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robinwalter 's review for:
Because of Sam
by Molly Clavering
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
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
I dropped the last Molly Clavering book I read, Love Comes Home, after reaching my limit of being told on what seemed like every other page just how terribly overworked, under-appreciated and cruelly maligned the hereditary landed gentry were. I read these as part of Dean Street December 2023 , and I told the organiser/host of that reading event that I was annoyed by all the politics in Love Comes Home because it wasn't "what was on the box". Thus I approached this one with some trepidation.
Happily my fears were completely unfounded. This book delivered EXACTLY what was "on the box", the book was pretty much the very essence of what it is I hope to read in a "middlebrow" story.
Happily my fears were completely unfounded. This book delivered EXACTLY what was "on the box", the book was pretty much the very essence of what it is I hope to read in a "middlebrow" story.
There was plenty of politics in this story, but it was all very personal, quotidian and down-to-earth. All of the characters were very believable and all of them behave in character. The excellent introduction by Elizabeth Crawford describes this as a "comedy of errors", the errors in this case being confusion and misunderstanding about who loved whom. Within that framework Ms Clavering delivered a delightful tale of ordinary people living ordinary lives. At times, the writing had a poetic beauty to it as this, one of my favourite passages:
There was a pricking under her closed eyelids, and with considerable surprise Mrs. Maitland realized that there were tears gathering, slow, pleasant, almost luxurious tears which she would rather enjoy to feel rolling down her cheeks.
But mostly where the writing shone was in the characterisation. Ms Clavering created truly three-dimensional characters who were sufficiently real to generate authentic reactions from me to their actions; positive reactions when I approved, negative when I did not. Any time a writer makes me react that way, I’m happy, since it means the characters have truly been brought to life
The central character in the story, the widowed Mrs Maitland, is a great example of this. Initially we get the impression she might be almost too good to be true, a supremely selfless saint who lives for her utterly self-centred daughter and is the put upon do-everything dogsbody doormat of the village. As the story progresses mother and daughter both grow, we see more of the daughter's positive characteristics as she gets a new perspective on her mother's life, and we see a much more human side to her mother, including actions much less saintly.
It's a tribute to Ms Clavering's writing that for the penultimate fifth of the book I was annoyed with the stupidity of Mrs Maitland's actions and her inability to grasp the obvious. Of course, this being a middlebrow book by the end all was for the best in the best of all possible worlds, letting me approach my next Molly Clavering with equanimity. And, like the happy endings in the book, that’s all Because of Sam.
It's a tribute to Ms Clavering's writing that for the penultimate fifth of the book I was annoyed with the stupidity of Mrs Maitland's actions and her inability to grasp the obvious. Of course, this being a middlebrow book by the end all was for the best in the best of all possible worlds, letting me approach my next Molly Clavering with equanimity. And, like the happy endings in the book, that’s all Because of Sam.