Christine Wells’ newest historical fiction, “The Paris Gown,” takes us back to the capital of France, where her novel “Sisters of the Resistance” was set. The title gown is a Christian Dior confection, and while the story doesn’t center around the gown itself, the couture dress serves as a symbol of the ties that bind the three main characters, young women, together.
In fact, we meet the three young ladies as they stand outside House of Dior. They had first met during a class at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. Claire took the class as a step in her quest to become a fine Parisian chef. Margot, from Australia, and Gina, from America, took the class as a step toward learning about fine dining so that when they married and entertained for their husbands, they would know about French cooking. Because Claire’s mother was British, they spoke in English most of the time. However when they ate at Claire’s family brasserie, they spoke French.
Each woman had very different goals in 1950 when they were best friends and fantasizing about their wonderful futures. Claire’s dream was to open her own restaurant serving exquisite food and earning a Michelin star. Margot just wanted to get married and have a large family. Gina was determined not to marry and wanted to write books. She was a journalist in the meantime as she attempted to write a novel. While Claire’s middle class background means that a coveted Dior gown would be way out of her reach, the other two women have the financial resources to buy couture gowns, and they generously share their wardrobes with Claire. But Claire yearns to have a Dior gown of her own, as impractical as that dream might be.
The story then moves six years into the future, and we see Claire is working at her family’s brassiere when she gets the shocking news that her father is selling the family restaurant, retiring, and moving with his sister to Nice. Claire had left the restaurant to work at other establishments where she could learn about haute cuisine and hone her skills, but she returned to the family’s brasserie when her father’s ill health meant he needed her help. That means that trying to get back into the world of haute cuisine won’t be easy. She has two years of working in a brasserie, something looked down upon by those in the business of fine dining, and the mere fact that she is a woman is another black mark against her.
Gina shows up unexpectedly on Claire’s doorstep (really the doorstep of the brasserie). While Claire had just received Gina’s wedding invitation and a photograph of Gina and Hal, her fiancé, looking gloriously happy on a yacht, Gina is not married and a bit secretive about why. We eventually learn why Gina called off the marriage, but it’s apparent that she is not happy about it. She truly loves Hal, and she fled to Paris to work on her novel and be in the city she loved so much.
Both Gina and Claire hadn’t heard from the third member of their trio in a long time. Margot’s letters had stopped years before, and while they wrote to her in spite of the lack of communication from Margot, they didn’t know what happened to her. When they discover her in Paris, she’s working under a false name at the House of Dior, wearing a blonde wig to cover her dark hair. Margot is bone-thin and terrified.
What Wells excels at is creating characters with whom we immediately connect. We may not be like them, but they are all likable women, and we feel for their situations and their frustrations and dreams. Each of them has experienced obstacles to success. Each of them faces obstacles to personal happiness. But together, the three women find they are much stronger than they would be individually. By supporting and listening to and loving each other, they emerge, like a butterfly from its chrysalis, strong and ready to face the challenges that lie ahead.
What Wells does in this novel, and indeed in all her novels, is to create a story that we want to keep reading not because there’s a huge mystery to solve nor because there’s international espionage and thrills. We keep reading because the story is engaging and the women’s plights are touching, and we want to know how it all ends. There’s a bit of #metoo, historically appropriate disdain for women’s work, and the ever present reality that when family is in need, it’s the woman who drops everything to be the caretaker. It’s a feel-good story, and we feel like we are living in Paris, the city of lights. We walk with the women down the fashionable boulevards where the couturiers have their ateliers. Our mouths water as we “watch” Claire create fabulous sauces and pastries in the early morning hours at her family’s restaurant. We delight in the balls that we see the women attend, wearing the title gown.
And at the end, our hearts are a little fuller and our spirits a bit lighter because we know that in fiction, at least, there are wonderful happy endings. Now if only we had a Dior dress of our own.
You might also enjoy the following historical fiction reads: “By Any Other Name” by Jodi Picoult, “The Phoenix Crown” by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang, or “The Beach at Summerly” by Beatriz Williams.
This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.