Mrs. Blake: A Novel
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A Star for Mrs. Blake: A Novel
Audiobook11 hours

A Star for Mrs. Blake: A Novel

Written by April Smith

Narrated by Bernadette Dunne

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

The United States Congress in 1929 passed legislation to fund travel for mothers of the fallen soldiers of World War I to visit their sons' graves in France. Over the next three years, 6,693 Gold Star Mothers made the trip. In this emotionally charged, brilliantly realized novel, April Smith breathes life into a unique moment in American history, imagining the experience of five of these women.

They are strangers at the start, but their lives will become inextricably intertwined, altered in indelible ways. These very different Gold Star Mothers travel to the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery to say final good-byes to their sons and come together along the way to face the unexpected: a death, a scandal, and a secret revealed.

None of these pilgrims will be as affected as Cora Blake, who has lived almost her entire life in a small fishing village off the coast of Maine, caring for her late sister's three daughters, hoping to fill the void left by the death of her son, Sammy, who was killed on a scouting mission during the final days of the war. Cora believes she is managing as well as can be expected in the midst of the Depression, but nothing has prepared her for what lies ahead on this unpredictable journey, including an extraordinary encounter with an expatriate American journalist, Griffin Reed, who was wounded in the trenches and hides behind a metal mask, one of hundreds of "tin noses" who became symbols of the war.

With expert storytelling, memorable characters, and beautiful prose, April Smith gives us a timeless story, by turns heartwarming and heartbreaking, set against a footnote of history--little known, yet unforgettable.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 14, 2014
ISBN9780804166249
Unavailable
A Star for Mrs. Blake: A Novel

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Reviews for A Star for Mrs. Blake

Rating: 3.38 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was a story about a group of Gold Star Mothers in 1931. The U.S. government hosted trips for the mothers and widows who had lost their sons and husbands in WWI. The inspiration for the story came from the diary of one of the liaison officers who escorted groups of women to Europe. Very good reading.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    In the years after The Great War, before the causes World War II had fully reared their ugly heads, and were just snuffling around claiming ground, mothers of fallen US soldiers joined together to support and comfort each other, but to also provide care to wounded soldiers far from their families. The American Gold Star Mothers, so named from the gold stars hung in their windows to indicate a deceased veteran, still exists today. A Star for Mrs Blake takes place in the infancy of this organization, during an ambitious program of the US government to sponsor a pilgrimage offering mothers of soldiers who died in WWI the chance to visit the graves of their children in Europe. Inspired by the diary of Colonel Thomas West Hammond, whose first assignment out of West Point was to escort the Gold Star Mothers on their journey, this books centers on Cora Blake, a mother from Maine, who lost her only child, Sammy, in the final days of the war.Though the first half of the book moved a bit slowly for me, the pace did quicken as the mothers got closer to Europe. The personalities and backgrounds of the women featured in the book did seem to cover various walks of life, allowing glimpses into the worlds of different slices of society during the Depression. There were also some memorable characters introduced in Paris, notably Griffin Reed, an expatriate American journalist and Florence Dean Powell (based loosely on Anna Coleman Ladd, an American sculptor, fascinating in her own right, one of the artists who designed lifelike masks for gravely wounded soldiers.) While the book itself was a nice enough read, it was the pages of history it lead me to explore that really have enriched my life. Thank you April Smith, for again bringing these subjects to my attention so that I could delve more deeply, and thank you to dearreader.com and Random House for sending a copy of the book my way. I am grateful, and grateful to the men and women who honor our country by serving in the armed forces.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Not a big fan of this book. I thought the writing was average at best, the characters not well developed, the plot contrived, and the first two thirds of the book was just really boring. By the time things started happening, I didn't care anymore.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I won this book in exchange for an honest review.I hate to give a book 3 stars because it sounds like it wasn't good. This was a good book. A Star for Mrs. Blake is the story of the American Gold Star Mothers, mothers who lost their sons during WW I (many as young as 16) and who were consequently buried on foreign land (France). The novel centers around Mrs. Blake and 5 other mothers from different stations in life and their pilgrimage to France to see their sons' grave site.While sub-plots were kind of predictable, the story had a certain beauty in its' narration. Ms. Smith's prose beautifully captures the heartache, anguish, trepidation and disagreements these mothers experience on their journey. A lovely story with lots of historical background, believable characters and good flow. My only question was, and no spoilers given here, why were the crosses given back to Katie? How did that fit into the story?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    As a young child in the late 60s- early 70s, I can remember walking to school and passing by a house that had a gold star in the window. When I asked my mom what that meant, she told me that the woman who lived in that house lost a son in the war. It always made me sad thinking about that mom and her son.April Smith's new historical novel, A Star For Mrs. Blake, tells the story of Cora Blake, a woman who lost her only son in battle in France during WWI. She has had a tough existence since then, losing her mother and sister, and moving in with her brother-in-law to care for him and his three daughters.The Great Depression has hit the coastal rural area of Maine particularly hard, and Cora scrapes by working occasionally at a fish canning manufacturer, difficult dirty work that pays little. Her saving grace is volunteering at the local library, which would not be open if not for Cora. She has a beau, a geologist who wants to marry her.An opportunity arises where certain Gold Star mothers whose sons were buried overseas can go to France to visit their sons' graves, located in a big military cemetery. Cora jumps at the chance and in her small group are Katie, an Irish working woman who lost two sons, Minnie, a Jewish woman, Wilhemina, whom they discover spent time in an asylum, and Bobbie, a wealthy Boston socialite.Lt. Tom Hammond is their military escort, along with Lily, a young nurse from Chicago. The women, who come from such different places, do not always get along and have more than a few skirmishes. Along the way, Cora meets Griffin Reed, a war journalist who was severely injured in battle and now has a tin mask covering part of his face and a morphine addiction. (Anyone who has watched HBO's Boardwalk Empire will understand about the mask, worn by WWI vet Richard Harrow in the show.)Cora and Griffin become friends, perhaps because they both are hiding behind a disguise- Reed behind his mask and Cora behind a lie she has been living with for many years. I liked the growing relationship between these two people.The women are taken from place to place in France, and soon strafe living under the military rules they have been forced to follow. Seeing these women who, once away from their husbands and families, become stronger and bond together is satisfying and learning more about their home situations is interesting.There are some secrets discovered along the way, and I admit that I found at least one incident at the end of the book a little too soap opera for my taste, but overall I really enjoyed this book. The mixing of politics and military is also an intriguing aspect of this book.Reading books based on historical facts interest me, and in the acknowledgements Smith shares her real life inspirations for her fascinating book. I had never heard about these Gold Star mother pilgrimages and will be looking for more information on them.Fans of Sarah Blake's The Postmistress and Laura Moriarty's The Chaperone (who also had a protagonist named Cora) will find much to like here, with women who, once away from home, find something in themselves they may not have known existed.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A novel based on the almost-forgotten trips made to France by Gold Star Mothers, those women who lost sons in WWI. Funded by the U.S. government, these women went on a first-class trip to France to visit the graves of their sons. Mrs. Cora Blake, of Maine, is a fictionalized version of one such woman. The novel follows her and four companions as they tour around France and finally cap off their tour by seeing their sons' graves. Interwoven with the main story is the story of a newspaper man who lost his face in the war and wore a mask that made his expression perpetually frozen in one expression. The book is good right up until the end, when things wound down very quickly and perhaps slightly implausibly. Nonetheless, this is an enlightening read about a mostly-forgotten bit of American history.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I was fascinated by the summary of A Star for Mrs. Blake after the cover initially caught my eye. I had never heard of any sort of program that sent the mothers and wives of fallen soldiers overseas to visit graves and the very thought of it touched me. April Smith took on this small portion of our history and really fleshed it out, making the resulting story one that came off as realistic and somewhat interesting. However, in the interest of creating story suspension and drama, there were a few things about the book that rubbed me the wrong way.Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife on Feb. 6, 2014.