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mishale1's review
3.0
A pretty even mix of sweet and strange.
This is a story about a very offbeat but close knit family.
I think when most people are kids they make up stories about people, maybe some are imaginary and some are real people you see in passing and imagine the lives of. I did this as a little kid sometimes, but not as an adult.
So, that's something you're either going to find charming or odd about these characters.
They are all creative types, oldest sister Deidre is a writer and middle sister Katrine is an actress. They are both in their twenties. They, along with their mother, tell little stories to the youngest, eleven year old Sheil.
Many of their stories are about "Toddy". They kind of see him as a bit of a celebrity. He features in their stories a lot, including fictional phone calls every night.
But one day Deidre actually meets "Toddy". What began as an almost fictionalized character in her life is now a very real man.
When "Toddy" meets the rest of the family, it could unravel their little storybook world or if could enrich it.
This is a story about a very offbeat but close knit family.
I think when most people are kids they make up stories about people, maybe some are imaginary and some are real people you see in passing and imagine the lives of. I did this as a little kid sometimes, but not as an adult.
So, that's something you're either going to find charming or odd about these characters.
They are all creative types, oldest sister Deidre is a writer and middle sister Katrine is an actress. They are both in their twenties. They, along with their mother, tell little stories to the youngest, eleven year old Sheil.
Many of their stories are about "Toddy". They kind of see him as a bit of a celebrity. He features in their stories a lot, including fictional phone calls every night.
But one day Deidre actually meets "Toddy". What began as an almost fictionalized character in her life is now a very real man.
When "Toddy" meets the rest of the family, it could unravel their little storybook world or if could enrich it.
simplyparticular's review against another edition
1.0
A book that was probably charming to it's early 20th century British audience, but the slang and social mores are nearly impossible for this 21st century American to navigate. Cute title that caught my gift giver's attention, but doesn't appear to have anything to do with the book.
eibi's review against another edition
Pues me lo he pasado pipa con esta pequeña novelita de las entreguerras.
Una lectura con ese humor british que tanto disfruto y que me ha recordado mucho a Stella Gibbons y Monica Dickens.
No sé si es un libro para todo el mundo, porque es bastante peculiar, pero si conectáis con su sentido del humor y os dejáis llevar por las hermanas Carne sin querer darle un sentido lógico a todo, os aseguro unos momentos divertidísimos entre sus páginas.
A pesar del humor, creo que Rachel Ferguson refleja con inteligencia el paso de la infancia a la edad adulta (bueno, más bien su resistencia), y todo lo que eso implica...y es que estas hermanas (madre incluida) tan únicas, creativas y entrañables son la representación absoluta de ese
" defender la alegría como una trinchera"; qué queréis que os diga, tal y como está el mundo, yo, me uno a ellas.
briarfairchild's review against another edition
5.0
I enjoyed this books immensely. First, it's very funny - the imaginings of the girls (and their mother) are always unexpected and entertaining, and it all becomes rather surreal and wonderful when they get to meet one of the people they have made up their fantasies about. I yelled with laughter when Deirdre accidentally let it out.
It's also a little darker in places, when ghosts appear and you start to feel the youngest child, Sheil, could end up living more in an unreal world than the real one. And the contrast between the jolly, normal, new governess who tries so hard to understand the family is rather poignant.
All in all, this is a wonderfully entertaining read. It's intelligent, surreal and extremely funny. Highly recommended!
It's also a little darker in places, when ghosts appear and you start to feel the youngest child, Sheil, could end up living more in an unreal world than the real one. And the contrast between the jolly, normal, new governess who tries so hard to understand the family is rather poignant.
All in all, this is a wonderfully entertaining read. It's intelligent, surreal and extremely funny. Highly recommended!
wealhtheow's review against another edition
4.0
The story centers on three sisters and their widowed mother in 1920s London. They are an intensely close-knit family; so close, in fact, that their shared imaginary friends and in-jokes are nearly impenetrable to outsiders. I loved the characters and felt as though I knew them, or had been them. It's an interesting, literate, occasionally surreal tale about a quartet of fascinating women. I liked the review here.
jdgcreates's review against another edition
3.0
In this charming book, albeit inconsequential in the way that fun novels about the upper class usually are, the Carne family draws us in and confuses us with their vivid imaginary world in which they know celebrities they've never actually met...until they do. I can't say that this story was fantastic in any way, but it worked its way into my daily life all the same.
