Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade
By Janet Skeslien Charles
Published 2024
Read Nov 2024
This book came on this reader’s reading list via a book discussion group at a local library. This reader read the entire 486 pages over a three-day period—clearly it was engaging.
The book primarily is set in 1918 and is a fictionalized account of Jessie Carson, a librarian who joined the American Committee for Devasted France (French name abbreviated CARD) in 1918 and brought books and libraries to an area in France very near the front of the war. The CARD work was initiated by and overseen by Anne Morgan, daughter of financier J.P. Morgan and his second wife, Fanny. Readers learn about the CARDs, as members of the committee call themselves and their work to support the local civilians whose villages have been nearly destroyed. They also play a role in evacuating these folks when the front moves towards them again.
There is a second narrative line set in 1987 and appears to be a purely fictional account of Wendy Peterson who works in the Remembrance department at the New York Public Library while attending a graduate workshop on writing. Over the course of the book, she moves from discovery of Jessie Carson and the CARDs as part of her assignment to prepare electronic scans of original documents to committing to write their story. Of course there is a love story in this narrative.
This reader was midway through the book before confirming that Jessie Carson was a real historical figure whose story was being fictionalized and not someone who was a fictional character who worked with the CARDS and observed their actions. The latter is this reader’s preferred approach which is exemplified in Dreamers of the Day. While I enjoyed the concept of a “private library of the mind” that the Jessie character uses to help her through challenges—-remembering favorite phrases from various books, this reader does not favor the approach of making up such thoughts nor telling the reader of her thoughts of intimacy with the presumed fictional character, Tom. Certainly, this brings the historical figure to life for the reader and the literary phrases are enjoyable for readers, lack of proof of this particular “life” for this historical figure grates this reader, but certainly not all readers.
The author provides in her twenty-page Author’s Note section biographical sketches of each of the actual historical figures she fictionalizes. She also describes how she created characters that are not real historical figures but were suggested by actual historical figures. This was much appreciated by this reader.
This reader recommends this book to learn about the heroic efforts of the CARDs to support French victims of the war, of its creator Anne Morgan, and of Jessie Carson’s heroic efforts to bring reading back into their lives and especially to overcome the then view of how libraries should be run and for whom. Jessie Carson certainly revolutionized libraries in France through her work as a CARD and her subsequent work in Paris to establish new libraries and new library education programs. This reader is much more informed about these significant figures. This reader only adds the caution that it is a fictionalized account of Jessie Carson and several other historical figures. However, given the apparently very limited primary records about her (in contrast to the personal correspondence available for Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations) it may be difficult to provide any account of her beyond that provided at the end of the book and this fictionalized account is more engaging reading.
MarshaReads.com 