A version of Peter Pan, sort of. I enjoyed Wendy a lot, and recommend it warmly. The only thing I don't quite like in Karen Wallace's style is her fondness for happy ending and rather tight closure. Some things could have been left a bit more open in the end.

Erinne is going to read this book next, and then I'll send it to Niora, in case she would like to read it as well.

This copy is signed by the author, by the way.

To be read.

I really enjoyed this one. Especially the idea that everyone has to cope with different problems and that some people's problems are of completely different scale than other's.

I honestly did not see the happy ending coming, so I was too bit baffled about it. Nevertheless, a good read and I'm happy I finally read it. Back to Harmaja and to be sent to Finland (I guess) it is.

--
-Eero

Now that Eero has read the book, I can finally send it to Niora! It sure took a while. :-)

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sending to Niora, finally!

It arrived in the mail today, thank you! I'm a big Peter Pan buff, so very much looking forward to reading this version.

I read it in the last few days. I'm not at all sure how well I liked it; it was an interesting interpretation of the Darling family, but I don't know if there was such a need for one, particularly since they had their quite well-known counterpart in reality already (the Llewelyn Davies family, who were friends of J.M. Barrie's - Peter Pan himself stemmed from Barrie's own older brother who died accidentally as a child). And I know there are plenty of unhappy families out there, but everybody was getting so miserable toward the end of the book that the happy end (while not very credible) came as a relief. (Given that this is a book written for young adults, not adults, I don't think a very gloomy ending was possible. Somehow the Peter Pan background also required it.)

I find the Wikipedia description of this book interesting:

"An attempt to explain the Darling children's willingness to fly away with Peter on the grounds that their home life, up until shortly before Peter appeared, had been filled with abuse and tragedy: a cruel nanny, a criminally irresponsible father, and a suggestion of insanity in the family."

...given that I kept finding counterparts of original Peter Pan characters (Letitia as Tiger Lily/Tinker Bell, Thomas as Peter Pan), and I came to feel that an actual Peter Pan would have been very out of place in this version of the story, what with motor cars, suffragettes and all that. Wendy starting to tell stories of such a character, yes, but the whole lot flying off to Neverland, no.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to read this interesting Peter Pan interpretation, harmaja! I await instructions on what to do with the book next. :-)

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

In the mail to Lukutoukka as a wishlist surprise. Happy trails!

Thank you very much, Niora (and Harmaja, too:)! I have really been wanting to read this book. :)

This was an interesting interpretation of the Darlings as "a real family", without any magic or fairies. As far as I know, in reality Barrie actually created the name Wendy for his story before any real girl was named as Wendy. If you don't let that disturb you, this is a good story, and it would be even better without the little forced happy ending.

I took quite many books in our meet-up (to put it straight: way too many), but I couldn't resist this one either. It's just that it may stay with me for a while, it'll probably take some time before I get into reading this.

I liked this somewhat melancholy but insightful book a lot. I felt sorry for Wendy, it's not easy to be an intelligent girl with a good imagination in the surroundings that don't appreciate it and have an irresponsible father, unhappy mother, awful nanny and a "best friend" one doesn't like at all. I liked the way the servants and their life in the background was described, it reminded me of the tv series Upstairs, Downstairs.
I wonder what the book would have been like if it was about some other family than Darlings, without the Peter Pan connection. I've never liked Peter Pan as a character and I don't particularly like Barrie's story either. However, the book worked well like it is. I didn't really even read it as a version of Peter Pan, it was basically only that the characters had the same names.

The book has moved on in our meet-up.

Kirja kulkeutui meille huhtikuisesta miitistä au pairimme mukana. Mahtoiko hän ehtiä lukea sen? Joka tapauksessa se on nyt tässä pöydälläni; tuon sen illan miittiin.

I couldn't resist this book, which was available in our local meet-up!

Unfortunately I couldn't get into this book, wasn't written for me. Let's see if someone would like to take it at our local BC meet-up this evening...

This book found a new reader at our BC meet-up at Metso :)

KTMC 2012 #13

Miitistä mukaan.

En tiedä, miksi kirjan perhe on nimenomaan Darlingin perhe, kun eihän tällä varsinaisesti ole mitään tekemistä Peter Panin kanssa. Ja hyvä niin, sillä en pidä Peter Panista (hahmosta tai kirjasta), joten en olisi katsonut hyvällä, jos sitä kirjaa olisi tähän sen kummemmin sotkettu.

Yhden sortin perhe-elämää tämäkin. Mitenkäs se Anna Kareninassa sanotaankaan? Kaikki onnettomat perheet ovat onnettomia omalla tavallaan . Tai ainakin jotain siihen suuntaan.

Otan kirjan miittiin mukaan, jos uusia lukijoita sieltä löytyisi.

Tämä on ollut tarjolla muutamassa miitissä, eikä ole lukijaansa löytänyt. Jätän kiertoon kirjaston vaihtohyllyyn.
***
Suomenkielinen keskustelufoorumi: http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/30