I Capture the Castle

Synopsis
Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain struggles with poverty and love in pre-WWII England.

My thoughs
Poverty and castles don't seem like they'd go together, but the charm of this book is that it makes everything so natural. Cassandra's family used to have money, but that was when her father's book was selling well, before her mother died. At the beginning of the book they have a 40-year lease on a crumbling castle, but they don't have enough money to pay for food or clothes.

Cassandra's family is wonderfully eccentric. Her father is a genius who can't find an outlet to express himself; he rides his bike around the countryside and wanders around with leftover fishbones for inspiration. Her stepmother occasionally communes with nature (which looks a lot like running around naked to the untrained eye). Her sister Rose is useless at pretty much everything (except gold-digging, as it turns out). Her brother Thomas sort of wanders in and out of the action, but toward the end he fully emerges as both practical and funny. Then there's Stephen, who got stranded with the family when his mother died. His mother was their maid and he sticks with them and takes care of odd jobs even though he doesn't get paid for it. The secondary characters are also delightful, especially the kindly vicar with the wicked sense of humor.

The action begins when the Mortmains meet their new landlord, Simon Cotton, after the old one dies. He happens to be American, and he brings his mother and brother into the mix. They upend the Mortmains' life. Rose sets her sights on Simon and Mortmain seems to think of Mrs. Cotton as his new patron. Meanwhile, Cassandra develops feelings for Simon and has to fend off advances from Stephen.

I was conflicted about the ending. I didn't want either Rose or Cassandra to end up with Simon, and I didn't want Cassandra to end up with Stephen, so that was satisfying. I wish Cassandra had ended up a little more self-sufficient, but I loved the way she and Thomas forced their father to get over his writer's block.

The book is narrated by Cassandra—it's basically a collection of her journals. This sort of conceit annoyed me here because it got in the way of the story. Cassandra starts some of her entries by saying that she wishes she could just skip to the exciting parts, but since she can't I had to slog through the next 15 pages before the action picked up again.

Bottom line
I enjoyed the book, but it's not my favorite. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn doesn't have a castle, but it's a much better coming of age story.

Fine print
I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith
Genre: fiction
Photo from Goodreads
I borrowed this book from the library