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A review by levininja
The Captain's Daughter by Meg Mitchell Moore
4.0
I had a funny experience reading this. I intended to pick up the Captain's Daughter by Pushkin, and only when I got home from the library and started reading this did I stop and think--wait--for what reason did I put this in my queue? Upon realizing my mistake, I decided to go with it anyway and see what what random book that Lady Luck had chanced to give me.
My first impression was that the writing was pretty good, the character's voices were strong, but I didn't see why I should care about all these rich people. The opening scene was three moms sitting around while their kids played in the pool--definitely not the best way to start a compelling story. But the writing was good, so I decided to go a little further.
This isn't much of a spoiler, since this happens very soon at the beginning of the novel, but the precipitating event is that the protagonist's father, an old lonely lobsterman, is diagnosed with brain cancer. He's going to die soon.
As the book progressed, it became apparent that the main theme was really about someone feeling juxtaposed between two contrasting worlds: one of her childhood, one of adulthood. One rustic and working with her hands, the other pampered and surrounded by pretentious people. In both worlds she feels alternately like an insider or an outsider, like a native or a fake. That's pretty interesting.
There are also suplots all over the place with other characters and they're all fairly interesting. One of the strongest other subplots is a teenage girl who has gotten herself into trouble with a not-so-great boyfriend, and who ends up confiding in a stranger (the protagonist, Eliza) and getting help.
The style of this author is to constantly intersperse real-time events with memories and backstory. This could be annoying to some, but I was pretty comfortable with it in this book.
By the time I got halfway through the book, it actually became better and better--I didn't want to put it down at all. It became less about rich-people-problems and more about everyone-problems. And discovering some key insights into her parents and other people was also pretty riveting. Things click, and it all makes sense.
The ending was mixed for me--some parts of it were great, some parts put a bad taste in my mouth. It reverted back to the rich-people-problems thing for a little bit.
Overall, though, this was a very solid book, a nice blend, a well-mixed drink. I would easily recommend this to many people. It's definitely more oriented towards women, as most of the main characters are women. But personally I didn't feel turned off by that. Her dad is a character I really savored. Also, now I need to go eat some lobster. A lot of lobster. I remember how when I was in Maine, the McDonalds' had lobster mcMuffin. But I digress. This was a good read.
My first impression was that the writing was pretty good, the character's voices were strong, but I didn't see why I should care about all these rich people. The opening scene was three moms sitting around while their kids played in the pool--definitely not the best way to start a compelling story. But the writing was good, so I decided to go a little further.
This isn't much of a spoiler, since this happens very soon at the beginning of the novel, but the precipitating event is that the protagonist's father, an old lonely lobsterman, is diagnosed with brain cancer. He's going to die soon.
As the book progressed, it became apparent that the main theme was really about someone feeling juxtaposed between two contrasting worlds: one of her childhood, one of adulthood. One rustic and working with her hands, the other pampered and surrounded by pretentious people. In both worlds she feels alternately like an insider or an outsider, like a native or a fake. That's pretty interesting.
There are also suplots all over the place with other characters and they're all fairly interesting. One of the strongest other subplots is a teenage girl who has gotten herself into trouble with a not-so-great boyfriend, and who ends up confiding in a stranger (the protagonist, Eliza) and getting help.
The style of this author is to constantly intersperse real-time events with memories and backstory. This could be annoying to some, but I was pretty comfortable with it in this book.
By the time I got halfway through the book, it actually became better and better--I didn't want to put it down at all. It became less about rich-people-problems and more about everyone-problems. And discovering some key insights into her parents and other people was also pretty riveting. Things click, and it all makes sense.
The ending was mixed for me--some parts of it were great, some parts put a bad taste in my mouth. It reverted back to the rich-people-problems thing for a little bit.
Overall, though, this was a very solid book, a nice blend, a well-mixed drink. I would easily recommend this to many people. It's definitely more oriented towards women, as most of the main characters are women. But personally I didn't feel turned off by that. Her dad is a character I really savored. Also, now I need to go eat some lobster. A lot of lobster. I remember how when I was in Maine, the McDonalds' had lobster mcMuffin. But I digress. This was a good read.