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ketutar's review against another edition
3.0
Ok... it's better that [b:What Katy Did Next|730503|What Katy Did Next|Susan Coolidge|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348327387l/730503._SX50_.jpg|1779240], but not much.
This is a "let's bash the Englishmen and be so damned pompously chauvinistic while we do it" book.
It's a story of a girl, named Imogen (did Susan Coolidge forgot she used the name already about the little liar in What Katy Did?), whose brother went to USA from England, and she was to move with him to take care of his household, like many spinster sisters did back at that time. She is horrible prejudices and snotty, because she doesn't know much anything about USA, other than what she has heard and read in novels etc. And what her brother tells, and he says everything is amazing, better than England, everything is good and beautiful and wonderful. She doesn't believe him, because she's prejudiced and a horrible person. I mean, who could ever love England, and prefer that horrible, wet, cold, savage, primitive, tiny island to Unites States of F-ing Amurica!
She meets first one American who bashed England, English weather, English food, English famous places, Englishmen, and basically anything English - there's nothing positive she has to say about England. Then she proceeds to tell a tall story about USA, how New York is basically nothing more than a fort and the Indians attack it all the time. Poor Imogen believes it all, and the lady laughs at her.
Then she meets another American, who tells her how USA is a melting pot, how everyone who moves in the USA is American, and all the people Imogen has been recognizing as Americans because they fit her horrible, unfair, stupid prejudices about Americans, aren't really Americans. You see, anyone having a negative opinion on the USA or Americans are prejudiced, but anyone having a negative opinion about England or the Englishmen is just a discerning and intelligent person.
Her brother keeps bashing her through the whole book because she is so mean and prejudiced, but thankfully she gets sick, and saintly Clover nurses her back to life, and she is a changed woman, a true American. She confesses her sins to her husband-to-be, and now loves America and Americans, like her brother.
So, when they have a double wedding, her brother and she, they don't mind that none of their family is there. The future spouses' whole family is there, and they have now left their parents, their siblings, their childhood home and that stupid, ugly little island called Great Britain, and are now Americans, so their American family is the only family they need or want. Not a tear is dropped, not a thought is wasted on dear mother or motherland.
Hooray for Amurica! The best and most beautiful country in the world!
This is a "let's bash the Englishmen and be so damned pompously chauvinistic while we do it" book.
It's a story of a girl, named Imogen (did Susan Coolidge forgot she used the name already about the little liar in What Katy Did?), whose brother went to USA from England, and she was to move with him to take care of his household, like many spinster sisters did back at that time. She is horrible prejudices and snotty, because she doesn't know much anything about USA, other than what she has heard and read in novels etc. And what her brother tells, and he says everything is amazing, better than England, everything is good and beautiful and wonderful. She doesn't believe him, because she's prejudiced and a horrible person. I mean, who could ever love England, and prefer that horrible, wet, cold, savage, primitive, tiny island to Unites States of F-ing Amurica!
She meets first one American who bashed England, English weather, English food, English famous places, Englishmen, and basically anything English - there's nothing positive she has to say about England. Then she proceeds to tell a tall story about USA, how New York is basically nothing more than a fort and the Indians attack it all the time. Poor Imogen believes it all, and the lady laughs at her.
Then she meets another American, who tells her how USA is a melting pot, how everyone who moves in the USA is American, and all the people Imogen has been recognizing as Americans because they fit her horrible, unfair, stupid prejudices about Americans, aren't really Americans. You see, anyone having a negative opinion on the USA or Americans are prejudiced, but anyone having a negative opinion about England or the Englishmen is just a discerning and intelligent person.
Her brother keeps bashing her through the whole book because she is so mean and prejudiced, but thankfully she gets sick, and saintly Clover nurses her back to life, and she is a changed woman, a true American. She confesses her sins to her husband-to-be, and now loves America and Americans, like her brother.
So, when they have a double wedding, her brother and she, they don't mind that none of their family is there. The future spouses' whole family is there, and they have now left their parents, their siblings, their childhood home and that stupid, ugly little island called Great Britain, and are now Americans, so their American family is the only family they need or want. Not a tear is dropped, not a thought is wasted on dear mother or motherland.
Hooray for Amurica! The best and most beautiful country in the world!
sarahrosebooks's review
2.0
This edition was horribly presented. Some of the sentences would randomly cut off and start again on the next line, the spacing was all over the place, and there were a fair few spelling errors, as well.
The story is really just an add-on to give each Carr sibling a spouse (here, Clover and Elsie are already married, and Johnnie and Dorry find their spouses). We are given a Clarence-like character who magically changes her manners and ways after an illness (which seems to be the trope that the author likes to use to mould her characters into agreeable people).
Again, the story highlights how great it is to be a proper little homemaker and not at all like Mrs Watson.
I wish these books didn't exist, and then I could have finished with the third and just imagined them all living happily ever after. I know the first three have the same tropes and messages - Katy herself is the prime example of this, but I read them as an inexperienced child, not knowing then what I know now. I still have a fondness for these characters, but I didn't enjoy this book at all.
The story is really just an add-on to give each Carr sibling a spouse (here, Clover and Elsie are already married, and Johnnie and Dorry find their spouses). We are given a Clarence-like character who magically changes her manners and ways after an illness (which seems to be the trope that the author likes to use to mould her characters into agreeable people).
Again, the story highlights how great it is to be a proper little homemaker and not at all like Mrs Watson.
I wish these books didn't exist, and then I could have finished with the third and just imagined them all living happily ever after. I know the first three have the same tropes and messages - Katy herself is the prime example of this, but I read them as an inexperienced child, not knowing then what I know now. I still have a fondness for these characters, but I didn't enjoy this book at all.
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