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In the 1930s, the US government funded a program to send the mothers of boys killed and buried in France and Belgium during WWI to visit their sons graves. This book tells the story of one group of pilgrims who made the trip. The main character is Cora Blake from Maine who lost her son Sammy during the war. The idea for the book is great and some of the characters are fantastic (especially Cora) but I think that the book could have been much better. They are too many sub plots and something happens near the end (that I can't discuss because it would be a spoiler) that I thought was very implausible, Despite the few shortcomings of the book. it should still be read. We seem to have forgotten a lot about the sacrifices of WWI and this book is a good reminder of what happened to the young men in this country 100 years ago.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I read this book in 2 days, so it's obviously compelling, but I felt like there were too many characters. I would have liked it if it just focused on the 5 women and not given the backstory to all the other people with them. I also thought it would have been more interesting if the first Mrs. Russell would have been allowed to stay, even though I recognize this is not historically accurate. Also I felt like the death storyline was overly contrived or something--I definitely was not as engaged in the story after that happened.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Four star rating because this book took an aspect of post-WW1 history (that i am ashamed to say i'd never known about) and made it into an easy reading, interesting novel.It's 1931 and the U.S. has arranged for the grieving mothers of soldiers killed and buried overseas in WW1 to view their sons gravesites. The main focus is on a group of women from New England, and in particular, Maine-er Cora Blake.Yes, it's simply written and a quick read but at the same time it's informative, sympathetic and eye-opening.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    An interesting story about an odd chapter in American recent History. The US government had a program in the late twenties-early thirties to organize trips to the cemeteries in France for mothers to visit the graves of their children that had died in service in WWI. We follow one group of five women from New England. There are secrets and strong emotions and the writing is almost poetic.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In many ways WWI and its aftermath have been eclipsed in our collective consciousness by WWII. We've forgotten that it was once "the war to end all wars." And we certainly have forgotten the fact that in the aftermath of the war, despite the Great Depression gripping the nation, Congress authorized payments to send mothers and widows of the boys and men lost in the war and buried in foreign soil across the ocean to see their loved ones' final resting places. One such pilgrimage by Gold Star Mothers to the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery is the center of April Smith's new novel, A Star for Mrs. Blake. The long widowed Cora Blake lives on a small island off the coast of Maine. She cares for her brother-in-law and her late sister's three daughters, single-handedly keeps the tiny island library open, and finds paying work when she can, in these tough economic times, at a fish cannery. Cora's only son lied about his age and enlisted in the army during the war, dying at only 16 on a battlefield in France so far from home. Cora has spent the intervening years missing her Sammy, wondering if he had had a father at home if he would have gone and died in the war, and second guessing her decision to allow his final resting place to be the French countryside where he fell. When a letter comes from the government offering to pay to send her on a pilgrimage to see her boy's grave, all expenses paid, she jumps at the chance, leaving behind a good man who loves her and an offer of marriage and future happiness. Cora is one of five mothers in her group, traveling together from New York to Paris and then to the quiet fields outside Verdun where their boys fought and died. The women are from all different walks of life and different situations but they have the shared loss of their sons and their unavoidable grief in common. Bobbie Olsen is a wealthy socialite from Boston. Minnie Seibert is a Russian Jewish émigré who lives on a chicken cooperative. Katie McConnell is an Irish maid from a large and loving family and she lost two sons in France while her remaining young son is forever handicapped by a bout of polio. Wilhelmina Russell is a well-to-do athletically gifted woman recently released from an asylum where she was placed by her husband because of her recurring depression and his philandering. The women are so different that there are bound to be conflicts between them as they travel but there is also the bond of their unimaginable loss. The group is accompanied by the young, just out of West Point, Lieutenant Hammond and Nurse Lily Barnett, both of whom must address and solve any problems or snafus that arise in the course of the pilgrimage, starting from the very outset with the mix-up of the Mrs. Russells, both of whom lost sons but one of whom is white and one of whom is black and therefore to be on a separate pilgrimage. The narrative flips back and forth between all of the women, their history with their boys, their lives at home, and their hopes for the pilgrimage, but the matter of fact, down to earth, peacemaking Cora Blake's story dominates the story line. In many ways, she assumes leadership of the women, smoothing things over between them and understanding their prejudices far better than the impossibly young lieutenant and nurse can. And it is Cora who meets Griffin Reed, a reporter badly injured in the war, and offers him her friendship and understanding as well as her story, a story that will change her own ending there in France. The experience of the mothers is emotional and moving as they confront anew the loss of their much beloved sons. Some of the plot twists are quite predictable and that detracts a bit from the emotional punch that the book serves but the story over all is a fascinating one, the characters are realistic and interesting, and the truth of the pride and the grief that these women forever carried in their hearts is carefully rendered and affecting. Fans of historical fiction will be drawn into the story of the women and their pilgrimage.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    During the 1930’s, the United States government arranged for the mothers of soldiers killed during WWI to go to Europe to visit the graves of their fallen soldiers. This book is about one group of women. The main character, Cora Blake, is a librarian in a small town in Maine. She travels with 4 other mothers and two Army escorts. The story tells of their experiences in Europe. I love the idea of the book – this is a part of US history that most Americans don’t know about. I won this book through the Goodreads Giveaways program, and was eager to read it. I am disappointed in it, however. It seems to me that the author has maybe taken on too much – she is trying to tell too many stories at once. We get glimpses of the lives of the characters – but nothing in detail. I came away from the book feeling that she has just skimmed the surface of what was really happening. The only character that was developed enough to relate to in any way was the main character, while just bits and pieces of information were given about everyone else. It was a good book – but I was hoping it would be great.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    As luck would have it, I read Willa Cather's Pulitzer prize winning novel One of Ours within the last year and even though I have no idea if the author of this novel had that novel in mind, I couldn't help feeling that A Star for Mrs. Blake would make a great companion novel. It offers a parallel perspective of America's involvement in WWI on a personal level, but this time through the experiences of a mother who lost a son in the war (as opposed to a young soldier). The protagonist mentions a couple times that she is reading a Cather novel, so I can't help but think the author was responding to One of Ours in some way. Both characters wanted educations that they could not have (intellectual ambition), travelled to France, built camaraderie with peers, and grew greatly from their experiences.

