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icapturethecastle's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Addiction, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Death of parent, Medical content, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Mental illness, Death, and Medical trauma
Eugenicskmg365's review against another edition
1.0
Bear with me. I'll get to this book, I promise, but first I have to tell a story.
When I was growing up, we never lacked for food, shelter, or clothing, but there wasn't a lot of money for extras. When a used bookstore opened up in a nearby town, I was thrilled to be able to take in a paper grocery sack full of paperbacks I'd already read, and trade them for something different for only a little bit of money, which I could earn by picking up pop bottles from roadside ditches, or collecting a couple of bushels of field corn that the combine had missed and selling it at the grain elevator.
On one Saturday bookstore visit, I picked up a worn copy of Daddy Long Legs. The cover illustration made it look like it was set in the fifties or sixties. I might not have chosen it if I'd known it was set circa 1910. I wish I could find an image of that cover to post here, but I can't find it online, and I've never seen another copy like it. I understand from reading recent reviews that modern readers find the premise of the book creepy, but it didn't strike me that way at all, because I was too busy marveling at the fact that orphan Jerusha (Judy)Abbott went off to college all by herself. I read the book over and over again. No one in my family had ever gone to college. Maybe I could?
Indeed I could, and did. The lion's share of the credit goes to my mom, but I always reserved a little sliver of gratitude for Jean Webster, who put the idea in my head.
Years later, I discovered there was a sequel of sorts to the book, involving Judy's college roommate Sallie MacBride. I downloaded a copy of it years ago, but never got around to reading it. After re-reading Daddy Long Legs over Memorial Day weekend, I decided the time was right to plunge on into Dear Enemy.
It started out fine, even though I found Sallie to be a less sympathetic heroine than Judy. Sallie came from money, and running the orphanage was something she intended to do on a very short term basis, so she could get back to her regular life of parties, shopping, and waiting for Mr. Right to show up. She liked to talk smack about the staff, and moan about their woefully old-fashioned ways. Then she casually revealed that her modern approach to running an orphanage included eugenics. Several times when an orphan is ill or injured, she laments the fact that the doctor insisted on treating them, even though society would better off if he just let them “slip away”, because their parents were alcoholics.
Evidently Jean Webster was a proponent of the scientific charity movement, which divides the needy into the “deserving” poor, and the “undeserving” poor. Children of alcoholics seem to be in the latter category. Have a bracing beverage nearby if you decide to google it.
I finished reading the book, took a deep breath, then swept up the shards of my shattered childhood illusions. If you want to read it as a product of its time, and marvel at the incongruity of a woman who talks about her 107 “wee bairns” one minute, then beats one of those bairns into submission the next (then writes a cheery letter to her friend about it), fine. Just understand what you're getting into.
radiareads's review against another edition
5.0
Dear Enemy combines many of my favorite things, and several of my least favorite. Being in education and a history lover, the long tales of the asylum life were fascinating to me. I could observe it as a record of the beliefs and mores of the time written in an amusing style. Then I’d get wrapped up in the characters and be annoyed at them for following the misguided eugenics of the time. I apologize, I am somewhat of a hypocrite. I want my books historically accurate, and to not make me cringe in disgust at beliefs the characters hold.
If you enjoyed Daddy-Long-Legs and were hoping for more closure after the annoying ending, you’re not going to get it. In fact, this book has an extremely similarly annoyingly abrupt ending. My feelings are a bit strong on this point, so I hope you’ll pardon the adverbs.
If you enjoyed Daddy-Long-Legs and were hoping for a story that follows a similar format and narrative style, you’re in luck!
If you enjoyed Daddy-Long-Legs and were hoping for more closure after the annoying ending, you’re not going to get it. In fact, this book has an extremely similarly annoyingly abrupt ending. My feelings are a bit strong on this point, so I hope you’ll pardon the adverbs.
If you enjoyed Daddy-Long-Legs and were hoping for a story that follows a similar format and narrative style, you’re in luck!
mazza57's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this one sided epistolary account of a woman's tenure as he'd of an orphanage. We only see the responses in her accounts of day to day life. It is both comic and full of human spirit
ikuo1000's review against another edition
5.0
I dare say I'm becoming a Jean Webster fan!
This epistolary novel is a sequel to Daddy-Long-Legs, though Judy Abbott is no longer the letter-writer. Instead, we have Sallie McBride, Judy's good friend from college, writing from her new station as Superintendent of the John Grier Home, the orphanage where Judy was raised. From the start, it seemed like a good premise for a follow-up: Judy, now married to the president of the Board of Trustees of the John Grier Home, is able to use her wealth and influence to re-make the repressive institution for orphans into a modern, loving home for children.
Sallie McBride is a lively, competent, compassionate woman who doesn't back down from a fight. We read her letters to Judy and Judy's husband, reporting both professional and personal developments at the John Grier Home, as well as her letters to Gordon, a politician suitor in Washington, and Sandy, the visiting doctor for the orphanage. Sallie's personality shines through in her correspondences, and her letters are both entertaining and informative. She was remarkably efficient in her work, especially considering that so much of her time must have been taken up with letter-writing!
Keeping in mind that this book was first written in 1915, it's particularly interesting to read up on Sallie's ideas for improving the orphanage. Though many of the ideas may be dated - and we really ought to read the book through the lens of the time in which it was written - a surprising number of "modern" child-rearing theories outlined in the book are still embraced today!
Though Daddy-Long-Legs was perfectly suitable for elementary-aged readers, this book is probably better suited for middle school readers, or even high schoolers. Much of the book actually consists of social commentary on feminism, philanthropy, and the care of orphans. Plus, there are some references to alcoholism, and one passing mention of prostitution. Also, there's a bit of accented Scotch and Irish speaking that would be difficult for young readers to parse.
This epistolary novel is a sequel to Daddy-Long-Legs, though Judy Abbott is no longer the letter-writer. Instead, we have Sallie McBride, Judy's good friend from college, writing from her new station as Superintendent of the John Grier Home, the orphanage where Judy was raised. From the start, it seemed like a good premise for a follow-up: Judy, now married to the president of the Board of Trustees of the John Grier Home, is able to use her wealth and influence to re-make the repressive institution for orphans into a modern, loving home for children.
Sallie McBride is a lively, competent, compassionate woman who doesn't back down from a fight. We read her letters to Judy and Judy's husband, reporting both professional and personal developments at the John Grier Home, as well as her letters to Gordon, a politician suitor in Washington, and Sandy, the visiting doctor for the orphanage. Sallie's personality shines through in her correspondences, and her letters are both entertaining and informative. She was remarkably efficient in her work, especially considering that so much of her time must have been taken up with letter-writing!
Keeping in mind that this book was first written in 1915, it's particularly interesting to read up on Sallie's ideas for improving the orphanage. Though many of the ideas may be dated - and we really ought to read the book through the lens of the time in which it was written - a surprising number of "modern" child-rearing theories outlined in the book are still embraced today!
Though Daddy-Long-Legs was perfectly suitable for elementary-aged readers, this book is probably better suited for middle school readers, or even high schoolers. Much of the book actually consists of social commentary on feminism, philanthropy, and the care of orphans. Plus, there are some references to alcoholism, and one passing mention of prostitution. Also, there's a bit of accented Scotch and Irish speaking that would be difficult for young readers to parse.
nipomuki's review against another edition
4.0
After finishing Daddy-Long-Legs I rushed to read the follow up novel. In some ways it is even better than the first one. I adored reading about this inexperienced but strong willed society girl taking up the management of an orphanage. Her letters are great fun and give a perfect feeling for the situation and characters.
But it was just so hard reading about the way people (even forward thinking, kind and modern ones) thought about mental illness and disability at that time. I know too much about the tragic outcome this mindset had for many individuals and families. A sad part of history.
Apart from this subject the book is wonderful, and the romance much better developed and more interesting than the one in the first book (for obvious reasons).
But it was just so hard reading about the way people (even forward thinking, kind and modern ones) thought about mental illness and disability at that time. I know too much about the tragic outcome this mindset had for many individuals and families. A sad part of history.
Apart from this subject the book is wonderful, and the romance much better developed and more interesting than the one in the first book (for obvious reasons).
gladdenangie's review against another edition
4.0
This is the sequel to a very charming book, "Daddy Long Legs", that was introduced to me through a friend at book group. I liked reading the continuation of Jerusha Abbott's story, orphan now all grown up, but "Dear Enemy" wasn't quite as beautifully written as the first.
angiegladden's review against another edition
4.0
This is the sequel to a very charming book, "Daddy Long Legs", that was introduced to me through a friend at book group. I liked reading the continuation of Jerusha Abbott's story, orphan now all grown up, but "Dear Enemy" wasn't quite as beautifully written as the first.
mayarelmahdy's review
2.0
كل النجوم المفقودة على حساب الـ "بوليتيكال كورريكتنس" -التصحيح السياسي؟- و مبادئه المرتبطة بإن كره الأطفال أصحاب الأمراض العصبية أو النفسية، أو كرههم على حساب شكلهم، أو لمجرد إنهم أيتام مش مقبول.
I was dying a little whenever Sallie talked about her children in this awful way.
Edit: Thanks to college, I now learned that what Sallie was doing is called Eugenics. It's a messed up belief about how character traits are 100% hereditary. It's also how extremists got the idea of a master race and, oddly enough, none of the people responsible for it is Germans.
Bottom line is, you can't hate children for having alcoholic parents or Down syndrome or being less pretty than other children. If you do that, you're a pig. Please don't work in childcare.
I was dying a little whenever Sallie talked about her children in this awful way.
Edit: Thanks to college, I now learned that what Sallie was doing is called Eugenics. It's a messed up belief about how character traits are 100% hereditary. It's also how extremists got the idea of a master race and, oddly enough, none of the people responsible for it is Germans.
Bottom line is, you can't hate children for having alcoholic parents or Down syndrome or being less pretty than other children. If you do that, you're a pig. Please don't work in childcare.