broken hearts are old-fashioned.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Hey, ADD-ers. Start here: I Capture the Castle is carried squarely on the shoulders of diarist Cassandra Mortmain, and that's what makes it instantly likable, classic, and readable. Her optimism and naivete mixes well with her wise-beyond-her-years commentary, and not only was this novel a fine change of pace from the future shock and detective fiction I've been reading, it's a perfect picture of a coming-of-age novel.

Evermore: In lots of ways, Dodie Smith (who also wrote 101 Dalmatians, which Dreamworks made into a series of movies called Shrek, I think) created a journal for one of the characters in a Jane Austen novel. This is not a novel of manners, however - the Mortmains are poor, poor, poor. And they're winning because of it. Cassandra especially. When the two sisters and their stepmother meet the characters that propel forward the whisper-thin plot, their arms are green from dying their clothes. That's the evening's entertainment.

J.K. Rowling blurbed Castle on the cover that I picked up from the library, and she says it in a nice, pithy way: "This book has one of the most charismatic characters I've ever met." And Mrs. Harry Potter is very much in the right. Even when her heart is breaking, Cassandra Mortmain can't help but win you over.

The afore-mentioned "whisper-thin" plot: Cassandra Mortmain is the middle child in a family that lives in a crumbling castle. Her father hasn't written a word since his last novel, her mother has died (she doesn't brood over this fact) and her sister wants to marry. Enter the American bothers Neil and Simon, who change everything.

Afterthoughts: I think I took such enormous pleasure reading this book because of the fine change of pace it created. It is basically a Knickerbocker Glory of a coming-of-age story, where the love she feels and the plot points it hits are nowhere near as important as how our narrator feels. That's the beauty of the journal as a novel form: it's all about how they feel about everything. And Cass is wonderfully self-aware. As much as I love a good, plot-driven scorcher of a page turner, it was nice to spend time performing the last rites of spring for half a week with the Mortmains.

Also, it brought up a very nice question to ponder - how do you make a book have a happy ending if the two people you want to get together don't get together? That's not a spoiler, by the way. It hardly matters. I'm just curious - for this novel, it worked. But can a plot-based book have a happy ending without the love interest getting together with the protagonist? Or are those books destined to be described as wistful?

Just something to think about while you ping-pong from Godsend to London with Cassie.

Should you read it? Yesirree.

Also, this was a recommendation from my friend Jessa. I read most recommendations these days. So... yep.