The Chaperone

By: Laura Moriarty

Narrated by: Elizabeth McGovern

Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

The Chaperone is a captivating novel about the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922, and the summer that would change them both.

Only a few years before becoming a famous actress and an icon for her generation, a 15-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita to make it big in New York. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old chaperone who is neither mother nor friend. Cora Carlisle is a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip. She has no idea what she’s in for: Young Louise, already stunningly beautiful and sporting her famous blunt bangs and black bob, is known for her arrogance and her lack of respect for convention. Ultimately, the five weeks they spend together will change their lives forever.

For Cora, New York holds the promise of discovery that might prove an answer to the question at the center of her being, and even as she does her best to watch over Louise in a strange and bustling city, she embarks on her own mission. And while what she finds isn’t what she anticipated, it liberates her in a way she could not have imagined. Over the course of the summer, Cora’s eyes are opened to the promise of the 20th century and a new understanding of the possibilities for being fully alive.

©2012 Laura Moriarty (P)2012 Penguin Audio

Loved this story!

This story ends up being different than what you think it is. It's through and deep and wonderful. Elizabeth McGovern does a fantastic job as narrator. I highly recommend!

Amazing story, beautiful performance

Can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this. The story is amazing and the narration is first class. Highly recommend.

Interesting

This recommendation by a friend proved more interesting than I imagined. The story works around a few known realities of Louise Brooks, a silent movie star, but Louise is not the center of the story. Cora blooms throughout this tale. In the middle of the book (maybe a little further along), a dramatic surprise is introduced. The story could easily have ended there but doesn't. And I'm glad it didn't.

I consider the narration uneven. When not speaking for the characters, McGovern presents very sophisticated voice. But when either Cora or Louise speak, a midtown corny voice is used, one that doesn't fit nor is it convincing.

Quiet narrator

The narrator has a lovely voice, but is a pretty quiet reader. Sometimes she was hard to hear.

LOVED it!

Skillfully woven and brilliantly narrated… a great story you don’t want to end. Such a positive slant on aging and a life, although not perfect, well lived! As the main character (Cora)reflects when she has an epiphany which totally changed one of her “etched in granite” beliefs, “ I’m so glad life can be long…”

Very good

Great story that held my interest. Elizabeth McGovern's accents added nuance to the story.
Good historical fiction.

Loved it!

One of my new favorite books! I could not stop thinking about the characters and the story….I googled Louise Brooks, though Cora is my hero! I have recommended this book to all my friends. From the first chapter I was hooked. The narration was just a tad slow so I listened at 1.1 speed, Elizabeth McGovern is PERFECT narrating. I pictured her beautiful face as Cora and was so excited to find she had starred in a film for PBS Masterpiece Theatre! Which is also well worth watching, but the book is so much more!!! I feel desperate to discuss this book-and have since I started it! I loved it. I was sad and happy to finish it!

Surprised to love it!

I loved this book. At first, I wasn’t sure, but as I moved into the story I disappeared. Wonderfully written and Elizabeth McGovern was perfect! It took me to another time and era.

👍

The Bee's Knees and So Much More

The Chaperone simultaneously depicts the changing social culture during the 1920's, as well as the feminist self-awakening of small town Wichitan, Cora Carlisle. The author uses actual historical events, places, and people to shuffle us through this momentous era - almost Forest Gump style - with recognizable period icons gliding along in Cora's backdrop like pictures in a scrapbook of her life, (flapper girls, bathtub gin, the Jazz age, racism and the KKK, women's suffrage, birth control, etc.). These fascinating images embellish Cora's recollections; they are recognizable, relatable, and immediately draw in the listener. The most exciting vehicle in Cora's transforming journey is the famous silent film star Louise Brooks, who is used more as a catalyst for the stoic Cora's introspection, and a representative image (and result) of rebellion, than a co-star in the book.

This book is immediately enchanting and breezy with nicely shaped characters, that coincidentally represent different personal pathways in this changing time (almost allegorical); sometimes appearing a little too convenient, a little too token--but understandably necessary to carry this story in its evolution. The pacing was a little bothersome...initially, I enjoyed being able, while I listened, to compare where we are now with our social mores, how we are still struggling with some of the same issues and restrictions; later, the story seemed to jump ahead, speed up, step back, and skip over important details. Moriarty so skillfully lays out the images and feelings of the era, the vivid streets of New York, the tumultuous social clashes, and I would have liked for her to use that talent to tell us more about the war, the depression, the Dust Bowl (which would have made a book double the size - but would have been all right with me; call me selfish).

I can't end without mentioning one of the most important underlying issues; the sexual abuse of Louise. I haven't read Louise's own account of her childhood, or testimonies to the 15 yr. old's psychological maturity, but, I know that being routinely sexually abused from the age of 9 yrs. old would not create a 15 yr. old girl that is cool, savvy, and spunky--as Louise was portrayed. The author hints at the self-destruction, and the reader follows the logic that she was a self-driven, uncannily beautiful woman, at ease with her sexuality and ahead of her times, when in reality, a background of such extreme abuse would sadly play itself out throughout a victimized person's life--and that was what was so heartbreaking about, and destructive to, Louise.

A touching and entertaining read I highly recommend. Elizabeth McGovern does a beautiful job, giving each character the emotional depth and individuality needed to do justice to such a huge story. You can't go wrong picking this one; a classic in the making.

Loved It

One of the best audio books I've heard in a long, long while. The story line is great, and the narrator is very good. This is more a story about Cora than about Louise, and as we go through life with Cora, we also catch a glimpse of some of the major historical events of the 20th century. I would definitely recommend this book!