Hester

This novel by Laurie Lico Albanese asks who inspired The Scarlet Letter, and what would happen if she was able to share her own story. History suggests that Hawthorne’s novels were based in his real experiences; but not much is known about his inspiration for Hester. While some of this novel is based in fact, and Albanese certainly did a lot of research to inform Hester, it is at heart a fictional novel.

Isobel is a young woman who moves with her husband from Scotland to Salem Massachusetts in 1829 hoping for a fresh start. She dreams of using her skill in embroidery and dressmaking to make her way in the New World. When they arrive in Salem, Isobel’s husband leaves for a job on a departing ship, leaving Isobel alone to figure out how to survive. When she meets Nathaniel Hawthorne, they become fast friends as they talk about their creative endeavors and the secrets of their pasts. Isobel is descended from a woman accused of witchcraft who narrowly escaped execution and the warning of her grandmother’s story is constantly ringing in her head. Isobel can see color in people’s voices and letters are linked to colors in her mind, but Isobel’s mother encouraged her to hide this oddity away.

“[Mam] showed me how to make letters first on a slate with chalk, then with needle and thread . . . I was preparing a green thread for the letter D when Mam came up behind me. ‘What have you done?’ her angry voice washed over me like soft blueberrues and blackberries. ‘Is is wrong?’ I studied my work. It was neat and straight. ‘I gave you black thread to make the letters in black.’ ‘But A is red,’ I said quietly.”

In the Note to the Reader at the beginning of the book, Albanese explains synesthesia — a phenomenon in which a person experiences multiple sensory responses at once — and that synesthesia was not widely understood until the early nineteenth century. When Isobel experiences her “colors” (as she calls them), she sometimes worries that they are the work of the devil and that she really might be a witch. Other times, she embraces their power and uses them to create stitched works of art. Ultimately, her synesthesia is both a gift and a curse, just as her relationships, her job prospects, and her intelligence.

This book was enthralling and I couldn’t put it down. While it is based on The Scarlet Letter, I don’t think you need to have a super clear memory of the original to enjoy Hester (though it’s probably helpful if you have read it). The story is one of resilience, creativity, and how women have to adapt and hide parts of themselves in order to survive.

As I was reading, I was a bit concerned that the male characters in this book were flat, because I couldn’t really understand what their particular draw to Isobel was or why they would behave the way they did. As I got further in the book though, it started to become clear that the male characters were somewhat flat and confusing on purpose. As with so many of my favorite books, the moral of the story is never trust a man.

“I know what it is when the world goes gray from grief,” he says. He reaches for his notebook, wets his finger, and turns to a blank page. “Now tell me from the beginning—slowly.” The beginning was the sound of my parents’ voices, or it was the wind. Or maybe it was the sampler. I start there. “The letter A is red,” I say. “Red like an apple?” he scribbles something in his notebook. “No,” I say. “A is a scarlet letter.”