(no subject)
I've been tackling a project at work recently that has to do with the Lindbergh kidnapping case, which is one of the reasons I've been waxing extremely nostalgic about one of my favorite childhood authors that nobody else has ever heard of: Anne Lindbergh, who I didn't realize until I was much older was actually the daughter of Charles and Anne Morrow. Which has no relevance to her books at all, really, except for the cognitive dissonance; Anne Lindbergh's books are charming and SUPER WEIRD eighties and nineties middle-grade fantasies that seem about a billion worlds away from the 1930s and controversies about airplanes and fascism.
My favorite -- which I've just reread -- is called Three Lives to Live. This book has actually been a huge influence on the way I write, and also the way I edit. It's written as protagonist Garet's 'autobiography' for a 7th-grade school project, which means about a third of the book is complaints about her English teacher criticizing her for not doing what "The Professional Writer" would do. At one point the teacher complains that Garet needs to use more active speech verbs than 'said'.
Garet's response is to rewrite the offending passage, like so:
"I wouldn't want to risk it. I bet you wouldn't either," I chirp.
"I would so," she blubbers.
"You would not," I yelp.
"How much do you want to bet?" she queries.
"I'll bet a million dollars," I coo.
"You don't have a million dollars," she yawns.
"Then I'll bet anything you like," I yap.
"You don't have anything I like," she bellows, "so I guess I won't bet after all."
"Chicken!" I grin.
I THINK OF THIS EVERY TIME I'm about to recommend to someone that they vary their word choice in a dialogue section. There's a lot to be said for the invisible said!
(The seventh-grader whose autobiography involves a lot of bodice-ripping from a love-crazed duke suggests that Garet add 'breathed throatily' to her collection of speaking verbs. I love that seventh-grader.)
...meanwhile, the actual plot involves Garet's relationship with the rest of her family: her grandmother, whom she lives with, and her twin sister, Daisy, who isn't actually not her twin sister, she just came down the laundry chute one day a few months ago. Their grandmother refused to provide any information and insisted that Garet just had to adapt to having a sister in the house. Garet is not adapting to having a sister in the house. Daisy is prettier and smarter and weirder and gets EVERYTHING, including a canopy bed and a laptop computer, ugh! (Sidenote: the book was written in 1993, and I'd forgotten laptop computers were already invented then!)
Then about midway through there's the reveal that Daisy is actually a duplicate of their grandmother's younger self from 1943, who came down the magic laundry chute and is now stuck in the future.
(Why a magic laundry chute? WHY NOT.)
Garet just assumes this means her grandmother loves Daisy better because Daisy's a version of herself, but given givens it's not such a huge surprise when towards the end of the book the second reveal comes: Garet is ALSO a clone of their grandmother who came down the magic laundry chute when she was two.
So basically it's all a big exploration of nature and nurture and the way the same person can grow up to be completely different people -- in some ways kind of like a much peppier version of Orphan Black -- except it's also a story of one woman who's been forced to dedicate her life to RAISING HER OWN CLONES, which is fairly creepy, when you think about it, but OK, sure. And also it's a meta-story about telling your story, and also a story about a magic laundry chute. Because WHY NOT.
I had not forgotten how much I loved this book, but it's nice to be confirmed in how much I love this book! I'm kind of sad now that it's much too late to nominate it for Yuletide. MAYBE NEXT YEAR.
This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/388315.html. Please feel free to comment here or there! There are currently
comments on Dreamwidth.
My favorite -- which I've just reread -- is called Three Lives to Live. This book has actually been a huge influence on the way I write, and also the way I edit. It's written as protagonist Garet's 'autobiography' for a 7th-grade school project, which means about a third of the book is complaints about her English teacher criticizing her for not doing what "The Professional Writer" would do. At one point the teacher complains that Garet needs to use more active speech verbs than 'said'.
Garet's response is to rewrite the offending passage, like so:
"I wouldn't want to risk it. I bet you wouldn't either," I chirp.
"I would so," she blubbers.
"You would not," I yelp.
"How much do you want to bet?" she queries.
"I'll bet a million dollars," I coo.
"You don't have a million dollars," she yawns.
"Then I'll bet anything you like," I yap.
"You don't have anything I like," she bellows, "so I guess I won't bet after all."
"Chicken!" I grin.
I THINK OF THIS EVERY TIME I'm about to recommend to someone that they vary their word choice in a dialogue section. There's a lot to be said for the invisible said!
(The seventh-grader whose autobiography involves a lot of bodice-ripping from a love-crazed duke suggests that Garet add 'breathed throatily' to her collection of speaking verbs. I love that seventh-grader.)
...meanwhile, the actual plot involves Garet's relationship with the rest of her family: her grandmother, whom she lives with, and her twin sister, Daisy, who isn't actually not her twin sister, she just came down the laundry chute one day a few months ago. Their grandmother refused to provide any information and insisted that Garet just had to adapt to having a sister in the house. Garet is not adapting to having a sister in the house. Daisy is prettier and smarter and weirder and gets EVERYTHING, including a canopy bed and a laptop computer, ugh! (Sidenote: the book was written in 1993, and I'd forgotten laptop computers were already invented then!)
Then about midway through there's the reveal that Daisy is actually a duplicate of their grandmother's younger self from 1943, who came down the magic laundry chute and is now stuck in the future.
(Why a magic laundry chute? WHY NOT.)
Garet just assumes this means her grandmother loves Daisy better because Daisy's a version of herself, but given givens it's not such a huge surprise when towards the end of the book the second reveal comes: Garet is ALSO a clone of their grandmother who came down the magic laundry chute when she was two.
So basically it's all a big exploration of nature and nurture and the way the same person can grow up to be completely different people -- in some ways kind of like a much peppier version of Orphan Black -- except it's also a story of one woman who's been forced to dedicate her life to RAISING HER OWN CLONES, which is fairly creepy, when you think about it, but OK, sure. And also it's a meta-story about telling your story, and also a story about a magic laundry chute. Because WHY NOT.
I had not forgotten how much I loved this book, but it's nice to be confirmed in how much I love this book! I'm kind of sad now that it's much too late to nominate it for Yuletide. MAYBE NEXT YEAR.
This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/388315.html. Please feel free to comment here or there! There are currently
comments on Dreamwidth.