The Dress Shop of Dreams

The Dress Shop of Dreams by Menna Van Praag    326 pages

There’s something magical about Etta’s dress shop. LibraryReads called it a “cute little book… recommended to readers who want to be charmed by the possibilities of love.”  That’s what is so delightful about Van Praag’s story that is set in Oxford and Cambridge.

Etta has raised her granddaughter Cora since she was five years old. As the story opens, it’s Cora’s twenty-fifth birthday. She wishes she had her parents to celebrate with her, but they died in a mysterious house fire. Etta never truly believes that the fire that killed her daughter and son-in-law was an accident, but once the police closed the file, she never has the time to delve further into the matter. Not with raising a child and running a business. She has a secret weapon that she sews into a seam of every article of clothing.

Cora is now a brilliant scientist, who has blocked the memories even the most innocent of memories. Even as a child, she was obsessed with numbers. She is collaborating with an old friend of her parents. They seem to be on the brink of a major scientific breakthrough.

Just down All Saint Passage from the dress shop is a bookstore where Cora likes to spend three evening a week reading the lives of famous scientists. She has known the proprietor, Walt, since she was child. Walt, it is clear to everyone but Cora, has been in love with her since he was four years old. And on top of that, he makes the best cherry pies she has ever eaten. He has a glorious voice and has recently taken a job reading classical literature over the radio. When it becomes painfully obvious that Cora will never return his feelings, he looks for love in other places.

The novel is full of tales of requited and unrequited love. Etta has dreamed of a man she knew briefly fifty years ago; and he loved her but was committed elsewhere. Then there is the manager of the radio station where Walt works. He has taken to answering Walt (a.k.a. the Night Reader) and has revealed his innermost feelings to a woman on Walt’s behalf. The woman, Milly, is trying to overcome her grief on the loss of her husband.

Cora decides that she must investigate the death of her parents, and lo, readers stumble on the last love story. Officer Henry Dixon, his estranged wife Francesca, and their son, Mattie.

Sound complicated? It’s not. The characters are well defined. The plot arcs in all the right places with endings, and beginnings, where they should be. Those who enjoy magical realism will enjoy this sweet novel.

I give this novel 5 out of 5 stars.