Story for the Week
When I was a kid and all the way through high school, we had a typewriter at home. Not a personal computer (until my brother bought a Commodore 64 in the 1980s). Not a word processor (until I bought my own when I was in my late 20s). A legit manual typewriter and then eventually an electric typewriter.
There were word processors in my college library. We typed on typesetting machines for the college newspaper. One of my friends even had a Mac in his dorm room. But I didn’t know anyone else who had their own personal computer in the ’80s.
Corinne had always been intrigued by the idea of a traditional typewriter, to the point of wondering if we would be able to get one. She types easily on a laptop, on an iPad, on her mobile phone. Personally, I have a really hard time “typing” on an iPad. I use the built-in keyboard on my personal laptop, but my work laptop is smaller, so I have a larger keyboard connected to it.
She asked me once what it was like to use a traditional typewriter. I explained to her how hard you had to press the keys. I took her through the evolution of the black and red ribbons, Liquid Paper, Liquid Paper sheets (which weren’t liquid at all), the ding when you got to the edge of the margins. Even when typewriters became electric, they weren’t that much easier to type on…certainly not as easy as it is to type on a computer today. And yes, we talked about why we used to double space after a period and we don’t double space after a period today. (Maybe it’s the journalist in me and my understanding of kerning and fonts, but I am willing to die on that hill. Don’t even get me started on the Oxford comma. 😉)
Then one afternoon, I was scrolling through Facebook, and lo and behold, there was a local community center that was holding a typewriter display a few weeks later. My brother-in-law Rodolfo thought I was crazy when I said I was taking Corinne “somewhere fun” and it was this display, but I knew she would love it.
It was kind of a geek adventure for both of us. They had quite a few old manual typewriters as well as several “newer” electric typewriters. I think Corinne tried typing on all of them, and she was really surprised at how difficult it was. I enjoyed watching her experience what was just a normal part of my life at her age, and I got a few good laughs in watching her try to feed the paper around the roller. She had a blast. She also decided that she was glad she had the experience, and once was enough. 🤣
A friend’s mom recommended the following book. I wasn’t sure I would like it because I’m not a huge fan of historical fiction, and this is set in the 1920s. The reviews also referenced The Talented Mr. Ripley, which I didn’t enjoy, but they also mentioned The Great Gatsby, which I did. I was glad I listened to Mom’s recommendation. 😊
Book Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐
4 Stars for The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell
368 pages
Publisher: Penguin Adult HC/TR
Publication Date: May 7, 2013
Purchased on Amazon
Publisher’s Description
Rose Baker seals men’s fates. With a few strokes of the keys that sit before her, she can send a person away for life in prison. A typist in a New York City Police Department precinct, Rose is like a high priestess. Confessions are her job. It is 1923, and while she may hear every detail about shootings, knifings, and murders, as soon as she leaves the interrogation room she is once again the weaker sex, best suited for filing and making coffee.
This is a new era for women, and New York is a confusing place for Rose. Gone are the Victorian standards of what is acceptable. All around her women bob their hair, they smoke, they go to speakeasies. Yet prudish Rose is stuck in the fading light of yesteryear, searching for the nurturing companionship that eluded her childhood.
When glamorous Odalie, a new girl, joins the typing pool, despite her best intentions Rose falls under Odalie’s spell. As the two women navigate between the sparkling underworld of speakeasies by night and their work at the station by day, Rose is drawn fully into Odalie’s high-stakes world. And soon her fascination with Odalie turns into an obsession from which she may never recover.
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Suzanne Rindell’s The Other Typist had me intrigued from the beginning. Set in the 1920s during Prohibition, the story is told from the first-person point of view of Rose Baker. We know early on that “something” happened because Rose periodically mentions her doctor and the institution where she currently resides.
The story felt a bit slow (which is why I gave it 4 stars), but these tidbits from Rose are what kept me reading. I have seen a number of reviews that indicated they didn’t like Rose’s narration, that she was boring and repetitive. That’s one of the things I liked about the book because it’s obviously part of the character development. Rose IS supposed to come across as boring and repetitive. That’s why she’s so taken in by Odalie. And I wanted to know what happened. I knew it had something to do with her obsession with Odalie, and it’s clear from the start that Odalie is manipulating Rose, but I wanted to keep reading to find out how on earth Rose ended up where she is.
***SPOILERS*** SPOILERS***SPOILERS***
We learn throughout the book that Odalie is rewriting her past to draw Rose in, and she has clearly told different versions of her past to different people. She tells Rose stories about her life that are contradicted when Rose talks to others, and none of the stories match up. Odalie’s control and charisma start to unravel when the two women encounter Teddy on a weekend vacation, and he is obviously someone from Odalie’s past…before she had reinvented herself as Odalie to escape a potentially criminal past (her given name then was Givenra).
At this point, Odalie’s manipulation becomes more overt to the reader, even though Rose is too naive and taken in to see it. Odalie digs deeper into Rose’s history, claiming to be interested because they are bosom buddies and Odalie wants to know everything about Rose. She begins to make sure that Rose looks more like her. But Rose is impressionable, naive, and her point of view becomes increasingly untrustworthy, which takes the story in a whole new direction since everything is from Rose’s perspective.
Lots of people seem confused by the ending, but I thought it was pretty clear. Teddy is dead, pushed from the apartment balcony that Odalie and Rose share. Rose is the one who was seen riding up in the elevator with him. Gib (Odalie’s sometime lover) is dead as the result of a bad batch of booze, which Rose picked up (at Odalie’s request, of course). Odalie set Rose up to take the fall for Gib, and Teddy was just another loose end to be tied up. Rose IS Rose, but when Odalie gave her statement to the police, she implied that Rose is Givenra and that Givenra reinvented herself as Rose to escape her past. Odalie even takes on Rose’s past by indicating that she grew up in an orphanage!
So the police and the doctors at the institution question the people in Rose’s past under the false assumption that her name is Givenra. Without DNA, there isn’t proof otherwise, and Rose has no way to get herself out of her predicament because there are witnesses that implicate her, and there’s no way she can dispute them. That might make anyone a little crazy.
In the Epilogue, the Lieutenant Detective comes to visit Rose, and she grabs a knife that she knows he has with him. I assumed she was going to stab him or something and that we were going to find out it was her along. I was trying to figure out how that would work since Odalie is clearly a real person. But she uses the knife to cut her hair into a bob matching Odalie’s and says, “Two can play at that game.” I don’t think she killed anyone, but I do think Odalie made her crazy enough to want revenge. So now she is set on reinventing herself the way Odalie did.
And yes, many will mention her comment about seeing Teddy’s face as he falls, but she doesn’t say she saw his face. She said she sees a flash of Teddy’s face and the terror as he fell, but it really could just be that she’s imagining what his face looked like. Everyone has heard a story and developed a picture in their minds, or you read a book and you can “see” it as a movie. And even if she was already seeking revenge on Odalie, Rose reaps no benefit by killing Teddy. He is more valuable to her alive since he can reveal Odalie’s past.
Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s what it feels like to me. Odalie is the master manipulator and set Rose up from the very beginning. Rose was her victim. And now Rose is crazy enough to think that she can “become” Odalie.
Suzanne Rindell, well done!
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