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A review by robinwalter
Charlotte Fairlie by D.E. Stevenson
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This was my second DE Stevenson book, and a much more complicated one. It wasn't light and frothy and fun like The Fair Misfortune, and while the eponymous central character was more likeable than not, there was much in the story that I found troubling.
I found myself consciously trying to cut the story some slack on account of when it was written. At one point after a recap of Charlotte's own back story which involved horrific neglect and abandonment by her own father, we read
she could sympathise with her father’s predicament. What else could he have done? thought Charlotte. He might have done it in a different way, but, under the circumstances, it was the only thing to do.
I could not comprehend how anyone had been through that could think that way. Her father's actions were indefensible, and even within the framework of the story, the way her father treated her came up later as a reason and a motor for some of her own actions, showing that they were more serious than she asserted.
Another difference between this story and The Fair Misfortune is that there actually were villains. The first villain was a malicious and hateful staff member at the school where Charlotte was principal. This person was irredeemably bad, and got away with her actions. Having recently read a Golden Age mystery in which the detective solved a murder and then promptly proceeded to pervert justice by actively aiding the murderer to escape the police and flee, seeing someone else escape any consequences for their negative actions was not particularly satisfying.
The theme of the psychological abuse of children was prominent throughout the story, and continues to the end. Perhaps even more troubling than the abusive parent is the reaction of Charlotte's love interest. He is painted quite literally as a feudal laird, openly proud of being a law unto himself and doing as he sees fit in every circumstance, including beating someone senseless for beating a dog - apparently fedual lairds don't get irony. This made it hard for me to get on board with the romance as fully as I might have liked. Throw in the absolutely pathological attachment to place that so many of the characters were depicted as having and the book is not an unalloyed success for me. It is one thing to love the place where one was born and grew up, it is quite another in my view to refuse to leave it under any circumstances except when compelled to do so by the exigencies of war.
All of the above left me feeling somewhat disappointed in the story, but Ms Stevenson had another surprise in store. The penultimate couple of chapters were very religious. By "very religious" I mean that the last couple of chapters make the last couple of books in CS Lewis's Narnia series seem like anthems to atheism. That kind of overt religiosity is not really my cup of tea.
I'm not sorry I read the book, especially because when Ms Stevenson is waxing lyrical about the Scottish island central to the story her language shines and glows with real beauty. Nevertheless I hope that at least some of the other works of hers that I have are more similar to t The Fair Misfortune than to Charlotte Fairlie.
I found myself consciously trying to cut the story some slack on account of when it was written. At one point after a recap of Charlotte's own back story which involved horrific neglect and abandonment by her own father, we read
she could sympathise with her father’s predicament. What else could he have done? thought Charlotte. He might have done it in a different way, but, under the circumstances, it was the only thing to do.
I could not comprehend how anyone had been through that could think that way. Her father's actions were indefensible, and even within the framework of the story, the way her father treated her came up later as a reason and a motor for some of her own actions, showing that they were more serious than she asserted.
Another difference between this story and The Fair Misfortune is that there actually were villains. The first villain was a malicious and hateful staff member at the school where Charlotte was principal. This person was irredeemably bad, and got away with her actions. Having recently read a Golden Age mystery in which the detective solved a murder and then promptly proceeded to pervert justice by actively aiding the murderer to escape the police and flee, seeing someone else escape any consequences for their negative actions was not particularly satisfying.
The theme of the psychological abuse of children was prominent throughout the story, and continues to the end. Perhaps even more troubling than the abusive parent is the reaction of Charlotte's love interest. He is painted quite literally as a feudal laird, openly proud of being a law unto himself and doing as he sees fit in every circumstance, including beating someone senseless for beating a dog - apparently fedual lairds don't get irony. This made it hard for me to get on board with the romance as fully as I might have liked. Throw in the absolutely pathological attachment to place that so many of the characters were depicted as having and the book is not an unalloyed success for me. It is one thing to love the place where one was born and grew up, it is quite another in my view to refuse to leave it under any circumstances except when compelled to do so by the exigencies of war.
All of the above left me feeling somewhat disappointed in the story, but Ms Stevenson had another surprise in store. The penultimate couple of chapters were very religious. By "very religious" I mean that the last couple of chapters make the last couple of books in CS Lewis's Narnia series seem like anthems to atheism. That kind of overt religiosity is not really my cup of tea.
I'm not sorry I read the book, especially because when Ms Stevenson is waxing lyrical about the Scottish island central to the story her language shines and glows with real beauty. Nevertheless I hope that at least some of the other works of hers that I have are more similar to t The Fair Misfortune than to Charlotte Fairlie.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse