A review by hannicogood
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
3.0
I have some mixed feelings about this book. Many of the events seemed so contrived and willfully strange that it was difficult for me to take Cassandra, the main character, seriously.
Additionally the book had two VERY exhausting male characters. Mortmain, her father, whose refusal to write or do literally anything else that would earn money, plunged the family into abject poverty. However they all tiptoe around him afraid to hurt his feelings and almost revere him as a genius. The violent undercurrents in his personality also didn’t age well. It almost seemed to me that Dodie Smith was implying it’s ok to push your family around and neglect them if it’s done for ART.
Slightly less bad was Simon, the love interest. I guess this is a *spoiler alert* but his wishy washy semi romantic interest in Cassandra, who is only around 17, seemed creepy to me. His age was never confirmed but to me he seemed like he would be at least ten years older than her. And this while he was engaged to her sister. Yikes.
And yet, I DID enjoy this book. I found Topaz, Miss Marcy (or Marcie?) and the Vicar to be very interesting surrounding characters. Also the lovely descriptions of the English countryside were very realistic and so cozy. It sort of made up for how annoyed I was with everyone else I suppose.
Additionally the book had two VERY exhausting male characters. Mortmain, her father, whose refusal to write or do literally anything else that would earn money, plunged the family into abject poverty. However they all tiptoe around him afraid to hurt his feelings and almost revere him as a genius. The violent undercurrents in his personality also didn’t age well. It almost seemed to me that Dodie Smith was implying it’s ok to push your family around and neglect them if it’s done for ART.
Slightly less bad was Simon, the love interest. I guess this is a *spoiler alert* but his wishy washy semi romantic interest in Cassandra, who is only around 17, seemed creepy to me. His age was never confirmed but to me he seemed like he would be at least ten years older than her. And this while he was engaged to her sister. Yikes.
And yet, I DID enjoy this book. I found Topaz, Miss Marcy (or Marcie?) and the Vicar to be very interesting surrounding characters. Also the lovely descriptions of the English countryside were very realistic and so cozy. It sort of made up for how annoyed I was with everyone else I suppose.