I Capture the Castle

Dodie Smith is a superstar of writing quotable sentences & paragraphs if I Capture the Castle is any proof. It actually more than makes up for Cassandra's annoying naivety through most of the book and a real uncool move by a character I won't name here.

Plus, uh, the bear incident. Hilarious. Trust me, I'm not giving anything away with that.

This was lovely and funny. I feel so much affection for Cassandra - she's at her best when she's sharply witty in her observations, and I can forgive her boring wallow in teenage romantic self-pity, since it doesn't last too terribly long, and only occurs after I've gotten to know her well. It also winds up in a very artful way, in my opinion.This book reminds me of two other books in very different ways.First, this seems like an inside-out version of [b:We Have Always Lived in the Castle 89724 We Have Always Lived in the Castle Shirley Jackson https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1415357189s/89724.jpg 847007] - first-person narration by a teenage girl we can't always trust to be accurate or objective, telling about living with her sister in a Gothic pile and how a potential suitor entering the picture affects their relationship. Of course, this was published earlier, so Shirley Jackson's story would be the funhouse mirror version while this is the original. I can totally see Jackson reading this and saying to herself, “I could write a completely NFBSKed-up take on this story.”The second book it puts me in mind of is [b:Drama 13436373 Drama Raina Telgemeier https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1330157763s/13436373.jpg 18940474], because they both tell stories about romance that aren't “romances.” The relationships don't necessarily follow a predictable arc, and interactions can be frustrating, ambiguous, confusing, and uncertain. You know, like real life teenage romantic relationships! Cassandra's struggles with love are very true to life.Sometimes this suffers from extreme tonal shifts - most notably depictions of depression and guilt suddenly making way for extreme farce at one point. But overall it's just enjoyable to see the world through Cassandra's eyes and meet all the loving, comical, flawed people she knows.

Full review at SFF Book Review.

I have a love-hate-relationship with this novel. I adored the style, I found the story just eccentric and romantic enough and I cared deeply about the side characters. I just couldn't manage to like Cassandra, the protagonist and narrator. She always felt too distant and a bit arrogant to me. Watching all the others, observing their ways and (at least I thought) considering herself a cut above the company.
I do recommend this book though. It shows the craziness that is coming-of-age perfectly and offers some beautiful writing at the same time. 6,5/10 stars

I was not terribly impressed by this story. It was well written with wonderful character development of the narrator, Cassandra, however the overall plot was dull. I think what really threw me was the very beginning of the novel, when Cassandra and her family describe their overwhelming poverty, and then they all come to the conclusion that not a single person in the house can go out and work to make money. Why not? What are they doing with their time? Cassandra day dreams and writes in her journal, I have no idea what Rose is up to, Thomas goes to school, Topaz keeps house, the father does crosswords and mopes all day about not being able to write, and the only person who does go out to make money is the orphan serving boy who shouldn't even be giving the family money in the first place.

Instead of self sufficient pluck to get the family out of poverty, the plot revolves around her sister Rose snaring a rich man, which in turn leads to the family's fortunes turning around (and a lot of other stuff happens).

It reminded me a lot of “A tree Grows in Brooklyn,” but what made that such a wonderful read was the tenacity of the family, never giving up to pull themselves out of poverty through hard work and determination and not waiting around for things to be handed to them.

One of the reasons I read so much backlist is that I feel like the cream rises to the top over time, and this is one of those books that gets recommended over and over and over again. It is indeed quite a charming read! Cassandra Mortmain, seventeen years old in the 1930s, starts keeping a journal as a writing exercise. In it, she records the daily life of her family, including her father (who once wrote a modern novel that was very well-received and has done nothing that would bring in any money, writing or otherwise, since), her stepmother (an artist's model who enjoys communing with nature by walking around naked outside), her younger brother Thomas (a mostly normal teenage boy), and her beautiful older sister Rose. They live in a castle, but it's a crumbling ruin and they are selling off the furniture to afford even the scanty food they eat. But the family's luck turns when the person who owns the estate on which the castle is located dies and his young American nephews come to check out the place they've inherited. Of course, romantic intrigue develops. The real star here is the narrative voice Dodie Smith gives to Cassandra, who is delightful and witty and has a sweetness that avoids being saccharine. She feels like an actual person, and one you'd like to know. The plot is entertaining enough and well-paced but was not really the point, at least for me. It's a winning book and one I'd recommend if you've managed to miss it thus far (especially if you enjoy coming-of-age stories!).

This one has some really glowing professional reviews, especially for its narrator, but honestly it was more of a 3.5 for me. Or perhaps less, I'm afraid. But that's largely due to personal baggage. My issue was twofold: 1) romantic triangle hijinks that made me cringe, and 2) I think everyone loves the narrator partly because her family members are kind of awful, so she's great by comparison. I don't mean to say she isn't a neat character, but I really had a hard time with some of her family members and how she relates to them; maybe it hit too close to home.

Technically, though, I think this is a great example of telling a story with a limited point of view, so I didn't want to let my angst drag down the overall review too much. ;)

This has a bit of spoiler, but I wish I had found something like this before I read this book.

I picked this up because of reviews talking about how sweet, charming, and funny it is. The first two-thirds of the book did have a quiet humor that I liked, with only a hint of darkness. But it wound up being very bittersweet, which I don't care for at all.

Re-read in non-chronological chunks in May 2013 directly after finishing The Enchanted April.

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I am probably too old for this but I still loved it! It is a classic, so it must be a sign of my youth-at-heart that I enjoyed it so much. But is it sweet or pathetic that I couldn't predict how it would end? (Although I rarely attempt to predict any book's ending, unless I really hate it.) I was thankful that Cassandra managed to avoid the same happily-ever-after as Rose, at least for now. The setting is one of my favourites – England between the wars – and the cast of characters was nearly a perfect set – not too many, not too few. The journal-writing conceit weakens partway through when she recounts long scenes that may as well be in a novel, but by that point it hardly matters, and Cassandra pulls her diaristic self together around the time her emotional self falls apart.

P.S. I watched the 2003 film afterward and sadly it was no good.