Chevalier...has a well-known gift for immersing herself in a subject. Her research here is so thorough and so heartfelt that she manages to make the ancient art of embroidery interesting, even to those of us who wouldn’t dream of doing it ... There are a few dropped stitches in A Single Thread, when characters use modern expressions such as 'knackered,' but they do not spoil the quality of the whole tapestry because Chevalier has such a sure eye for detail, whether she is describing the timeless loveliness of the cathedral or the dismal interior of a 1930s boarding house. Reading this is deeply pleasurable and the ending made me cry.
Chevalier is a master of subtlety. It’s the small things—the victory of an even stitch or the reverberating impact of a cathedral bell—that allows the reader to hop aboard the Violet empowerment train ... The best-selling novelist has done a masterful job of depicting the circumstances of a generation of women we seldom think about: the mothers, sisters, wives and fiances of men lost in World War I, whose job it was to remember those lost but not forgotten.
You’ll hear echoes of the estimable Barbara Pym as Violet’s heels clip across the cathedral’s inner close. Allusions to casual sex and lesbian passion notwithstanding, days are punctuated by cups of tea and people remain largely trapped by their manners. At one particularly stirring moment, instead of finding herself kissed, Violet is treated to a three-course meal ... It’s a time and a place that is perfectly suited to Chevalier’s meticulous scene-setting, gentle pacing and gimlet eye for hidden hurts and secret longings. As for the embroidery, with its repetitive stitches that slowly, almost inconspicuously add up to something dazzling, she couldn’t have picked a more satisfying metaphor. After all, Violet and her fellow broderers are women building not only themselves, but the very idea of independent single womanhood in a world that does its best to ignore their existence.
Chevalier has built her career on an ability to delicately expose the ordinary human experience as a feat of extraordinary courage and beauty. It is now 20 years and 1.6 million book sales since Chevalier published Girl with a Pearl Earring, the book that set her career alight, but her commitment to salvaging lives from the footnotes of history and placing them at the centre of her storytelling remains unwavered. This novel illuminates the consequences of war through a voice that history has so often silenced, a single woman falling through the cracks of a society that struggles to perceive her value.
In A Single Thread, author Tracy Chevalier creates a beautiful and engrossing narrative. She lovingly describes the craftsmanship that went into making the beautiful kneelers that are still in use at the Winchester Cathedral today. With an effortless blend of truth and fiction, she develops characters that are flawed, fascinating, and endearing ... A Single Thread is, at its heart, a story of creation ... But more importantly it is also about creating community in the midst of loss and the importance of lasting friendships. Peopled with strong female characters, A Single Thread is a tribute to those women who defied convention and dared to find happiness in a world that had nothing left to offer them.
I was immediately captivated by Chevalier's ability to tell a big story while focusing on the small things that make characters memorable and also relatable. I like Violet ... Chevalier is skilled with setting, too ... The symbolism is sometimes a bit on the nose as Violet's growth from victim to the ruler of her destiny is marked out in needlepoint stitches. But the pacing, although leisurely, doesn't distract from the power of the story. The plot, and Chevalier's delicate handling of Violet's love interest, is seamless as well .... a fascinating story about building something long-lasting by beginning with one small stitch.
Tracy Chevalier knows her history and she knows how to incorporate it flawlessly into an engaging narrative ... Chevalier subtly weaves their captivating story toward a satisfying conclusion that makes A Single Thread into a singular sensation.
Chevalier...excels when describing the events and organizations of the time as well as the nuanced craftsmanship of needlepoint. Readers may find themselves more interested in Violet's craft than the story of how her life unfolds ... For fans of Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows's The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, or readers looking to immerse themselves in the past and enjoy a tale rich in details about an overlooked art.
Joining the broderers brings Violet new friends and a sense of purpose, Chevalier demonstrates, as she neatly — sometimes too neatly — lays out a plot that confronts Violet with sexism, homophobia and a stalker who would be scarier if his motive was more specific than free-floating menace. The characterizations are also broad, but vivid ... Drawing on her customary thorough research, Chevalier provides nicely evocative detail about different embroidery stitches and the imaginative designs created by Miss Pesel (a historic figure). She also offers a crash course in the ancient art of church bell ringing ... Tracy Chevalier once again proves herself a reflective and generous crafter of smart, thoughtful popular fiction.
...a welcome respite in her gentle new book of stitchery and manners ... With the manners and chortle-inducing humor that would make Jane Austen proud, Chevalier’s Thread is a pleasant diversion. Violet’s happy ending seems too pat, given attitudes toward women of her era, but the reader is nonetheless pleased for her.
Chevalier excels at writing about the ordinary human characters who find themselves accidentally at the centre of history ... There are times when the stiff fabric of Chevalier’s research shows through the delicate stitches of plot and character, but she creates a convincing picture of the period. Most impressive are the portraits of individual women like Violet’s mother, made bitter and furious by grief, who either pursue their freedom in small acts of disobedience, or quietly stitch their loss into comfort and beauty for generations to come, leaving no mark or memorial other than a neat set of initials sewn into a cushion.
Chevalier’s appealing characterization of...unwed yet indomitable Louisa Pesel, world traveler and first president of the Embroiderers’ Guild of England, provides a marked contrast [to protagonist Violet] in contentment and purpose. Chevalier is strongest when describing artistic pursuits, from stitchery to ringing church bells, and that is where the novel both educates and engrosses.
Chevalier excels at detailing the creative process, humanizing historical figures and capturing everyday life. With its bittersweet romance and gentle pace, Chevalier’s latest may be less powerful than her best novels, but it vividly and meticulously shows how vision, teamwork, and persistence raise needlecraft from routine stitching to an inspirational and liberating art.
Violet also discovers her own courage to try for love, a love her society would condemn, but in these days and in this author’s hands, all love is sacred. A compelling portrait of women not lost but thriving against the odds.