    Smith's novel, however, has a different message. Where Claude finds a new frontier in the war in France, Mrs. Blake finds that there is really no place like home. The experience grounds her. Like One of Ours, the message is as mixed as the reality. War is not always glorious but sometimes necessary. Mrs. Blake struggles with her patriotism (and seeing the destruction in France) and her personal loss. Was it worth it? Not a question easily answered.

    The novel is solidly written (again, her prose even reminds me of Cather's prose). The characters are interesting and well-developed. I loved the various mothers from different backgrounds. They were funny and tragic and not clichéd. This is an enjoyable novel for anyone who likes historical American fiction and a classic early-20th century American novel.

    I received an advanced reading copy from Goodreads Giveaways in exchange for my review.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    AUTHOR: Smith, AprilTITLE: A Star For Mr.s BlakeDATE READ: 01/07/2016RATING: 4.5/B+GENRE/PUB DATE/PUBLISHER/# OF PGS Fiction / 2014 / Random House / 319 pgs SERIES/STAND-ALONE: SACHARACTERS AUTHOR: Mrs. Cora Blake/ mother of Sammy -- killed in WWITIME/PLACE: Post WWI Maine & ParisFIRST LINES Cora Blake was certainly not planning on going to Paris that spring. COMMENTS: This is a book I won on goodreads. Very happy to finally get around to it … This book is historical fiction -- taking place in 1931 about 13 years after WWI. Cora Blake lives in Maine and is "widowed" and lives in the home of her brother-in-law and his 3 daughters. Her sister passed and she assists w/ raising the girls. She also works at the local library, keeping it open even when there are no funds to run it during the Depression. Her only son, Samuel, died in WWI and is buried in France. The US Government is reaching out to the mothers of those soldiers who died for their country during the First World War and are buried overseas. They are sponsoring a trip for these mothers to Verdun, France where they can pay respects to their loved ones at their gravesites. Cora is joined by several other women of diverse backgrounds and these "pilgrims" aka Gold Star Mothers are chaperoned by an army nurse and West Point Officer. Most of these women have never left their home states and some their towns. On this journey, we have an Irish woman who lost 2 sons; a Boston socialite; a former tennis star who suffers some mental health issues, a Jewish mother who defies her husband in making this trip … these women would never have met but they all have a common bond and learn to care for each other, keep secrets and speak up when normally they wouldn't at home. I really enjoyed this book and think it would make a great movie.