Reviews

The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford

amesbond's review

dark reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

kellyzen's review against another edition

3.0

I did not necessarily like this book but I respected it a lot. (I have a hard time with any book that is rugged or western in general -- maybe because I am an liberal East Coast elite? -- so my lack of emotional connection is perhaps not surprising. I do have an affinity for well-drawn and deeply unlikable characters, though, which this book delivered in spades.) Whatever your literary preferences, this is undeniably a very well-crafted and masterfully written book. I'm glad I read it even though my own shortcomings in taste made it less enjoyable than it could've been.

obscuredbyclouds's review against another edition

4.0

This isn't a coming of age story, even though it focuses on two siblings growing up/growing apart. I did not expect the sister to be quite so odd and I thought I'd like her and the brother more than I did. However, this is very well-written and engaging, quite unique, and I got very sad for the both of them. There were some passages that I felt the need to highlight and copy, which is always a good sign.

It's always cool to find more female authors from the past, and I definitely would like to read more of Jean Stafford.

As this is as book from 1947, there were a few words I didn't know. I had to google what a "donkey party" is (apparently just a party where you play the donkey game).

roxymelody's review against another edition

2.5

The ‘coming of age’ aspect and the feelings of rage and not having a place were interesting and beautifully written, but I just wasn’t engaged or invested enough in any of the characters. Also beware the dated racist language and stereotypes! 

sweddy65's review against another edition

4.0

I think this is my favorite book this year, although the book was originally published in 1947. It's an adult novel about children, and it's an adult novel that gets childhood, or at least childhood for those of us who were odd, sometimes enraged, and often believed we would never find a place to fit.

Molly is furious, crazy, genius, and unhappy.

I can't remember how I found this novel, but I'm glad I did.

khilleke's review

dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.25

jwmcoaching's review against another edition

3.0

Harsh, unforgiving, strange, touching. All of these apply to The Mountain Lion, which kind of reminded me of Camus' The Stranger, but in a completely different setting. Think Mersault crossed with Cormac McCarthy. Stafford is a realist in her prose and almost comes off as existential in her sensibilities. This is deceptively "coming of age," in that it doesn't conform to the standards of that genre, even though you might think that's where it's headed in the beginning.

austen_to_zafon's review against another edition

3.0

I'm not sure what to think about this 1940s coming-of-age novel. I found it difficult to like or care about any of the characters and so I wasn't moved by the various betrayals and tragedies. And yet the descriptions of complicated sibling co-dependence and rivalry, sexual tension, family dynamics, and cultural expectations of boys and girls were compelling and illuminating. I tried to think of my mother being a young girl in that era, in California and in a relatively wealthy family with certain social constraints and obligations. She was much younger than these characters by about 10 years, but going into the 1950s, I think there were still a lot of the same rules and norms. It was interesting, as the story moved from L.A. to a Colorado ranch, to learn about how ranch life worked, how cold the people could be about the animals in their care and the people in their employ. No one gave anyone else much quarter. An interesting read, but not a favorite.

maryagnes's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

an_enthusiastic_reader's review against another edition

5.0

The Mountain Lion is a slim novel, bouncing back and forth between the two main characters, a brother and sister who are bonded together and seem throughout to be united in their contempt for other people, especially their mother and older sisters. The portrait of these characters is not to elicit sympathy, but to draw on the deep well of loneliness and a dawning realization of what growing up can mean. Most of the book takes place in the Colorado mountains during the 1930s; the children take dirty trains to visit their uncle there and are surrounded by people far removed from their mother's pristine, prissy sitting room and the fawning next-door minister who comments on their behavior incessantly. Stafford builds a world that contains the brutal practices of hunting and farming; peril lurks around every corner, but nothing in the outside world can rival the peril of the children's private thoughts. That's as much as I want to say about the book without giving up its mysteries. If you want to read it, go in as blindly as possible. Save any introductions for later, when you're ready.