REVIEW: What Happened to Kitty
What Happened to Kitty: Theodora Wilson Wilson Blackie (inscription dated 1934)
At the start of the book, the titular Kitty isastride a horse and I all but sighed. You may have noticed I don’t discuss horsey books much here because I avoid them. But Kitty is riding this horse for the last time and then leaving her life in London to live in the country, up north, with an uncle she has never met before. Her friend is trying to console her that she will ride again.
The story is a bit ‘what it says on the tin’, and isn’t it interesting that things happen to Kitty, but Katy Carr did things, but it’s not just about Kitty. There are three other young people whom Kitty eventually meets and befriends in the village of Morley. They are brothers Roddy and Tim and their motherless friend Nell, who first spy Kitty at a gymnastics display at the local high school, where she impresses them. When they gradually learn she’s the niece of the local squire, Jonathan Threlby, known to be miserly and a bit of a hermit, they can’t quite believe it. But Kitty is a good sort, even if she is, as she admits ‘up and down’ for reasons they gradually learn.
This is set during the Suffragist campaign, which brings up tensions between Nell and her boy friends (who come off as whiny chauvinists who would always be lords and masters from this side of women gaining the vote). But the heart of the story is how doubly orphaned Kitty, fast growing up, can fix her relationship with an uncle she thinks cold, when he is really a grieving widower who has shut himself off from her, like the rest of the world. She’s heartsore because she doesn’t believe she’s wanted, and partly because of pride and misunderstanding. There is a Christian moral, and though I agree Kitty could have helped herself by being kinder to her uncle (and likewise him to her), the writer was asking for a lot of understanding there from a fifteen year old girl.
Kitty’s emotions didn’t irk me, even though she acts out, to Wilson Wilson’s credit. Indeed, there were moments where the void between Kitty and her only blood relative were touching.
In Nell, who is also motherless and cleaves to her friends’ mother, Mrs Webster, while worrying about her weight, loving fashion, and starting to believe that women ought to have the vote and equality, there are a lot of questions about how best to bring up a girl that ring true for today.
Technically, the habit of starting in media res and then going back in time to fill in the gap wasn’t handled clearly enough and was overdone, but the background, the family drama and the gender issues were interesting. And Kitty does get to ride again.
This entry was originally posted at https://feather-ghyll.dreamwidth.org/148472.html. Please comment wherever you prefer to.
At the start of the book, the titular Kitty isastride a horse and I all but sighed. You may have noticed I don’t discuss horsey books much here because I avoid them. But Kitty is riding this horse for the last time and then leaving her life in London to live in the country, up north, with an uncle she has never met before. Her friend is trying to console her that she will ride again.
The story is a bit ‘what it says on the tin’, and isn’t it interesting that things happen to Kitty, but Katy Carr did things, but it’s not just about Kitty. There are three other young people whom Kitty eventually meets and befriends in the village of Morley. They are brothers Roddy and Tim and their motherless friend Nell, who first spy Kitty at a gymnastics display at the local high school, where she impresses them. When they gradually learn she’s the niece of the local squire, Jonathan Threlby, known to be miserly and a bit of a hermit, they can’t quite believe it. But Kitty is a good sort, even if she is, as she admits ‘up and down’ for reasons they gradually learn.
This is set during the Suffragist campaign, which brings up tensions between Nell and her boy friends (who come off as whiny chauvinists who would always be lords and masters from this side of women gaining the vote). But the heart of the story is how doubly orphaned Kitty, fast growing up, can fix her relationship with an uncle she thinks cold, when he is really a grieving widower who has shut himself off from her, like the rest of the world. She’s heartsore because she doesn’t believe she’s wanted, and partly because of pride and misunderstanding. There is a Christian moral, and though I agree Kitty could have helped herself by being kinder to her uncle (and likewise him to her), the writer was asking for a lot of understanding there from a fifteen year old girl.
Kitty’s emotions didn’t irk me, even though she acts out, to Wilson Wilson’s credit. Indeed, there were moments where the void between Kitty and her only blood relative were touching.
In Nell, who is also motherless and cleaves to her friends’ mother, Mrs Webster, while worrying about her weight, loving fashion, and starting to believe that women ought to have the vote and equality, there are a lot of questions about how best to bring up a girl that ring true for today.
Technically, the habit of starting in media res and then going back in time to fill in the gap wasn’t handled clearly enough and was overdone, but the background, the family drama and the gender issues were interesting. And Kitty does get to ride again.
This entry was originally posted at https://feather-ghyll.dreamwidth.org/148472.html. Please comment wherever you prefer to.