Cushman, Karen - Catherine, Called Birdy
Fri, Dec. 17th, 2004 08:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterAfter seeing ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
oracne and coffee_and_ink's conversation here, I remembered that I had Catherine, Called Birdy stashed away on one of my shelves and went to dig it out, because I was in the mood for something funny.
It's a marvelous book on a year in the life of Birdy, the daughter of a minor noble in medieval England, written in diary form. Birdy is rude, hates her embroidery, and must marry one of the loathsome suitors that her father (the Beast) keeps shoving at her. I know the bare bones sounds much like any YA book aimed toward a female audience, but there's incredible depth and realism in this book, and I can't begin to say how much I enjoyed it. I don't know that much about the time period, but Cushman's depiction feels very real to me. She doesn't skimp on the dirt and the squalor, but she manages to do so in a way that makes it feel ordinary, because Birdy, of course, doesn't think anything of it.
Birdy herself is a wonderful heroine and has a very individual and distinctive voice throughout her diary entries:
I mentioned before that I emitted quite a few rather unseemly laughs while reading this (luckily alone in bed in the middle of the night, so no one could hear me snorting and making very weird sounds because Birdy is very funny). Another small bit I like is that the diary actually sounds like a diary. Sometimes, especially in epistolary novels, the letters and diaries begin to sound more like first-person POV narratives instead of like letters and diaries that normal people write, but Birdy has days in which she can't write, days in which she goes off on long tangents, and other assorted randomness. I think when I tried to read it before around high school, I was a little put off by that, but now it feels more comforting than anything else. I think I'm too used to reading LJ ;).
I could say more on how the book manages to have a very active and independent heroine without ever seeming anachronistic and how that shows off the skill of the author, as well as adding in more on how this is a great example of historical fiction that does that tightrope walk between cultural influence and individual personality with elan, but you should just go read the book instead. It will be much more fun than reading my post anyway.
I ended up buying Cushman's The Midwife's Apprentice and The Ballad of Lucy Whipple on the strength of this book.
oracne and coffee_and_ink's conversation here, I remembered that I had Catherine, Called Birdy stashed away on one of my shelves and went to dig it out, because I was in the mood for something funny. It's a marvelous book on a year in the life of Birdy, the daughter of a minor noble in medieval England, written in diary form. Birdy is rude, hates her embroidery, and must marry one of the loathsome suitors that her father (the Beast) keeps shoving at her. I know the bare bones sounds much like any YA book aimed toward a female audience, but there's incredible depth and realism in this book, and I can't begin to say how much I enjoyed it. I don't know that much about the time period, but Cushman's depiction feels very real to me. She doesn't skimp on the dirt and the squalor, but she manages to do so in a way that makes it feel ordinary, because Birdy, of course, doesn't think anything of it.
Birdy herself is a wonderful heroine and has a very individual and distinctive voice throughout her diary entries:
(on deciding the proper curse) I have chosen. God's thumbs! What a time I have had in deciding. I chose God's thumbs because thumbs are such important things and handy to use. I thought to make a list of all the things I could not do without my thumbs, like writing, plaiting my hair, and pulling Perkin by his ear, but now it seems to me to be a waste of paper and ink, for I can think of no purpose for such a list unless some heathen Turk came from across the sea and threatened to cut off my thumbs with his golden sword and I was able to convince him to spare my thumbs by reading him my list of how important thumbs are, but since it seems unlikely both that a Turk would threaten my thumbs and that such a list would stop him if he did, I shall save the time and the ink and not make a list.
I mentioned before that I emitted quite a few rather unseemly laughs while reading this (luckily alone in bed in the middle of the night, so no one could hear me snorting and making very weird sounds because Birdy is very funny). Another small bit I like is that the diary actually sounds like a diary. Sometimes, especially in epistolary novels, the letters and diaries begin to sound more like first-person POV narratives instead of like letters and diaries that normal people write, but Birdy has days in which she can't write, days in which she goes off on long tangents, and other assorted randomness. I think when I tried to read it before around high school, I was a little put off by that, but now it feels more comforting than anything else. I think I'm too used to reading LJ ;).
I could say more on how the book manages to have a very active and independent heroine without ever seeming anachronistic and how that shows off the skill of the author, as well as adding in more on how this is a great example of historical fiction that does that tightrope walk between cultural influence and individual personality with elan, but you should just go read the book instead. It will be much more fun than reading my post anyway.
I ended up buying Cushman's The Midwife's Apprentice and The Ballad of Lucy Whipple on the strength of this book.
(no subject)
Sat, Dec. 18th, 2004 04:59 am (UTC)The Midwife's Apprentice
I hadn't realized the same author wrote that book. I've read it, and would recommend it. The heroine starts off on a dungheap.
(no subject)
Sat, Dec. 18th, 2004 05:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Sat, Dec. 18th, 2004 06:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Sat, Dec. 18th, 2004 10:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Sat, Dec. 18th, 2004 05:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Sat, Dec. 18th, 2004 05:18 am (UTC)sidebar -- OT
Sat, Dec. 18th, 2004 07:48 am (UTC)Re: sidebar -- OT
Sat, Dec. 18th, 2004 10:42 pm (UTC)Re: sidebar -- OT
Sun, Dec. 19th, 2004 04:22 am (UTC)Re: sidebar -- OT
Sun, Dec. 19th, 2004 08:11 am (UTC)Re: sidebar -- OT
Sun, Dec. 19th, 2004 11:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Sat, Dec. 18th, 2004 08:20 pm (UTC)IMHO, Birdy is the best of Cushman's books, although the Midwife's Apprentice feels most realistic. I just enjoy Birdy's crabbiness.
(no subject)
Sat, Dec. 18th, 2004 10:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Sat, Dec. 18th, 2004 11:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Sat, Dec. 18th, 2004 11:57 pm (UTC)