So many reasons to champion this book! Foremost for me is the description of an intense passion for words and language even beyond academic interest. Williams articulates and infers this throughout in a way that recognizes ponderings I’ve only become aware of since moving to a non-English speaking country. I can easily see myself as a young thief/caretaker of word slips. (Am I passionate about the preservation of English books and language? I shipped a not small personal library over the Atlantic as a condition of immigration, so...)
The focus on the feminine and, eventually, feminist perspective is refreshing and frustrating as the main characters’ female gender becomes a protagonist and antagonist.
As mentioned in the author’s interview in the appendices, the concurrent historical events of the early 20th century are often teased apart in historical study. Williams reweaves the women’s suffrage movement, World War I, and the academic culture of London to give a clearer, more engaging background for her fictional and fictionalized characters.
I’ve already added William’s next book, about the female bookbinders of the same time and place, on my “want to read” list, though it’s not due out until this Spring.
(Read with the Västerås English speaking book club.)