Greta Samuelson's Reviews > A Fall of Marigolds

I won’t be able to stop thinking of Taryn and Clara for a while.

Taryn is a single mom in 2011 - she is a single mom because her husband died in the North Tower on 9/11 10 years earlier on the same day she found out she was pregnant.

Clara is a young nurse in 1911- she wanted to get away from her sleepy Pennsylvania town and moved to Manhattan to work. She landed a job in a doctor’s office in the Asch building. The same building as the Triangle fire. She survived the fire having worked on a lower floor but her PTSD sends her to isolate herself and she takes a job in the Ellis island hospital to hide from the city.

100 years of time separate the 2 women in this story but they are tied together by love, loss, grief, and a beautiful black scarf with bright orange marigolds.

Most of the book is Clara’s story but the sections that pop over to Taryn help to tie up the story of the scarf.

Sudden tragic loss has an intense level of grief that is not easily described- Unfortunately, I know this from first hand experience. Susan Meissner seems to understand those feelings and she is able to show it to us through Taryn and Clara’s stories. She is also able to show us that it gets better and it’s okay to be happy.

I loved reading this book and there were many profound and beautiful sections of writing along the way. I did notice that the reviews of this book are very mixed and I wonder if they are divided between audible readers and traditional readers. I read the book and as I was talking to a friend about it she looked up the audible version. We listened to a sample of the narrator’s voice and I didn’t feel like it was a good representation of the women in this story. It was halting and wavery/ almost scared sounding. I definitely feel like I would not have felt the same way about this book if o listened to it - yes, these women were grieving but they were strong and independent too.

Tell me what you think- did you read or listen and what were your thoughts?