The Silver Suitcase
This dual-period novel set in Manitoba, Canada, focuses on two women. The novel begins in 1939 with Cornelia, a 17-year-old farm girl who has been keeping house for her family since her mother died five years earlier. She falls in love with Henry, but their bliss is short-lived when he enlists in the war and heads off to Europe. The multiple tragedies in her life shake Cornelia’s faith in God.
Benita, Cornelia’s granddaughter, is the focus of the modern storyline. It is 2006, and Benita is embittered by her financial and marital problems. After Cornelia’s death, Benita finds her diary and learns surprising truths about her grandmother’s past that affect the whole family. Cornelia’s diary reveals her secrets as well as her journey from doubt to faith, which gives Benita hope for surviving her own disappointments and losses.
Benita’s story wasn’t as gripping to me as Cornelia’s, mainly because I didn’t feel much interest in or sympathy for Benita. She treats her husband badly, and although there’s a plausible psychological explanation for her behavior, none of her better qualities were vivid enough to outweigh this nastiness. The conflicts that exist are resolved quickly, and almost everyone is good and kind, even the ones who seem at first to be cruel. Normally this lack of tension among the characters would bother me, but the novel has an Anne of Green Gables sensibility that made me want to stay in this world with these characters.
Neither the prologue nor the epilogue seemed necessary. While the epilogue contains an interesting twist that I didn’t anticipate, it could have been incorporated into the novel proper. Recommended for fans of inspirational fiction who enjoy a slower-paced, but well-written novel. A pleasant read.
