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The Little Shadows Marina Endicott 9780385668910 Books

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The Little Shadows Marina Endicott 9780385668910 Books

I found this novel about how three teen-aged sisters and their widowed mother managed to make a living in the days of vaudeville in the west during WWI to be very, very good. Although other readers have complained that it took too long to get into the actual lives of Aurora, Clover, Bella and mother Flora, I didn't find that. I think the descriptions of what vaudeville really was and what it entailed to be able to "make it" as an act on stage were necessary to understand what the girls and their mother were going to go through later in the book. It was certainly not a pretty or easy life and sometimes the descriptions of the forms of abuse against young girls and women that were more or less accepted as the norm were hard to take.
I loved the author's choice of words, whether she was describing the bowls that the girls ate their daily breakfast porridge from, and if they were lucky, their second meal of the day, or the clothing they wore, or what the landscape was like when it had snowed overnight.
The central theme of the book seemed to be about love and the importance of family and friends, which of course is universal, but the knowledge I gained about vaudeville, a subject I knew very little about, made the story even more enthralling for me. I came to care about the Avery girls as I read the book and I wanted to know how their lives turned out; would they each find the "right" person to love them? In the end I was thoroughly entertained while I was able to do just that.


Tags : The Little Shadows [Marina Endicott] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Here is the eagerly anticipated new novel from a brilliant writer whose last book, <b>Good to a Fault</b>,Marina Endicott,The Little Shadows,Doubleday Canada,0385668910,Fiction General

The Little Shadows Marina Endicott 9780385668910 Books Reviews

The Little Shadows by Marina Endicott is a historical novel set in the years preceding and during World War I. It is the story of three sisters, teenagers as the story begins, who travel with their mother to support the family as a vaudeville act. The book is 527 pages long, but I was engaged in the story immediately. I loved the way the author switched back and forth between the sisters (especially) and the mother (occasionally). It took a while for the characters to grow on me, but I enjoyed all of the story telling and the pictures of life in vaudeville.

Through the first half of the book, we follow the sisters in their travails in vaudeville. They all love the life and entertaining people, and I liked that it wasn't a chore for them. If they were tied down in one place for too long, they got bored. In the money or not, they wanted to be entertaining in vaudeville more than anything else.

At around the midpoint of the book, the sisters are all maturing and various aspects of life intrude upon their plans and goals. I don't like to say more than that, but at this point, I was more involved with the characters and pulling for them with their various problems or triumphs in life. This book covers the years from 1912-1917 and thus World War I figures a great deal. That was also a plus for me. I like to learn about wars in a fictional setting.

Marina Endicott has done extensive research on vaudeville, as she describes in her acknowledgements and at her website. This book shows the poverty and uncertainty in the vaudeville life for most performers, and how their fortunes may rise or fall based on luck just as easily as talent.
after loving her first novel,"Good to a Fault", I was disappointed with "The little Shadows". Found it trite and it didn't flow in the narrative.In fact.I gave up halfway through.
This book took a long time to get into, it didnt get my attention at the start. But it gave a good insite into vaudeville and how the artists survived, (or not) in the early 1900.
Overall I enjoyed the book very much, especially that it is Canadian and since I live in the Prairies I could relate to the locations they travelled to. I felt that the story had a slow start but the action picked up and became more exciting as I read more. I would recommend it. Hope you enjoy this book.
This story unfolded pretty slowly, but I quite enjoyed it just the same. It taught me about vaudeville and the role it played in people's entertainment in those days, particularly in small towns. I also learned about the geography of that part of Canada and US. I became involved with the characters and felt Marina Endicott painted a credible, albeit bleak picture of their lives. Some of the book was too drawn out, e.g. the rather tedious descriptions of all the acts, some of which weren't relevant to the story at all. It's not going to set the world on fire but this novel will appeal to those who just want a quiet read that has a deal of literary merit.
I found this novel about how three teen-aged sisters and their widowed mother managed to make a living in the days of vaudeville in the west during WWI to be very, very good. Although other readers have complained that it took too long to get into the actual lives of Aurora, Clover, Bella and mother Flora, I didn't find that. I think the descriptions of what vaudeville really was and what it entailed to be able to "make it" as an act on stage were necessary to understand what the girls and their mother were going to go through later in the book. It was certainly not a pretty or easy life and sometimes the descriptions of the forms of abuse against young girls and women that were more or less accepted as the norm were hard to take.
I loved the author's choice of words, whether she was describing the bowls that the girls ate their daily breakfast porridge from, and if they were lucky, their second meal of the day, or the clothing they wore, or what the landscape was like when it had snowed overnight.
The central theme of the book seemed to be about love and the importance of family and friends, which of course is universal, but the knowledge I gained about vaudeville, a subject I knew very little about, made the story even more enthralling for me. I came to care about the Avery girls as I read the book and I wanted to know how their lives turned out; would they each find the "right" person to love them? In the end I was thoroughly entertained while I was able to do just that.