07-23-2011, 10:11 AM
I was all set to love this story. It's on this forum's Best Gothic Romance List, I'd heard nothing but good so far, I like impersonation themes and right at the start of the novel I knew I loved this author's writing style. Then why don't I feel satisfied now I've finished reading?
Perhaps because it was all so very predictable. That's not per se a bad thing; you can enjoy the road towards resolution. But I would have loved just a few surprising twists. So the mystery was not really a mystery; we only don't know how it'll end: will Brat keep on as impostor or will he come clean, and what will happen to the evildoer.
The author writes beautifully and gives us all these lovely details that portray the English country life. This was overdone, however, in an account of a day at the races that went on and on and had nothing to do with the story. I would have skipped over this boring horse stuff if she hadn't tantalized the reader with: "So the Ashby household settled back to its normal placidity, and to its preparations for that day at Bures that was to alter all their lives."
I'd like to add a few more complaints re the narrative.
There were too many convenient coincidences that helped the author in writing an easy story, but would never have happened in real life. The impostor is selected because of his looks, obviously, but other than that he is the same age, the same nationality, conveniently orphaned with no acquaintances in England, is well-bred, has exactly the same personality and is just as crazy about horses as all the others. Suspension of disbelief required here.
Brat Farrar impersonates a boy who presumably killed himself (or perhaps ran away) eight years ago at age thirteen. The first thing he does upon returning home is visit their lawyers. Which is explained like this: "He said a boy coming home after years away would go home." "Then he doesn't know Patrick. That is just what Patrick would have done: broken it gently by going to the family lawyer first. He was always the most thoughtful and unselfish of creatures." I'm not buying this at all: going home is going home.
Next it's up to the lawyers to verify if Brat really is Patrick. Why? How? They can only investigate if what Brat says is correct, and a good impersonator will make sure that what he says is verifiable. A family knows the important things: shared knowledge, habits, likes and dislikes. All right, I thought, we'll see the grilling start when Brat/Patrick joins the family. Nope: Brat thought, listening to them, how very English it all was. Here he was, back from the dead, and they were calmly discussing American table manners. There was no backslapping, congratulatory insistence on the situation as there would be in a transatlantic household. They avoided the do-you-remember theme as determinedly as Americans would have wallowed in it.
Not even once did anyone ask the question "Why did you run away?" The boldest question asked was "Why didn't you write?" and when Patrick answers "I don't know. Honestly, I don't know!" that suffices apparently.
As I have mixed feelings I'm going to give my verdict in partitions:
Gothicness: none whatsoever
Mood setting: very good
Characterization: excellent
Prose: excellent
Story: disappointing
Perhaps because it was all so very predictable. That's not per se a bad thing; you can enjoy the road towards resolution. But I would have loved just a few surprising twists. So the mystery was not really a mystery; we only don't know how it'll end: will Brat keep on as impostor or will he come clean, and what will happen to the evildoer.
The author writes beautifully and gives us all these lovely details that portray the English country life. This was overdone, however, in an account of a day at the races that went on and on and had nothing to do with the story. I would have skipped over this boring horse stuff if she hadn't tantalized the reader with: "So the Ashby household settled back to its normal placidity, and to its preparations for that day at Bures that was to alter all their lives."
I'd like to add a few more complaints re the narrative.
There were too many convenient coincidences that helped the author in writing an easy story, but would never have happened in real life. The impostor is selected because of his looks, obviously, but other than that he is the same age, the same nationality, conveniently orphaned with no acquaintances in England, is well-bred, has exactly the same personality and is just as crazy about horses as all the others. Suspension of disbelief required here.
Brat Farrar impersonates a boy who presumably killed himself (or perhaps ran away) eight years ago at age thirteen. The first thing he does upon returning home is visit their lawyers. Which is explained like this: "He said a boy coming home after years away would go home." "Then he doesn't know Patrick. That is just what Patrick would have done: broken it gently by going to the family lawyer first. He was always the most thoughtful and unselfish of creatures." I'm not buying this at all: going home is going home.
Next it's up to the lawyers to verify if Brat really is Patrick. Why? How? They can only investigate if what Brat says is correct, and a good impersonator will make sure that what he says is verifiable. A family knows the important things: shared knowledge, habits, likes and dislikes. All right, I thought, we'll see the grilling start when Brat/Patrick joins the family. Nope: Brat thought, listening to them, how very English it all was. Here he was, back from the dead, and they were calmly discussing American table manners. There was no backslapping, congratulatory insistence on the situation as there would be in a transatlantic household. They avoided the do-you-remember theme as determinedly as Americans would have wallowed in it.
Not even once did anyone ask the question "Why did you run away?" The boldest question asked was "Why didn't you write?" and when Patrick answers "I don't know. Honestly, I don't know!" that suffices apparently.
As I have mixed feelings I'm going to give my verdict in partitions:
Gothicness: none whatsoever
Mood setting: very good
Characterization: excellent
Prose: excellent
Story: disappointing