Reading: Madensky Square

[white_hart]

My first DNF of 2018 was Eva Ibbotson's Madensky Square, which I think I bought years ago when I was going to Vienna on holiday but never got round to reading. I was in the mood for something fluffy and comforting after the grimness of The Power, and thought I'd give it a go as I'm fairly sure someone recommended Ibbotson when I was asking for comfort read recommendations a while ago.

Unfortunately, while I loved the pre-World-War-1 Viennese setting and liked the variety of characters populating the eponymous square, there were too many things I didn't like. The central character, Susanna, is utterly contemptuous of plain women and I found her sympathy for the poor men they have obviously trapped into marriage very hard to take, and almost gave up after reading a scene where she persuades a vegetarian to eat a meaty, offal-heavy Linzer speciality. The final straw, as so often with romances or books close to the romance genre*, was Susanna's lover's high-handed behaviour - demanding she undress for him, "allowing" her to sit up and drink a glass of wine after an afternoon in bed together, and finally choosing a piece of fruit for her to eat instead of letting her choose it herself - and her total acceptance, even enjoyment of this behaviour rather than slapping him and telling him to stop being such a patronising arse. So I stopped reading about 40% of the way through.

*and also such universally-acknowledged classics as Jane Eyre, though I'm not convinced that Charlotte Brontë actually intended readers to think Rochester was really all that and a bag of chips, except possibly by comparison to St John Rivers who does make pretty much anyone else seem like a good prospect.

Comments

[nineveh_uk]

I like Ibbotson and enjoyed Madensky Square, but I'm not sure I'd recommend her as comfort reading to someone who hadn't read her before. I hope you like what you pick up next more!

I'm now finding myself reading Goodread reviews for her with great interest and seeing the different perspectives that the readers are coming from.

[white_hart]

I think I read some of her books as a child (did she write Which Witch??) and quite liked them, but I really didn’t get on with this one.

[nineveh_uk]

She did write Which Witch, though I've not read her children's novels.

[alithea]

Hah, yes, much as i love Jane Eyre the character, I would have enjoyed the book much more if she'd somehow gained the ability to have her independence without any of the men!

[white_hart]

I still want the AU where she takes her small inheritance and goes off and starts a school, possibly with the Rivers sisters.

[alithea]

Oh yes, I would so read that :)

[alfykins]

St John Rivers makes a wet noodle look like a good prospect. Sounds like an awful book though. I think you definitely made the right choice in stopping.

[white_hart]

True - there are very few things which are a worse prospect than St John Rivers.