Book Review: I Capture the Castle

     I just finished I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (who also wrote 101 Dalmations) and started reading where I left off on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. But I changed my mind, put it down, and went to the computer to "capture" my impression of Smith's novel.
     If I had to put it into one sentence, I would say this. Beautifully, contemplatively written and hard to put down, with memorable characters. If that's enough of a review for you, stop there. But I can explain in more detail.

    Smith's novel is about 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain, who narrates a year of her life in England in the in-between time period of the 30's (when class separation still mattered but they rode in trains and cars).  The Mortmain family lives in a run-down house attached to a crumbling castle (with a keep, turrets, a moat and everything). The diary is her writing exercise, where she attempts to "capture" her home, her family, poverty, and the things that happen to her. It's a poignant story about love and what people would call coming-of-age. I'm not exactly sure what to think about it now that I'm finished.

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   I'll start with the bad news. My main complaint is that people treat her like a ten-year-old and her sister (who is 19) like an adult. Also, she seems a little too "consciously naïve," as a character describes her at the beginning. I have a few more issues, but I'll move on to the good news.

    What I like about Cassandra is that she is such a real, identifiable character, with a definite voice. She rambles about the interesting and puzzling things of life (e.g. thinking she knows exactly how to describe her antisocial, distant father and then realizing she doesn't really know him at all) and from her conflicting thoughts and emotions (on whether she is jealous of her sister or not, and whether she would enjoy good things less if she were rolling in money). Her entries are never dull, and every reflection makes a sort of point, and often she is so sensible. Or at least she tackles her problems head-on.

   What I like about the book in general: first, two main characters are aspiring writers. Second, I love Smith's narration, which is calmly conversational yet intertwined with vivid descriptions. Third, each of her characters is so amazingly unique. And finally, she touches on the cultural and vocabularial differences between America and England from the English point of view, which is interesting and eye-opening.

I give I Capture the Castle 4 stars.