She Wore Only White

A young woman, dressed in a stunning evening gown of white, boards a NYC bound ocean liner in Antwerp and immediately stirs up gossip and speculation. In 1902 when the Kroonland sets sail on a crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, Valentina boards at the last moment and throws herself upon the mercy of a senior crewman that she knows. Once the ship has set sail, he brings the young woman to the captain. Valentina admits to being a stowaway and throws herself upon the mercy of the captain. She says that she is running away from her old life and hopes to begin anew in New York. Since she is obviously a lady of quality, she is given a stateroom to stay in and told that she may only have freedom of the ship in the evening due to her lack of show more otherwise suitable clothing. Along the way she is helped by several others who make her journey tolerable and she also manages to fall in love – even though she is running away from a husband and the recent death of a child.

As we follow Valentina’s journey we meet several noteworthy characters: a sculptor whose work will be displayed at the World’s Fair in St. Louis, a married gentleman who is traveling with his newly pregnant mistress, a young man and his frail sister, the ship’s doctor, and the pompous captain along with Jan, the officer who helped Valentina escape her life. Each of these characters would be worthy of a book of their own as their backstories are full of twists as turns. But as so often happens on board a ship, we are allowed only a cross-section of these stories pertaining to their relationships while at sea.

She Wore Only White is based on a true story and gives us insight into the trials and tribulations of not only the lower classes (steerage) but also of those priviledged first-class travelers. I would have liked a bit more in the way of interaction between the classes. The dialogue felt stilted (translation perhaps from the original book?) and the entire thing was much too introspective for me. There were no disasters like with Titanic, although some of the characters could have done with an ice-berg sized shake-up. show less

I have to say that I really hated this book. I disliked how the author jumped from person to person describing Valentina, especially since she did not tell us who was giving their account until the end of the passage. This book was very slow moving and seemed to go nowhere.

I have tried so hard to get interested in this, but now I give up.