short review of i capture the castle
i capture the castle
by dodie smith
if you took francie nolan from a tree grows in brooklyn, aged her a bit, read her the entire works of jane austen, and plunked her down in the middle of a crumbling castle in the english countryside, she'd be cassandra mortmain, the narrator of i capture the castle.
at seventeen, cassandra is an aspiring novelist whose journals tell the story of her family's relationship with the cottons, a wealthy family of americans who've inherited the manor up the road. the mortmains, who've been living in quiet poverty, are delighted and energized by the arrival of the cottons. in their own way, each member of the household is drawn into the cottons' magical circle, and cassandra documents it all with wit and sharpness.
i capture the castle is a fairly conventional love story, but it's also a beautiful sketch of an eccentric family. i loved every word. i even liked the mortmains' dog, and that's really saying something.
update: i just learned from a casual web search that a movie version has just been released. the american cotton brothers are played by the kid from e.t. and riley from buffy the vampire slayer (shown here in double-shooty-finger stance). cringe with me, won't you?
Comments
If you decide to break free from the bonds of the historical romance novel, read the book "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" by Gregory Maguire. Fantastic political satire, humor, love, death, all the things we crave in a good book.
Posted by: Reader | August 22, 2003 01:26 PM