A review by shelfimprovement
Cruel Beautiful World by Caroline Leavitt
4.0
I've seen this book compared to The Girls in several places, which strikes me as curious because I think they had very little in common other than the fact that it took place against the backdrop of the Manson trials.
And yet, this is basically the book that I was hoping for when I picked up The Girls.
It begins with Lucy Gold, a sixteen-year-old girl who has made the decision to run away from home with her English teacher, William Lallo. Lucy and her older sister Charlotte have been living with their adoptive mother, Iris, in Waltham, MA, since their parents died with they were four and five. They know very little about Iris, other than that she is much older--into her sixties when they arrive--and that they are told, vaguely, that she is related in some way. Lucy is a daydreamy girl, she wants to be a writer and she struggles in school. For many years she relied on Charlotte to help her get by, but Charlotte is focusing more time on her own needs--getting into Brandeis to study veterinary medicine--and Lucy begins looking for affection and attention in other places. William, whose unorthodox teaching methods have gotten him on the bad side of the administration, praises her writing and she begins to feel drawn to him. By the time the last day of school rolls around, they have hatched a plan to run away to rural Pennsylvania to begin their life together.
As you might expect, Lucy's life in Pennsylvania is significantly less satisfying than she'd hoped. Because she's a minor and she's crossed state lines, William forbids her from leaving their house and from interacting with anyone else. Wait, he tells her. She will be 18 soon and they won't have to hide their love anymore, and that's when their real life will begin. She feels isolated and begins to fixate on news stories about the Manson murders and other violent stories happening closer to her new home.
Meanwhile, Iris and Charlotte are devastated. As Charlotte prepares to leave for college, the two struggle to understand where Lucy might have gone and why. Were there signs that they missed? Charlotte especially wonders if there was something she should have done differently.
The chapters alternate point of view, shifting between Lucy, Iris, Charlotte, and Patrick--a young man Lucy meets in Pennsylvania. As time passes and their lives begin to change, their backstory is gradually filled in. Leavitt does a wonderful job building complex, dimensional characters who are hurting and hoping and constantly growing. All three women are beautifully empathetic, in their own particular ways (I felt like much of Patrick's story could have been excised and we wouldn't have lost much, but that's just me). Even though we don't get William's point of view, he feels like a real person and not just a caricature of a bad guy. Leavitt does a spectacular job building tension, as my heart was in my throat for almost the entire second half of the story, just waiting to find out what would happen next. And the writing is filled with genuine emotion and engagement, not just a lot of supposedly clever metaphors and adjectives. It's a phenomenal book, and I highly recommend it.
And yet, this is basically the book that I was hoping for when I picked up The Girls.
It begins with Lucy Gold, a sixteen-year-old girl who has made the decision to run away from home with her English teacher, William Lallo. Lucy and her older sister Charlotte have been living with their adoptive mother, Iris, in Waltham, MA, since their parents died with they were four and five. They know very little about Iris, other than that she is much older--into her sixties when they arrive--and that they are told, vaguely, that she is related in some way. Lucy is a daydreamy girl, she wants to be a writer and she struggles in school. For many years she relied on Charlotte to help her get by, but Charlotte is focusing more time on her own needs--getting into Brandeis to study veterinary medicine--and Lucy begins looking for affection and attention in other places. William, whose unorthodox teaching methods have gotten him on the bad side of the administration, praises her writing and she begins to feel drawn to him. By the time the last day of school rolls around, they have hatched a plan to run away to rural Pennsylvania to begin their life together.
As you might expect, Lucy's life in Pennsylvania is significantly less satisfying than she'd hoped. Because she's a minor and she's crossed state lines, William forbids her from leaving their house and from interacting with anyone else. Wait, he tells her. She will be 18 soon and they won't have to hide their love anymore, and that's when their real life will begin. She feels isolated and begins to fixate on news stories about the Manson murders and other violent stories happening closer to her new home.
Meanwhile, Iris and Charlotte are devastated. As Charlotte prepares to leave for college, the two struggle to understand where Lucy might have gone and why. Were there signs that they missed? Charlotte especially wonders if there was something she should have done differently.
The chapters alternate point of view, shifting between Lucy, Iris, Charlotte, and Patrick--a young man Lucy meets in Pennsylvania. As time passes and their lives begin to change, their backstory is gradually filled in. Leavitt does a wonderful job building complex, dimensional characters who are hurting and hoping and constantly growing. All three women are beautifully empathetic, in their own particular ways (I felt like much of Patrick's story could have been excised and we wouldn't have lost much, but that's just me). Even though we don't get William's point of view, he feels like a real person and not just a caricature of a bad guy. Leavitt does a spectacular job building tension, as my heart was in my throat for almost the entire second half of the story, just waiting to find out what would happen next. And the writing is filled with genuine emotion and engagement, not just a lot of supposedly clever metaphors and adjectives. It's a phenomenal book, and I highly recommend it.