The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt
Caroline Preston
ISBN: 22960000470467
Actual vintage ads and articles and ephemera collected and scrapbooked into a fictional narrative.
This was an interesting book. I wasn't so hot on the Grace Livingston Hill, modern girl finds a good man storyline (ok, it wasn't quite that bad, but it was a little schlocky) but it was pretty common for books set in the 1920s, and the main character does want to write, and her new husband seems ok with her doing so...
Anyway. Frankie Pratt is a whip-smart 'modern' girl who wants to go to college, but can't afford it, even on a partial scholarship. So she works as a home aide for a local retiree, until said retiree's rakish (and married) son becomes obsessed with her and starts an enthusiastically-encouraged romance. Poor Frankie. Her mom finds out, busts up the lovebirds by blackmailing the old lady, and Frankie is packed off to Vassar posthaste.
The whole story is basically all of the cliches of those early romances-disguised-as-morality tales, but every cliche is passed along in a fairly dry and somewhat winking manner, through ironic (and sometimes poignant) art and advertising clippings, bits of ephemera, and other assorted paper bits and drabs of a life lived interestingly.
Really a very fun concept, and while the story is a little meager - what can you expect from a scrapbook diary? I loved every minute of it.
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