Scan barcode
A review by bhnmt61
Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay
2.0
The obvious literary allusions are called out early and often in this book— Austen, the Brontes, Dumas— but the more direct model of this story is Daddy Long Legs, a 1912 novel by Jean Webster told in letters written by a young orphan to a mysterious benefactor. I read it close to 50 years ago when I was about 12 and I loved it.
But as an adult, looking back on what I could remember about it, it seemed like a pretty strange premise, so I re-read it a couple of years ago. Yes, it is just as weird and inexplicable as adult-me was thinking it would be. Penniless orphan falls in love with an older wealthy man who is funding her education. She has been writing long, breathless, charming letters to him. The whole setup is just kind of creepy if you ask me, and it is copied almost exactly in Dear Mr. Knightley.
Reay solves some of the problems by making Samantha a little older (24) and the benefactor, Alex, a little younger (35- ish?), and wealthy because of his successful suspense novels, not because he was born and raised wealthy. They are both writers, so they at least have something in common, and she is on her way to being a successful journalist, so it’s not quite such an imbalance of power.
But it’s still an iffy proposition if you ask me, and I was not sold on this pairing, especially not on the way it ended. He is a creeper, and she is unbelievably naive. He has been lying, manipulating, and preying on her trust for months, reading dozens of her private letters but never letting on, and then after two minutes of apologies at the end, they’re good. Ugh.
Also, and this is probably just me with my individual peeves, I was resentful of the religious agenda. There’s not enough that it should be marketed as a religious novel, but it’s enough that if you’ve got a huge chip on your shoulder about the evangelical church (as I do), it’s a deal breaker. It feels sneaky and underhanded. I have zero interest in reading further books by this author.
So, all in all, this one wasn’t for me. I did finish it, so according to my own scale I should give it three stars, but I can’t.
But as an adult, looking back on what I could remember about it, it seemed like a pretty strange premise, so I re-read it a couple of years ago. Yes, it is just as weird and inexplicable as adult-me was thinking it would be. Penniless orphan falls in love with an older wealthy man who is funding her education. She has been writing long, breathless, charming letters to him. The whole setup is just kind of creepy if you ask me, and it is copied almost exactly in Dear Mr. Knightley.
Reay solves some of the problems by making Samantha a little older (24) and the benefactor, Alex, a little younger (35- ish?), and wealthy because of his successful suspense novels, not because he was born and raised wealthy. They are both writers, so they at least have something in common, and she is on her way to being a successful journalist, so it’s not quite such an imbalance of power.
But it’s still an iffy proposition if you ask me, and I was not sold on this pairing, especially not on the way it ended. He is a creeper, and she is unbelievably naive. He has been lying, manipulating, and preying on her trust for months, reading dozens of her private letters but never letting on, and then after two minutes of apologies at the end, they’re good. Ugh.
Also, and this is probably just me with my individual peeves, I was resentful of the religious agenda. There’s not enough that it should be marketed as a religious novel, but it’s enough that if you’ve got a huge chip on your shoulder about the evangelical church (as I do), it’s a deal breaker. It feels sneaky and underhanded. I have zero interest in reading further books by this author.
So, all in all, this one wasn’t for me. I did finish it, so according to my own scale I should give it three stars, but I can’t.