Рецензия на книгу
I Capture The Castle
Dodie Smith
Аноним25 января 2019 г.Consciously bookish
This book gave me mixed feelings. First, I was intrigued; the style of the opening pages seemed unusual, though in a slightly deliberate way. I’d say, whatever the narrator claims, it’s obvious that right from the start her writings were meant to become a real book, not merely a journal. And luckily hers is a very characteristic family to ‘capture’, even if it takes just a second look to call it properly dysfunctional. Whether young Cassandra really is a most charismatic narrator, I’m not sure. It makes you think of Jane Austen but without her quick-wittedness and social insight. See what’s left?..
I don’t know why, but the moment when Cassandra lists off her considerations about having refused a walk with Stephen and if he would have kissed her and if she really wished that back then and if she would really mind that now, annoyed me so much that I nearly dropped the book. It sounded so girlish and pretentious and I did not feel in the least connected with the heroine. By that point, I really thought she could find a better use for her time than keeping journals, given that Stephen is the only one who brings money for the household. Anyway, it never looked like diaries of a 17-year-old girl as much as memories of a 50-year-old woman longing for her youth and her native land – which the book is, in fact. However dramatic are the events towards the end of the book, the pace, the choice of words, the distant, nostalgic tone remains the same. I simply don’t believe anyone would put down phrases like “only the margin left to write on now”, but as an audiobook (read by Jenny Agutter) somehow it works better. It’s very English of course, and what matters is the atmosphere, even the hackneyed stereotypes made lovely by time and distance.6648