Why a Booktrail?
1950s: Imagine being a Switchboard operator and hearing a really juicy secret?
The Operator
What you need to know before your trail
The switchboard operators in Wooster, Ohio, love nothing more than to eavesdrop on their neighbours’ conversations, and gossip about what they learn. Vivian Dalton is no different, though she’s tired of hearing chats about quilting and makeup tips. She longs for something more exciting. But when she listens in on snobbish Betty Miller’s chat with a friend whose voice Viviane doesn’t recognise, she wishes she hadn’t. What Vivian hears rips the rug of her life out from under her, and sends her on a mission to find out whose that unfamiliar voice was, and why they are trying to ruin her life. And the thing about small towns is, one secret tends to lead to another …
Travel Guide
Travel BookTrail style to Wooster, Ohio
Wooster, Ohio
What a unique and quirky place for a novel. It’s a small town with buildings and streets which still retain the charm of the 1950s when the book is set. The book might largely be set across the telephone wires, but if you wander around, you will definitively see Vivian and co in your mind’s eye!
The telephone company and post office are of course very different now, but you can imagine the sense of community, the every day life of women here and the routine of shopping, housekeeping and going to church.
The 1950s detail are well evoked in the novel with fashion, speech and recipes from the time. The author was inspired to write the book because of her grandmother’s poetry.
She also uses many newspaper articles of the time to make the writing and events more authentic. She uses artistic licence she says with Wooster’s A and W where there is a date, and the Heidelberg Chocolate Factory is sadly fictional. The church is also fictional and the Wayne Building and Loan is too.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Operator
Destination: Wooster, Ohio Author/Guide: Gretchen Berg Departure Time: 1950s
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