Burak,
Kathryn. Emily’s Dress. Macmillan/ Roaring Brook Press 231p $17.99 978-1-59643-736-4 2012 hs/adult VG-BN Realistic
Fiction
Claire loses her mother to suicide, and
then her best friend dies under mysterious circumstances. The
novel takes Claire through her journey to the point when she can understand both deaths, learn to trust new friends, and cope with
tremendous grief. Plots and subplots
are aptly woven together in this very creative debut novel by writer Kathryn Burak. Burak’s protagonist experiences palpable
pain, creative thoughts that are expressed through her poetry, and a spontaneity to her actions that will draw the reader into
her life.
When Claire’s mother commits suicide,
Claire reveals her pain to a student teacher who becomes her stepping stone to
reconciling herself not only to the death of her mother, but also to the mysterious death of her best friend
Richy. In the rising action segment of
the plot, Claire accidentally steals Emily Dickinson’s dress, and she and Tate,
the student teacher in whom she has found a friend, must decide how best to
return the dress. How does one
accidentally steal a dress that is inside a museum honoring one of the
world’s most famous poets? Actually, Claire had
been sneaking into Dickinson’s house by night to find a safe haven since the
death of her mother. The connection to
Dickinson is twofold: first, Claire’s mother was a Dickinson fan, and secondly, Claire writes
poetry that mirrors Dickinson’s in its complexity and its tendency to teach
the reader about life. It is also the
conduit to her new relationship with the student teacher. By adding the subplot of having Claire
attempt to solve the mystery of Richy’s death, Burak brings Claire the answers that help her to
move from grief to acceptance. The
subplot is exciting and adds an element of mystery to a novel that is beautifully
crafted.
Death–Fiction,
Suicide–Fiction, Friendship-Fiction
--Martha Squaresky
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