Zelda Dameron Paperback – Import, 9 Aug 2010

I've read two other novels by Meredith Nicholson, "The Port of Missing Men" and "A House of a Thousand Candles." "Zelda Dameron" held my interest, but it certainly didn't have quite the same level of adventure as the other two books. Zelda returns to her home in to small town America after an extended stay abroad, hosted by her Aunt Julia. Zelda is the spitting image of her mother Margaret, a beautiful young lady who exudes confidence and idealism as well as many of the Paris fashions of the day. Zelda's father is Ezra Dameron. There is a rift between her paternal family and her maternal family. Zelda's Uncle Rodney Merriam heads up the maternal side of the family. Rodney is greatly disappointed when Zelda decides upon her return that she will go live in her father's house, rather than that of her uncle. Ezra Dameron is an unpopular man who is stingy to a fault and unsympathetic to borrowers whose loans come due. Zelda discovers a trunk in the attic of her mother's which has her notes regarding how hard it was to live with Ezra, and how he drove her to the grave. Determined to honor her mother's wishes that she should establish a good relationship with her father, Zelda re-creates their household, adding modern conveniences like a telephone. One of the charming threads in the book is when Zelda encounters her cousin Olive who is poor and teaches at a school. Zelda gets Olive to join her as part of the cast of a local community play and then feigns illness, putting Olive in the spotlight and on the social map of their town. Ezra's speculative investments in stocks prove faulty, forcing him to tap dance around as executor of Zelda's inherited fortune, squandering it and selling off much of her property. The novel slam bangs into a strong conclusion with romantic interests for Zelda and Olive tidily sewn up. Overall I liked the novel very much. The characters are enjoyable and make you glad you journeyed with them through the book. Enjoy!

My error. This is a reviw of The Girl and the Kaiser, by Pauline Hopkins. Which is worth reading itself. I bought both books at the same time, and misremembered which was which.The book itself is a pleasant romance, lightweight read, interestingly written, about an American girl of German ancestry visiting relatives in Germany. It's historical fiction for us, but was contemporary.What was stunning about the book is that it is clearly an anti-Kaiser, anti-German propaganda piece, but written about a decade before World War I was even supposedly a thought in any American's mind. What the heck?The German characters, while sympathetic for the most part, are helpless pawns of the Kaiser, no matter what their social standing. One character, a high ranking naval officer, after being grossly and publicly insulted by the Kaiser, slaps the Kaiser across the face in rebuke, as was the custom among the European aristocracy at the time. He then goes home and puts a bullet through his head, having no other recourse to save himself or his family.Any American of the time period, looking for a light bit of reading, would come away with fear and loathing of Germany, and nicely prepared to support the future American involvement in WW I. Very interesting….