Mostly, I adored the spunky and spot-on commentary of the protag, Deirdre Carne, and especially her perspectives on:
a. Romance:
"Three years ago I was proposed to. I couldn't accept the man, much as I like him, because I was in love with Sherlock Holmes. For Holmes and his personality and brain I had a force of feeling which, for the time, converted living men to shadows."
b. Movie Theaters:
"...and we groped into a cinema because they are the most depressing places in the world, and we both believe in the principle of homeopathy."
c. Misery:
"In the morning I woke determined to be as miserable as I was the day before, and so work through it that way, and get it all cleared up, but I found myself perfectly cheerful."
d. Crying:
"I wish one could cry as readily as some seem to be able to. After all, one is a woman...I only know I can't, before people, however healing it would be."
e. And of course, mail:
"I had gone for the letters at once. The post always intoxicates me; everything it throws on to the mat is a magic square or oblong which may alter your life."
If only Deirdre were around to join the Goodreads Postcard Exchange!
Mostly, I adored the spunky and spot-on commentary of the protag, Deirdre Carne, and especially her perspectives on:
a. Romance:
"Three years ago I was proposed to. I couldn't accept the man, much as I like him, because I was in love with Sherlock Holmes. For Holmes and his personality and brain I had a force of feeling which, for the time, converted living men to shadows."
b. Movie Theaters:
"...and we groped into a cinema because they are the most depressing places in the world, and we both believe in the principle of homeopathy."
c. Misery:
"In the morning I woke determined to be as miserable as I was the day before, and so work through it that way, and get it all cleared up, but I found myself perfectly cheerful."
d. Crying:
"I wish one could cry as readily as some seem to be able to. After all, one is a woman...I only know I can't, before people, however healing it would be."
e. And of course, mail:
"I had gone for the letters at once. The post always intoxicates me; everything it throws on to the mat is a magic square or oblong which may alter your life."
If only Deirdre were around to join the Goodreads Postcard Exchange!
jenmulsow's review against another edition
3.0
This is more of a 2.5 star book. There were some funny parts but it was very weird.
izabrekilien's review against another edition
1.0
I tried to read it, I really did (twice), but it just didn't catch my attention. It seemed like the witty, early 20th century spirit, but I didn't see where it was leading to, it seemed to be heading in every direction with lots of characters, so I gave up at 26%.
girlwithherheadinabook's review against another edition
2.0
A few months ago, I read Let's Kill Uncle from the Bloomsbury Group. I loved it, when I get round to writing my Top Ten Books of 2015 so far, it will most certainly feature. This one, also published by the Bloomsbury Group, will not. Based purely on components, it ought to have been a sure-fire winner. It had a strong female cast. There were frolics and high-japes. It had a strong vintage aesthetic. But ... it just felt silly. And weird. Like a bizarre Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf meets The Magic Roundabout and there is a reason why those two sound strange as a mash-up. Fortunately, it was short and I rattled through to the end, finishing at what felt like a sprint and then reached gasping for something less cloying (A God In Ruins here we come!)
This novel features the Carne family; the mother and then the three sisters, Deirdre, Katrine and then little Sheil. They are compulsive fantasists, spinning webs of stories around everything from household objects and old toys to well-known public figures who they have never met. The drama comes when they genuinely become acquainted with their main target, the high court judge Sir Herbert Toddington. There is a muffled tragedy to what is going on here as Deirdre repeatedly has her novel rejected and Katrine's acting career flounders, then in the background there is the stoically miserably governess but the over-arching silliness of it all made me lose all patience. I understood it was a farce and that I was supposed to laugh along at these bright young things and their charming ways, I just ended up feeling like the boring stick-in-the-mud sitting in the corner refusing to join in the fun and bored out of my mind.
It was not that the writing was bad, indeed there were some very attractive turns of phrase. I particularly liked Katrine's description of how a fellow actress had become so overwrought that she had 'prayed all over the stage', with the same tone of disgust as if the unfortunate girl had thrown up. Still, the way in which all the Carne women drooled over the elderly 'Toddy' was rather nauseating and gave a very claustrophobic feel to the narrative. To be honest, I was with the governess - they just all seemed off their rockers. It felt truly sad to read of how the young Sheil was being inducted into this society of the bizarre and so eagerly losing her grip on reality. I can't think of another book where I found it so hard to suspend disbelief.
