Caroline by Sarah Miller
Caroline by Sarah Miller
March 2018
My sister directed me to this book too. Its a retelling of the Little House books from Ma Ingalls' perspective. Or rather, its the retelling of one specific year in the life of the Ingalls family from Caroline's perspective. I'm a sucker for the retelling/other perspective books...I've read several Austin "literary pastiche" or "parallel novels", March by Brooks (Jo, Beth, Amy' father), I think there was one based on Gone With the Wind and one based on Rebecca that I read? Anyway, its a genre that I enjoy delving into on occasion. This particular book was approved by the LHOP "official" organization so its pretty white-washed even for an "adult" book. At first I was like, yeah, yeah, get on with it but as the book progressed I came to enjoy it more and more. In the final analysis, I'd give it a "Liked It". Plus, even at 346 pages it was a pretty quick read...nothing dense about this book.
Full disclaimer, my initial text to Cathy when I was a couple of chapters in was as follows:
"Started Caroline. It's Ehh. It was approved by the Little House society so its pretty tame. Kind of what you would expect from a grown up version of the books. No edge at all. Writing is fine, nothing that takes you out of the story nor much worth quoting. Not too far in so I don't have a full review yet but so far I'd say if you have plenty of reading time it's not too long; if you have limited resources of time I'm not sure its all that. But for the young adult audience might be a better read than I am giving it credit?"
Let's just say after that, I warmed up to it. I don't think I would say it ever just "took off" and got better, I just settled in and started to enjoy the ride.
In the final analysis, the book struck me for several reasons, none of them having to with the fact that this was a knock off Little House book. I don't think this book could have been written by a man, or a woman who had not had children. The author was quite insightful in her portrayal of a woman's relationship with her children, with her baby, with her own body. Caroline's perspective in this book was deeply personal in many ways. The booked poked me in the heart when Caroline talked about her children and the conflicts she felt in relation to them...
"Nor did she know which of them to reach for first. She had not arms to shelter them both at once."
"Caroline realized she had given hardly a thought to Mary and Laura when she agreed to go west. She had bundled them into the wagon like blankets and sheets."
We do not face the same struggles in modern day America as Caroline did...near drowning in the course of a move, prairie fire, lack of clean water, debilitating full family illness with no way to communicate dire need...yet the underlying themes are still the same...economic stability is not always in your control, the dark side of love is that it requires overlooking and even embracing your loved ones' flaws, our children are of us but not us, and life wills out.
Rating: Liked It- 4
March 2018
My sister directed me to this book too. Its a retelling of the Little House books from Ma Ingalls' perspective. Or rather, its the retelling of one specific year in the life of the Ingalls family from Caroline's perspective. I'm a sucker for the retelling/other perspective books...I've read several Austin "literary pastiche" or "parallel novels", March by Brooks (Jo, Beth, Amy' father), I think there was one based on Gone With the Wind and one based on Rebecca that I read? Anyway, its a genre that I enjoy delving into on occasion. This particular book was approved by the LHOP "official" organization so its pretty white-washed even for an "adult" book. At first I was like, yeah, yeah, get on with it but as the book progressed I came to enjoy it more and more. In the final analysis, I'd give it a "Liked It". Plus, even at 346 pages it was a pretty quick read...nothing dense about this book.
Full disclaimer, my initial text to Cathy when I was a couple of chapters in was as follows:
"Started Caroline. It's Ehh. It was approved by the Little House society so its pretty tame. Kind of what you would expect from a grown up version of the books. No edge at all. Writing is fine, nothing that takes you out of the story nor much worth quoting. Not too far in so I don't have a full review yet but so far I'd say if you have plenty of reading time it's not too long; if you have limited resources of time I'm not sure its all that. But for the young adult audience might be a better read than I am giving it credit?"
Let's just say after that, I warmed up to it. I don't think I would say it ever just "took off" and got better, I just settled in and started to enjoy the ride.
In the final analysis, the book struck me for several reasons, none of them having to with the fact that this was a knock off Little House book. I don't think this book could have been written by a man, or a woman who had not had children. The author was quite insightful in her portrayal of a woman's relationship with her children, with her baby, with her own body. Caroline's perspective in this book was deeply personal in many ways. The booked poked me in the heart when Caroline talked about her children and the conflicts she felt in relation to them...
"Nor did she know which of them to reach for first. She had not arms to shelter them both at once."
"Caroline realized she had given hardly a thought to Mary and Laura when she agreed to go west. She had bundled them into the wagon like blankets and sheets."
We do not face the same struggles in modern day America as Caroline did...near drowning in the course of a move, prairie fire, lack of clean water, debilitating full family illness with no way to communicate dire need...yet the underlying themes are still the same...economic stability is not always in your control, the dark side of love is that it requires overlooking and even embracing your loved ones' flaws, our children are of us but not us, and life wills out.
Rating: Liked It- 4
Comments
Post a Comment