Review: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

I really liked this book. A lot. I do find it very reminiscent of The Westing Game and From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frakweiler. Partly because it’s a puzzle, and all of the pieces don’t fall into place until the end. Partly because the characters are complex, but not overwhelming - just real. Partly because it’s set in the late 70’s in a very non-cheesy way (latchkey kids and game shows, but no bell-bottoms or disco). An added bonus - the story is sprinkled with references to A Wrinkle in Time. Grade: A

Review: Love Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Meh. The story is very predictably PC: an unconventional teenager makes friends with a bunch of quirky outcasts (an angry pre-teen, an agoraphobic woman, a goofy little girl, a crazy guy, a kid that steals stuff), knitting them into a community that finds its culmination in a winter solstice ceremony/celebration - and at the same time she tries to figure out if she still loves the boy that dumped her (in Stargirl) because she was too unconventional. Really? This book has its moments, but there’s way, WAY too much meditation. Grade: C+

Review: Eliza's Daughter by Joan Aiken

This was a terrible book. The dust jacket suggests that Aiken wrote this book out of "love and admiration" for Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility - but she doesn't seem to have particularly liked any of Austen's characters. Edward Ferrars is a legalistic, penny-pinching, and narrow-minded parson. Elinor is a dreary housewife, making the best of a lukewarm marriage. Marianne is domineering and jealous. Colonel Brandon is spoken well of (mostly) but never appears in person and eventually dies in the Napoleonic wars. I'm not sure what the point of all this is, other than a cynical rejection of a happy-ever-after ending. But not only does Aiken not seem to take any pleasure in Austen's characters, she doesn't seem to like any of her own characters. Austen's characters are often flawed, and sometimes very shallow and silly, but she has the grace to be amused and even delighted by them. Aiken doesn't seem to give a hoot for any character other than Eliza - the supporting cast are killed off one at a time by strokes and drownings and wasting sicknesses, but the book trots along and they're barely missed. And Eliza herself is hardly the sort of person I'd like to spend much time with (certainly not 316 pages!). It does seem odd that Aiken's writing should be so uneven - so winsome in her children's novels, and so heavy-handed and bitter here. But this book was written fairly late in her career, so maybe that's an explanation. Or maybe Dido Twite is just more fun to write about. Grade: D

Teenagers

"So, Alvina...how old are you?"

She poured syrup into the cold remainder of her coffee. We hadn't allowed her a refill.

"Eleven and three-quarters."

"You sure it's not eleven and four-fifths?"

She shrugged. "Could be."

"Well," he said with exaggerated dismay, "that's too bad."

She took a sip of the cold, syrupy coffee, decided she liked it, and gulped down the rest. Then looked up at him, debating whether to ask the obvious question. She did. "Why's that?"

He wagged his head grimly. If you hadn't known my father, you'd have thought he had just come from a funeral. "Why? Because you're coming to the end of a beautiful, wonderful time. Your kidhood is almost over. You know what happens next, don't you?"

Experience had taught Alvina nothing—she rose to the bait again. "What?"

"Twelve. That's what happens. And you know what then?"

She didn't really want to answer such a dumb question, but she couldn't resist finding out where all this nonsense was leading. "Thirteen," she said.

My father snapped her a finger-point. "Exactly! In other words, you'll become a teenager." He sighed mournfully. "Such a shame." Alvina looked at me, at him. "Why?"

"Why? Because you know what they say."

"Who's they?"

I thought: Score one for you, girl.

My father ignored the question. "They say teenagers are rotten. They go from being cute and cuddly little kids to monsters who want to stay out late and walk a block behind their parents."

I was a little uneasy. I knew my father was just toying with her, trying to provoke her, but I wasn't sure if Alvina knew...She twiddled her spoon in the empty coffee cup. She shook her head. "Not me."

My father and I were both caught by surprise. The spoon twiddled in the cup. Finally my father prompted her. "Not you?"

The twiddling stopped. She stared into the cup. "No. I'm backwards. I'm a rotten kid now, but I'll be an amazing teenager."

-Jerry Spinelli, Love, Stargirl, 174-175.

Fear

If I'm afraid of someone on the street, I'll turn to him (it's always a boy) and say, "Excuse me, do you happen to know what time it is?" This is my way of saying to the person, "I see you as a friend, and there is no need to hurt me or take my stuff. Also, I don't even have a watch and I am probably not worth mugging."

So far, it's worked like gangbusters, as Richard would say. And I've discovered that most people I'm afraid of are actually very friendly.

-Rebecca Stead, When You Reach Me, 25-26.

Library Books

Inkspell by Cornelia Funke - according to the book jacket, "The capitivating sequel to Inkheart," which in turn was a "Delectably thick and transfixing fantasy..." according to Publishers Weekly. I can quite reliably confirm that Inkspell is also thick. Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli - the sequel to Stargirl, which I do not adore as much as Maniac Magee and Crash - but it's still a good read. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead - I've been hunting for this book for a while - I read a review somewhere that piqued my interest. It's a mystery/puzzle of sorts set in 1979. I'm hoping that it will turn out to be in the grand tradition of The Westing Game. Eliza's Daughter by Joan Aiken - I ADORE Aiken's Wolves Chronicles, and I recently remembered that she wrote several romances that are loosely based on supporting characters from Jane Austen.

Nunc Dimittis

LORD, now lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace: accordyng to thy worde.
For mine iyes haue sene: thy saluacion.
Whiche thou hast prepared, before the face of al people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles: and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
Glory be to the father, &c.
As it was in the, &c.

-From "An Ordre for Evening Prayer Throughout the Yere," The Second Prayer-Book of Edward VI

***

I received The First and Second Prayer Books of Edward VI (Everyman Library Edition, 1938) for Christmas. I also own an old copy of The Book of Common Prayer (1892 edition?), so I think I am now an official collector of ancient-ish prayer books. I read through the order for Evensong a couple nights ago - stumbling over (and thoroughly enjoying) the idiosyncratic spelling* - and was particularly struck by this quotation of Simeon's prayer in Luke 2. I have always read this as the prayer that Simeon prayed - i.e., part of the Christmas narrative, a matter of historical fact, but not of any particular use for personal devotion. But I don't think it's included in the Order for Evening Prayer as a historical remembrance or quote - I think it's intended to be prayed. Every night! And what a fitting epitaph for the day: "Lord, now lettest thy servant depart in peace...for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."

*Re idiosyncratic spelling, it is fascinating to me how much more peculiar the spelling is in the 1549 version (First Prayer Book) as compared to the 1552 version - just three years apart?! E.g., now/nowe, seruaunte/seruant, woorde/worde, lyght/light, bee/be!

Hmmm

Think before sharing with others.

-My fortune cookie at dinner