Rachel Ferguson
The thing is, I spent the greater part of my childhood in a dreamworld. I still do write stories. A few years ago, someone was relating a story about a friend of theirs and I was just about to chime in about how a friend of mine had had a similar experience when I remembered that no, this was not true because said friend was not real, I had written him and thus he had no part in the conversation. Before I learnt to read, I told myself stories. As a toddler, I remember my mother telling me long and epic tales about the adventures of the face-cloths. My Playmobil and Sylvanians were sent on long quests (often influenced by Narnia or The Dark is Rising). I am a story-teller. However, the Carnes' attempts to refashion those around them to suit their make-believe world just seemed unhealthy - closer kin to Misery than anything actually amusing.
I think as well though that the Puritan in me just disliked all of the Talk about a man who was married. The Carne girls' mother observed to the girls as part of their game that to give Mildred (Toddy's wife) 'her due, she does see to his comforts.' This massive overstep of the line set me against the characters right from the off. I appreciate that adultery was not what was happening here, but there was disrespect. Similarly, the way that the Bronte sisters were crow-barred into the narrative also annoyed me, mainly because Ferguson gaily shoved Anne Bronte out the picture yet briskly appropriated the elder two as natural allies of the Carnes' objectives. First of all, I love the Brontes and felt offended on their behalf that they were being used in such an idiotic novel. Second of all, Anne Bronte is my favourite Bronte of all and seeing her forgotten just seemed rude. I felt as though I finished the book with a real scowl on my face. This may have been intended as comic - possibly even cringe-comic - but it just came off as stupid. Silly. And not funny.
For my full review:
http://girlwithherheadinabook.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/review-brontes-went-to-woolworths.html
This novel features the Carne family; the mother and then the three sisters, Deirdre, Katrine and then little Sheil. They are compulsive fantasists, spinning webs of stories around everything from household objects and old toys to well-known public figures who they have never met. The drama comes when they genuinely become acquainted with their main target, the high court judge Sir Herbert Toddington. There is a muffled tragedy to what is going on here as Deirdre repeatedly has her novel rejected and Katrine's acting career flounders, then in the background there is the stoically miserably governess but the over-arching silliness of it all made me lose all patience. I understood it was a farce and that I was supposed to laugh along at these bright young things and their charming ways, I just ended up feeling like the boring stick-in-the-mud sitting in the corner refusing to join in the fun and bored out of my mind.
It was not that the writing was bad, indeed there were some very attractive turns of phrase. I particularly liked Katrine's description of how a fellow actress had become so overwrought that she had 'prayed all over the stage', with the same tone of disgust as if the unfortunate girl had thrown up. Still, the way in which all the Carne women drooled over the elderly 'Toddy' was rather nauseating and gave a very claustrophobic feel to the narrative. To be honest, I was with the governess - they just all seemed off their rockers. It felt truly sad to read of how the young Sheil was being inducted into this society of the bizarre and so eagerly losing her grip on reality. I can't think of another book where I found it so hard to suspend disbelief.
Rachel Ferguson
The thing is, I spent the greater part of my childhood in a dreamworld. I still do write stories. A few years ago, someone was relating a story about a friend of theirs and I was just about to chime in about how a friend of mine had had a similar experience when I remembered that no, this was not true because said friend was not real, I had written him and thus he had no part in the conversation. Before I learnt to read, I told myself stories. As a toddler, I remember my mother telling me long and epic tales about the adventures of the face-cloths. My Playmobil and Sylvanians were sent on long quests (often influenced by Narnia or The Dark is Rising). I am a story-teller. However, the Carnes' attempts to refashion those around them to suit their make-believe world just seemed unhealthy - closer kin to Misery than anything actually amusing.
I think as well though that the Puritan in me just disliked all of the Talk about a man who was married. The Carne girls' mother observed to the girls as part of their game that to give Mildred (Toddy's wife) 'her due, she does see to his comforts.' This massive overstep of the line set me against the characters right from the off. I appreciate that adultery was not what was happening here, but there was disrespect. Similarly, the way that the Bronte sisters were crow-barred into the narrative also annoyed me, mainly because Ferguson gaily shoved Anne Bronte out the picture yet briskly appropriated the elder two as natural allies of the Carnes' objectives. First of all, I love the Brontes and felt offended on their behalf that they were being used in such an idiotic novel. Second of all, Anne Bronte is my favourite Bronte of all and seeing her forgotten just seemed rude. I felt as though I finished the book with a real scowl on my face. This may have been intended as comic - possibly even cringe-comic - but it just came off as stupid. Silly. And not funny.
For my full review:
http://girlwithherheadinabook.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/review-brontes-went-to-woolworths.html
gudrun's review against another edition
Two-thirds read but found it unremittingly mawkish and annoying.