The Moon and the Thorn

by B.J. Chute

For thirty years, Henrietta Blackwell had lived in France as Madame Bryce, but now she had come back to the United States, home to Great Island, and there was no one on the island who didn't know her story—and her lack of right to that title. She had eloped with Charles Bryce those decades ago, though she had known him for only a weekend, a weekend in which he had been expected to propose to Henrietta's own sister. Now Charles was dead, and Henrietta had come back to confront her unforgiving sister and the islanders who had made her life into a legend.

Here is a beautifully written story of today and yesterday—the novel for which Miss Chute's many admirers have been waiting so eagerly. The people of the island come vividly to life, but the most wonderfully human of them all is the lovely, willful, and enchanting heroine who is obliged to face the past in order to live in the present.

Genres: Gothic

190 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

B.J. Chute was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and lived there until she came to New York in 1940. A professional writer since 1931, Miss Chute has written hundreds of stories, which have appeared in Boys' Life, the Boy Scout magazine, and numerous anthologies of outstanding sports stories for young people. Her adult stories have appeared in nearly every major magazine, including The Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping, McCall's, and Redbook. She has written four adult novels—The Fields Are White, The End of Loving, Greenswillow, Moon and the Thorn—and a collection of short stories, The Blue Cup.
- taken from the dust jacket of Blocking Back

aka Beatrice Joy Chute

Reviews

[Dean Cummings]

As I read the compelling first chapter in which Henrietta Blackwell is being transported by boat, back to Great Island, a home she once knew, but hadn’t stepped foot on in thirty years, my mind ventured to a song I’ve always loved.

It’s “The Living Years” by “Mike and the Mechanics.” These lyrics stood out for me:

“Crumpled bit of paper, filled with imperfect thoughts…stilted conversations, I’m afraid that’s all we’ve got.”

As Henrietta sits in the boat, waiting with mixed emotions for the island to appear in the distance, she suddenly remembers all the letters she’s sent to her sister Adelia, all of which were returned unanswered.

We’re not told the reason for Adelia’s refusal to acknowledge her sister’s letters, but the silence is felt all the same.

The next line of the song…

“I wasn’t there that morning, when my father passed away. I didn’t get to tell him all the things I had to say…”

As Henrietta listens to the soft splash of eternal waves hitting the hull of the boat, she thinks of her father:

“Dear heavens!” Thought Henrietta involuntarily and not for the first time, “How I must have distressed him!”

Her father had died after a long silence between him and his daughter. She had only learned of his passing when her childhood nurse Doaty had written, a month later.

“The Living Years” is a song of regret, speaking about the things we did, and didn’t do in our past. As we read of Henrietta’s lonely homecoming we see a woman in her early fifties who is mourning the recent death of the man she’s loved for so long. Her only two friends are there in the boat with her, one, her elderly companion Rosa and the other, a small, but impressively feisty poodle named Folly.

And it was only when she pressed the boatman that he admitted that while she may not be “expected” but she would be “met”, promised the kindly boatman.

The reason she’s coming back is because, rather amazingly, her childhood nurse has bequeathed Henrietta her cottage. The transaction is to be completed.

I have to admit, reading this chapter gave me a sense of forlorn lonesomeness. But then I remembered those few lyrics that I’d up till then forgotten:

“So don’t yield to the fortunes you sometimes see as fate. It may have a new perspective on a different date. And if you don’t give up, and don’t give in, you may just be okay.”

So there it was, at the end of the first chapter, when I read of this lonely woman stepping onto the shore of the home she’d left so long ago, I found myself eagerly looking forward to finding out what hopeful development might be in store.

That, more than anything propelled me to read on.

What followed was page after page of wonderful atmospheric descriptions, engaging dialogue and an expertly told tale of the long memories of a small town people.

I was held to these pages, as each unfolded its own unique way.

It was delightful from start to finish.

[Katherine]

When I began reading this I was struck by how different the tone was from another of the author's books, Greenwillow, a favorite of mine. This almost seemed to have been written by a different person. No charm or humor here, instead a rather hard-hitting story about a willful woman who returns home to the small insular island community she left in the middle of the night 30 years before. It explores in a rather fascinating way familial and romantic love, hate, choices and perceptions, even forgiveness. Not at all what I was expecting from my previous experience with Chute's writing but interesting and satisfying all the same.

4 stars, maybe even 4.5 given the surprising way in which the book wraps up, a way I had not anticipated.

[Mir]

I got this book by mistake, trying to find an Edgerton novel by the same name.