15. Ernestine and Amanda

[osprey_archer]

Sandra Belton's Ernestine and Amanda has neither a plot nor particularly interesting characters nor, really, much of anything else to recommend it, except perhaps the salutary message that it's bad to mock fat people because fat people have feelings just like everyone else.

It's hard to imagine a child (for Ernestine and Amanda is a children's book) caring enough about the book to absorb that message, though. The story is told in alternating first person, which might have been interesting I hadn't kept getting confused who was speaking. The characters speak with much the same voice, except that Amanda harps about how fat Ernestine is, while Ernestine complains about how stuck up Amanda is.

One might imagine that by the end of the book Amanda would have seen the error in her ways, and Ernestine would forgive her for her former foolishness, which would have been cliched but would at least have given the book a direction - but no. Right up to the end each girl pounds the exact same note again and again, so the book is a repetitive journey to nowhere.

Also? It's apparently historical fiction. I didn't realize that until I looked the book up on the internet, though, so I can't say I think the time or place are well-described.

Comments

[entwashian.livejournal.com]

It's apparently historical fiction. I didn't realize that until I looked the book up on the internet

DEATH KNELL.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I KNOW. I thought my opinion of the book couldn't get lower, but APPARENTLY IT COULD.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That sounds pretty bad! When you say historical fiction... are the girls in long dresses (i.e., is it from some unidentifiable era before 1910?) or... is it from some more recent period?** It's funny to think of putting a story about fat consciousness in the past, as being fat just wasn't an issue in the past because (a) most people just didn't have the wherewithal to become very fat and (b) a little bit of plumpness was a desirable thing.

The thing about the lack of different voices. That so clearly says beginning novelist to me: the characters are merely giving expression to the author's thoughts; they're not yet genuine, fully realized characters on their own.

**Huh--I Googled the title. The cover image looks like the story is maybe anywhere from 1940s through 1960s?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

It takes place in 1955, apparently. They do spend most of the book wearing dresses, which perhaps should have tipped me off...but it just seemed so modern in other ways: the piles of food everywhere, the parents getting divorced (without any attendant scandal), the fact that neither girl seemed even vaguely aware of racism.

I do think it was Belton's first novel. It would explain a lot of the problems, I think.