Raskin, Ellen - Figgs & Phantoms
Thu, Jul. 22nd, 2004 01:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceter(Typing this on the old laptop missing an E key, which may result in strange misspellings)
Wow, this is only slightly less strange than I remember. For some reason I always thought the sequence in Capri lasted much, much longer. I suppose I used to read slower back in grade school, or whenever I first read it, so it did take longer in terms of my own time.
It might be the strange familiarity, despite not having read it (or remembered that it existed) for years, but I liked it better than her mysteries. I am also a bit of a sucker because it talks about used books and first editions and whatnot, which makes me happy.
I also liked it because despite the real weirdness of the Figgs, it was mostly about Mona feeling alone and unappreciated and embarrassed by her strange family, and really, who hasn't felt like that? And also, it deals with grief, which I had never realized before. I have vague memories of never being sure of what happened to Florence.
It's very strange rereading and finding that I do remember a good deal of it (I must have reread it when I was a kid too). I think when I first read it, I didn't know what "nigger" meant, and thereby didn't understand Mona's hesitation at saying "The Nigger of Narcissus." Sometimes it's nice being a kid and not understanding stuff.
I'm very glad it was still good -- I remember one book I had loved maybe in fourth grade, on a golden bird and a girl fighting a witch, and I found it again in sixth grade, and it turned out to be badly written and cliched.
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rilina's review
Wow, this is only slightly less strange than I remember. For some reason I always thought the sequence in Capri lasted much, much longer. I suppose I used to read slower back in grade school, or whenever I first read it, so it did take longer in terms of my own time.
It might be the strange familiarity, despite not having read it (or remembered that it existed) for years, but I liked it better than her mysteries. I am also a bit of a sucker because it talks about used books and first editions and whatnot, which makes me happy.
I also liked it because despite the real weirdness of the Figgs, it was mostly about Mona feeling alone and unappreciated and embarrassed by her strange family, and really, who hasn't felt like that? And also, it deals with grief, which I had never realized before. I have vague memories of never being sure of what happened to Florence.
It's very strange rereading and finding that I do remember a good deal of it (I must have reread it when I was a kid too). I think when I first read it, I didn't know what "nigger" meant, and thereby didn't understand Mona's hesitation at saying "The Nigger of Narcissus." Sometimes it's nice being a kid and not understanding stuff.
I'm very glad it was still good -- I remember one book I had loved maybe in fourth grade, on a golden bird and a girl fighting a witch, and I found it again in sixth grade, and it turned out to be badly written and cliched.
Links:
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rilina's reviewTags:
(no subject)
Thu, Jul. 22nd, 2004 07:10 pm (UTC)I wonder what I would have thought of it if I had read it before I knew what the word meant.... or if I tried to read it today (with the understanding that while Huck was an idiot... he really wasn't a racist idiot).
(no subject)
Fri, Jul. 23rd, 2004 08:06 pm (UTC)It's sort of like Japanese -- I would say some stuff I learned from anime in class and have no idea it was really offensive.