A Certain Slant of Light

I made a tactical error, I think, in reading Code Name Verity before The FitzOsbornes at War. It’s unfair to compare books, perhaps, but the two books are similar enough (both set in England during World War II) that I couldn’t help it; and I liked CNV so much, and found it so harrowing, that The FitzOsbornes at War could not but suffer by comparison.

This is not the say that The FitzOsborns at War is a bad book! (Although The FitzOsbornes in Exile is still my favorite book in the trilogy.) The characters are still lovely, the World War II England setting excellently portrayed, and when [spoiler redacted] died it still hurt like a son of a bitch.

It just feels much less special than the first two books: more like any other book about World War II in England, without the Montmaravian twist. The book would have been much stronger, I think, if Montmaray was populated: the FitzOsbornes would have much stronger motive to keep in contact with their isle, to negotiate with the Nazis who took it over, to try to sneak in supplies, to join the Red Cross and go to Montmaray on missions to meet up with the Montmaravian Resistence, to fly there and get shot down...

Lots of chance for adventure! And moreover, adventure that would have kept the FitzOsborne clan together, rather than splitting them up. It makes perfect sense (given that they have no populace on Montmaray that they need to help) that the FitzOsbornes would throw their all into the English war effort, but it means they spend a lot of time at opposite ends of England, which hurts one of the most interesting parts of the trilogy: their family dynamic. We see it in bits and bobs rather than as a constantly evolving thing.

Also, the fact that Sophie is sole narrator becomes a real problem now that they’re all split up. She’s as charming as ever, of course, but nonetheless it’s hard not to feel that we’re following the least exciting of all the FitzOsborne stories. Toby joins the RAF, Simon invades Italy, Henry (Sophie’s sister) joins the Wrens (the women’s naval auxiliary), Veronica goes on secret missions to Spain - and meanwhile Sophie works a dull job at the Ministry of Food and endures the Blitz.

There are a number of letters spliced into the book, suggesting that Cooper was aware of the problem, but I think the format needed an overhaul to give the other stories room to breathe. The letters allow us to follow what is going on, but we don’t get to experience the stories.

Obviously this means we need all the fanfic. Most of all, I want to see Veronica’s Adventures in Spain. I mean, from what she tells Sophie, it sounds like she does little in Spain but translate, which is terribly dull...but that’s what she would tell Sophie, after all, “Careless talk costs lives.” What do you want to bet Veronica has exciting espionage adventures all over the Basque Country?

Recently ladyherenya and I have been chatting about “books like I Capture the Castle, because we both love books that could be so described and thought that, hey, it would be so much easier to find them if there were a master list somewhere.

But in making a list it became apparent that “books like I Capture the Castle” needed to be defined, so here’s an attempt at itemizing the necessary qualifications for a book to make the cut.

1. The voice. Cassandra’s voice is, for me, the heart of I Capture the Castle. She’s young and sheltered, but clever, inquisitive, funny; intoxicated with language and all its possibilities. She could natter on about dust bunnies and be brilliant.

I tend to lump everything that echoes Cassandra’s voice into the umbrella category, but there are other qualities that many of these stories share.

2. A eccentric family. The parent figures are loving but somehow deficient - either too distant or too immature to hold the family together - and the sibling bonds are tight, often acting as the support that parents can’t provide. There’s often a sense of isolation from the world, at least at the beginning.

3. The coming of age story. There are lots of kinds of coming of age stories, and this particular sort involves the heroine breaking free of the aforementioned isolation and stepping into the world - both socially and intellectually; and, in The Montmaray Journals, politically. There’s more to say about this, I think.

There’s often a lot of writing about books. I love books about books, and books about the intellect taking shape, and they’re so rare.

4. A peculiar house, preferably a castle, although a decrepit country house is also acceptable. I think this is as much for atmosphere as anything else - doubtless a Cassandra-ish story could be set in a split-level; but who doesn’t love atmosphere?

Those are the main qualities that I’ve thought of so far. Am I missing anything?

***

If you, too, wish to read more books like I Capture the Castle, so far our list contains:

1. Michelle Cooper’s brilliant Montmaray Journals - A Brief History of Montmaray and The FitzOsbornes in Exile, soon to be joined by The FitzOsbornes at War. I’M SO EXCITED. I WANT TO READ IT NOW.

2. Eva Rice’s The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets

3. Jean Webster’s Daddy-long-legs

With honorable mentions to:

1. Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows’ The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, because Juliet sounds like a grown-up Cassandra and because there’s lots of talking about books and ideas even if there’s no coming of age story - Juliet being already quite grown-up - and no castle, worse luck.

2. L. M. Montgomery’s Emily of New Moon trilogy. I’ve only read the first, but ladyherenya says the later ones follow a Cassandra-ish coming of age story.

It’s not a very long list. If you have any possible additions, please suggest them.