THE DRESSMAKER'S GIFT, by Fiona Valpy

Literature, Historical Fiction -- 2 stars



During World War II, three seamstresses share an apartment above a dress shop in occupied Paris.  Fifty years later, a young woman finds a photo of them in her dead mother's belongings.  When she realizes one of them is her grandmother, she applies for an apprenticeship at a Paris fashion house with the hope of learning more about the three women in the photo. ----- This is a book of coincidences--so many coincidences that it strains beyond credibility.  The modern fashion house is housed in the same building where her grandmother worked as a seamstress, she is assigned the same apartment where her grandmother lived, her roommate turns out to be the granddaughter of one of the other women in the photo.   If Hallmark were writing a book, this would be it.  It's like happy-ending central.  Even the ending of her apprenticeship is accompanied by crescendo of imaginary happy violins. The stories about the French resistance should have added some gravitas, but they fall flat because they are so predictable and the characters so cliched.  If you're looking for a book that requires very little thought, you'll love The Dressmaker's Gift.  It's every feel-good Christmas movie without the snow.