Journal Entry 1 by tqd from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Wednesday, December 30, 2009

I read this for my online Australian literature reading group (it was the "light fiction" choice for this month). I was looking forward to it - I was promised a "Great Read" by a lurid gold sticker from The Women's Weekly plastered on the front cover - but overall it just annoyed me.

The main plot involves Nell, a little girl discovered on the wharf in Queensland after disembarking from a passenger ship in the 1920s. Nell can't remember her name or her family and no one comes forward to claim her, so the wharf master and his wife adopt her. On her 21st birthday, Nell is told the real story of her life, and it sends her into a spiral, changing her life forever. In the parallel plot, Nell's granddaughter, Cassandra, is dealing with the Nell's death and is finding out about Nell's origin as well. Then there is a further parallel plot with Nell's parents. (Confused yet? We were!) And then there are fairy tales dotted throughout the book, paralleling the action.

The main characters however were very likeable (or characters you liked to hate, which is just as good), and I was curious to see if I was right (I mostly was, but I did over-complicate it a bit) and to see how the characters worked it out themselves.

The best bits were the fairy tales, which were quite delightful, and reminded me of Oscar Wilde's fairy tales, as well as a lovely collection of English fairy tales I loved as a child. There were also a number of fairy tale elements to the plot - the wicked stepmother, lost children, overgrown gardens, the almost supernatural beauty of Eliza (the author of the fairy tales).

However, even given the superficial complexities and time jumping, the story of Nell's birth and family was obvious, and I kept on thinking Cassandra must be a bit of a dill to not see it!

And there were a number of minor irritations as well: for example, when the dashing young man that has Cassandra blushing turned out to be a *doctor*, not a "mere" gardener, I almost pffft'ed out loud. That to me landed it fairly out of "literary fiction" (my preferred genre) and into "light fiction" - what woman would want to marry a gardener (poor income) when they could have a doctor (high income). Just too much of a "romance" wishlist - the handsome, sensitive, educated young man.

What's wrong with being a bloody gardener, I wanted to know.

Although, yes, it is nice to not have to worry about money. (I sometimes think of Marilyn Monroe as Lorelei Lee in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" - "Don't you know that a man being rich is like a girl being pretty? You wouldn't marry a girl just because she's pretty, but my goodness, doesn't it help?")

It wasn't the best light fiction I've ever read, but it wasn't dreadful either - good ideas and some nice characters. Maybe it needed a good edit or something, it's probably that "difficult second novel". 

Journal Entry 2 by tqd at Centennial Park, New South Wales Australia on Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Released 2 yrs ago (1/26/2010 UTC) at Centennial Park, New South Wales Australia

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Passed on to my Mum, and I'm not expecting it back at any stage.