Simone in Pieces
Janet Burroway’s prismatic historical novel Simone in Pieces follows a Belgian World War II refugee from her traumatic relocation to England to her later life in the United States.
In 1940, nine-year-old Simone boards a “trawler” boat in Belgium, part of a refugee mission organized by the Church of England. Her mother died from a recent illness; her father’s murder was perhaps related to his work with the Belgian Resistance. Sent to a series of British foster homes, Simone develops a passion for literature and reading. In the subsequent decades, she receives a Fulbright scholarship, marries, divorces, becomes a college professor in Missouri, and struggles with alcoholism, all while attempting to reconcile the scattered memories of her past with her changeable future.
An impressive range of characters share their various perceptions of Simone. The lone woman among the refugee boat crew recalls her as “gawky” and resolute. Darla, whose family hires teenage “Simmy” as domestic help, recalls their shared love of movies and giddy same-sex experimentation. A Cambridge classmate finds Simone exasperating and alluring; years later, a faculty colleague describes her as a “cross between a perfectionist and a flower child.” These kaleidoscopic glimpses reflect Simone’s projected personae; as she matures beyond her steely adaptability, her own perspective centers the narrative more, providing more revelatory insights.
The book’s scope is both wide-ranging and detailed, spanning wartime Europe and late-twentieth-century America. Intense emotions and repressed memories alternate with wry humor: Simone describes herself as a “chopped and patched sort of person.” Elegant prose likens a Florida sky to the “luminous azure of old heraldry,” while deft interconnections link certain people and events with finesse, resulting in closure where relevant.
In the absorbing novel Simone in Pieces, a young refugee’s mutable identity diverts and sustains the course of her life.
Reviewed by
Meg Nola
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