OVERVIEWS - Recent reading
A Popular Schoolgirl: Angela Brazil
I had an ‘oh, Angela’ moment when we’re introduced to our heroine and her family: Ingred, her younger brother Hereward and in order of age Egbert, Athelstane and Queenrede. It wasn’t the first names that did it for me, it’s the fact that their surname is Saxon.
What is interesting about this book and to be taken more seriously is that it’s set after the first world war and has the girls at Ingred’s school taking up their role in reconstruction in a very Chalet School sort of way. It’s about Ingred chiefly, her family (which went down in the world after the war, although not so much that anyone in education had to leave it, and they still kept a servant. Brazil does contrast them with families whose material fortunes stayed the same but who lost family members) and her school life. She now has to board during the week, which leads to adventures with her dorm mates, is voted class ‘warden’ and has to struggle with her feelings for a new girl in their form who has moved into the beloved family home the Saxons had to give up. I felt a little frustrated that all the strands weren’t woven together better, for instance, one felt that Brazil would suddenly remember ‘Ioh, I’m meant to be developing Ingred’s pride’ , but this was better than some books of hers I’ve read.
Sara Gay Model Girl in New York: Janey Scott
That's New York, 1961 - fit for girls. In some ways, this is better written than some things I’ve read published by World Distributors. Sara’s adventures are realistic, she doesn’t solve a crime as much as manage a familial reconciliation, and there is some acknowledgement that family relationships and friendships aren’t always rosy. I didn’t love Sara and her attitude towards looks and what makes a woman a valuable member of society, though. Although her views were full of contradictions, it was all pretty annoying. I know, I’m reading it with modern day biases, but I thought the book was disingenuous in how it tried to square up the importance of looking a certain way and being a certain size in an industry with behaviour the author seemed to feel one should approve of in girls, let alone how it dealt with the relationship of a career and motherhood, which is usually problematic in ‘career stories for girls’ from this period.
Dance with me by Victoria Clayton
Recommended. I gurgled with pleasure a lot at Viola Otway’s escapades and interaction with the charming eccentrics she meets. Any heroine who includes definitions of unusual words and has opinions about Charloote Bronte characters has more than a foothold on my affections. We quickly see why she’s the way that she is, and, although I laughed at her and shook my head at her, I found her loveable. The book isn’t entirely candyfloss, there’s a passage late on where we learn about horrible things that have happened to characters we’ve grown to love, but there is a happy ending for most (and a swoony one for Viola).
I look forward to reading more by Clayton (I think another book of hers may have been recommended by
callmemadam.)
Finally I reread Three go to Switzerland: Mabel Esther Allan
It can’t have made much impact on me before, because I didn’t remember anything as I read it. Although big sister Charlotte claims to be completely English, she, narrator Hanni and their younger sister Trudi are half-Swiss. After the death of their father, they lived in the Wirral with their mother and maternal grandfather, but after the latter’s death, their mother decides to take them to visit the family in Kanderstag, with the possibility that, if they all agree, they’ll stay and make their lives there. Sixtreen year old Charlotte, who has been going through a bad phase of wanting nothing but pleasure, reading magazines instead of books (!), without facing up to what she’ll do in the future and wanting things all her own way is determined not to like it. The author’s partial self-insert Hanni falls for the mountains, while, with more opportunities for real danger in the Alps than the Wirral, reckless Trudi learns some sense.
Of course, Charlotte changes her mind about Switzerland by the end of summer, but it is the handsome elder brother of a nice neighbouring family who does it. Like Hanni, I’m not sure it was the best reason to choose a new life, but it did lead her to helping her mother more and becoming a nicer person. And Hanni desperately wanted to stay, so she doesn’t remonstrate too much.
One quote that made me splutter:
Trudi was absorbed in a school story - the rather lurid kind that are so fascinating until you suddenly grow out of them.
The narrator is nearly fourteen at this point and Trudi is twelve.
This entry was originally posted at http://www.dreamwidth.org/12345.html. Please comment wherever you prefer to.
I had an ‘oh, Angela’ moment when we’re introduced to our heroine and her family: Ingred, her younger brother Hereward and in order of age Egbert, Athelstane and Queenrede. It wasn’t the first names that did it for me, it’s the fact that their surname is Saxon.
What is interesting about this book and to be taken more seriously is that it’s set after the first world war and has the girls at Ingred’s school taking up their role in reconstruction in a very Chalet School sort of way. It’s about Ingred chiefly, her family (which went down in the world after the war, although not so much that anyone in education had to leave it, and they still kept a servant. Brazil does contrast them with families whose material fortunes stayed the same but who lost family members) and her school life. She now has to board during the week, which leads to adventures with her dorm mates, is voted class ‘warden’ and has to struggle with her feelings for a new girl in their form who has moved into the beloved family home the Saxons had to give up. I felt a little frustrated that all the strands weren’t woven together better, for instance, one felt that Brazil would suddenly remember ‘Ioh, I’m meant to be developing Ingred’s pride’ , but this was better than some books of hers I’ve read.
Sara Gay Model Girl in New York: Janey Scott
That's New York, 1961 - fit for girls. In some ways, this is better written than some things I’ve read published by World Distributors. Sara’s adventures are realistic, she doesn’t solve a crime as much as manage a familial reconciliation, and there is some acknowledgement that family relationships and friendships aren’t always rosy. I didn’t love Sara and her attitude towards looks and what makes a woman a valuable member of society, though. Although her views were full of contradictions, it was all pretty annoying. I know, I’m reading it with modern day biases, but I thought the book was disingenuous in how it tried to square up the importance of looking a certain way and being a certain size in an industry with behaviour the author seemed to feel one should approve of in girls, let alone how it dealt with the relationship of a career and motherhood, which is usually problematic in ‘career stories for girls’ from this period.
Dance with me by Victoria Clayton
Recommended. I gurgled with pleasure a lot at Viola Otway’s escapades and interaction with the charming eccentrics she meets. Any heroine who includes definitions of unusual words and has opinions about Charloote Bronte characters has more than a foothold on my affections. We quickly see why she’s the way that she is, and, although I laughed at her and shook my head at her, I found her loveable. The book isn’t entirely candyfloss, there’s a passage late on where we learn about horrible things that have happened to characters we’ve grown to love, but there is a happy ending for most (and a swoony one for Viola).
I look forward to reading more by Clayton (I think another book of hers may have been recommended by
callmemadam.)
Finally I reread Three go to Switzerland: Mabel Esther Allan
It can’t have made much impact on me before, because I didn’t remember anything as I read it. Although big sister Charlotte claims to be completely English, she, narrator Hanni and their younger sister Trudi are half-Swiss. After the death of their father, they lived in the Wirral with their mother and maternal grandfather, but after the latter’s death, their mother decides to take them to visit the family in Kanderstag, with the possibility that, if they all agree, they’ll stay and make their lives there. Sixtreen year old Charlotte, who has been going through a bad phase of wanting nothing but pleasure, reading magazines instead of books (!), without facing up to what she’ll do in the future and wanting things all her own way is determined not to like it. The author’s partial self-insert Hanni falls for the mountains, while, with more opportunities for real danger in the Alps than the Wirral, reckless Trudi learns some sense.
Of course, Charlotte changes her mind about Switzerland by the end of summer, but it is the handsome elder brother of a nice neighbouring family who does it. Like Hanni, I’m not sure it was the best reason to choose a new life, but it did lead her to helping her mother more and becoming a nicer person. And Hanni desperately wanted to stay, so she doesn’t remonstrate too much.
One quote that made me splutter:
Trudi was absorbed in a school story - the rather lurid kind that are so fascinating until you suddenly grow out of them.
The narrator is nearly fourteen at this point and Trudi is twelve.
This entry was originally posted at http://www.dreamwidth.org/12345.html. Please comment wherever you prefer to.