Part historical novel, part feminist rally cry.
Alden Patterson, the last living member of a once-wealthy Toronto
family, is haunted by the legacy of her grandfather, William Patterson,
whose suicide taints the family name. She lives in the decaying
Patterson House with Constance, a foundling, and John Hunt, an injured
war veteran and the family's former gardener. When Alden is reduced to
taking in boarders, she thinks she has found a way to survive until the
crash of 1929 leaves her truly desperate and one particular boarder
threatens to destroy everything she thinks she wants.
"Part sweeping historical novel, part ghost story, part coming of age
tale and part feminist rally cry, PATTERSON HOUSE is a novel that
manages to do so much at once. I loved the close examination of
Toronto's history and the reality of women's limited options in the
early 1900s. Alden Patterson is a fictional hero for our times, a woman
trying hard to retain her independence in an era that doesn't allow for
it. Cawthorne's writing is fluid and spare, allowing the novel's twists
and turns to guide the reader. This is a wonderful book."--Amy Stuart,
author of Still Mine
"One of the numerous delights of this first novel is the picture it
presents of Toronto at the turn of the twentieth century and into the
1930s. But it is Toronto as lived in by women: the unwed mothers, the
motherless girls, the women who have given up their rights when they
marry only to discover how bad the bargain they have made is, and also,
but certainly not the least, those brave ones who defy convention and
refuse the life laid out for them. Salvation for women is hard to come
by in this writerly world, but it sometimes does through dogged
persistence, mutual support, simple courage, and once in a while,
through plain dumb luck. Jane Cawthorne's PATTERSON HOUSE is a
tightly-woven, warm and lively novel that builds in tension in such a
way that nearing the end, the reader won't be able to put the book
down."--Sharon Butala
"The PATTERSON HOUSE saga is old-fashioned in all the right ways: a
great broad canvas of time and event; multiple characters with deeply
complicated desires and obstacles; and maybe best of all, writing that
is both muscular and lyrical. PBS, are you reading "--Sandra Scofield,
author of six novels, including the National Book Award finalist Beyond
Deserving
Fiction. Women's Studdies.
