Song of the Shuttle (The Lancashire Cotton Saga Book 1)
Jessie Davenport, an industrious mill girl whose mother is ill, has caught the eye of two young men in her village as that village endures the Cotton Famine that gripped industrial Britain during the American Civil War. After Robert Overdale, the mill owner’s son, kisses Jessie on a dare, she must navigate the social distance between them even as he travels to the American South in search of embargoed cotton, and she accompanies his cousin in a search for him. The novel recreates the close-knit Victorian village atmosphere fairly well but misses a step or two in describing Civil War-era America, since American attitudes toward Britain feel oversimplified.
The novel begins and ends in early 1860s Gorbydale, a cotton mill village in Lancashire, but it includes a journey across the Atlantic to America, over about a year. Through her journey across the Atlantic, Jessie sees more of the world and becomes more aware of her abilities. The novel tells much more than it shows. It felt very detached, and it was difficult to care much about the characters.
Overall, I found Song of the Shuttle to be a weak novel needing improvement in basic story craft. However, it was able to render its black characters more fully, without sentiment. Readers interested in the broader effects of the American Civil War may find the novel somewhat interesting.
