In Jade Beer's fourth novel, The Memory Dress, a very special gown brings together themes of love, loss, and the complexities of friendship. Told in the alternating voices of Jayne and Meredith, neighbors in a posh Bath apartment building, Beer's narrative examines the limits of memory, the challenges of loving someone with an incurable illness, and the unexpected ways community can emerge.
Quiet and introverted, Jayne is content living on her own. But an unexpected encounter with her downstairs neighbor, Meredith, piques Jayne's curiosity and leaves her both intrigued and worried. Meredith is pleasant, but she seems lonely and confused, wondering where her husband, William, has disappeared to. When Jayne sees the chaos in Meredith's apartment, she grows even more concerned. But when she spots a sumptuous pink silk dress tossed over a chair in Meredith's bedroom--a couture creation worn by Princess Diana--Jayne becomes determined to uncover some answers about Meredith, the gown, and the connection between the two.
Beer (The Last Dress from Paris) stitches her story together with the alternating threads of Meredith's career working for London designer Catherine Walker in the 1980s and Jayne in 2018 as she searches for William, probes Meredith's memory for the missing stories, and enlists her neighbors to help Meredith navigate the details of daily life. Beer sensitively explores the challenges of mental illness, the gifts (and the limits) of community, and the power of emotional bonds to change a person's life. The Memory Dress is a tribute to unlikely friendships, enduring love, and the history contained in every stitch of an exquisitely crafted garment. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams