The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures
Small-town girl Frankie wants to get out of New Hampshire, get an education, and become a writer. She becomes a class of 1924 student at Vassar, finds a job in New York, publishes a short story in Collier’s, and then makes her way to Paris. There she re-meets her college roommate’s interesting brother as well as a ne’er-do-well older man from her past. Frankie goes back home, however, when her widowed mother contracts tuberculosis, and there she finds true love. Preston’s story follows a predictable romantic arc, but the scrapbook format turns it into a welcome variant on the historical romance genre. True to the medium, only events that give Frankie pause are recorded, but Preston manages to include her heroine’s encounter with period anti-Semitism, homosexuality, and even fallen royalty without straining suspension of disbelief. The full-color scrapbook artifacts include typed captions, postcards, magazine ads, pressed flowers, tickets, letters, and annotated maps. A delight for readers of gentle historical romances, but also for crafters and those interested in the popular culture of the Roaring Twenties. --Francisca Goldsmith