Random bookish thought
Dec. 25th, 2010 02:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
A few weeks ago (more like a month) we were walking to the library, and, as it was a windy day, the last of the leaves were falling off the trees. Ana and Evangeline jumped to catch them and I said "Each leaf is a happy day!"
Which of course got me to thinking about that book (yet another example of how Diana Wynne Jones can never write romance - and as she's dying, it's not likely she'll ever fix the situation). It's so weird, thinking on it, how Polly's grandmother's original complaint against Thomas Lynn was "Well, you never know about strange men...."
By the end of the book we know she wasn't being strictly honest - but do you know, when you think about it, she's right! Even if you put him at the very youngest he could possibly be when he meets Polly, he's still a grown man when she's very young, and... although there's nothing wrong with a great age difference in couples, it is a little squicky if they met when one of them was still a kid, don't you think? I mean, she met him when she was ten!
Also, I have to ask. Polly saves the day at the end, nobody dies, she remembers the other past - does her mom recover? Does she get her friend back? I mean, her careless talk to Laurel is what allowed the past to be changed so badly (and did Laurel have to give such a terrible outcome? Or did she just like being a bitch? Well, that's a stupid question), but does remembering fix things or does Nina still hate her and is her mother still depressed and angry and miserable?
Which of course got me to thinking about that book (yet another example of how Diana Wynne Jones can never write romance - and as she's dying, it's not likely she'll ever fix the situation). It's so weird, thinking on it, how Polly's grandmother's original complaint against Thomas Lynn was "Well, you never know about strange men...."
By the end of the book we know she wasn't being strictly honest - but do you know, when you think about it, she's right! Even if you put him at the very youngest he could possibly be when he meets Polly, he's still a grown man when she's very young, and... although there's nothing wrong with a great age difference in couples, it is a little squicky if they met when one of them was still a kid, don't you think? I mean, she met him when she was ten!
Also, I have to ask. Polly saves the day at the end, nobody dies, she remembers the other past - does her mom recover? Does she get her friend back? I mean, her careless talk to Laurel is what allowed the past to be changed so badly (and did Laurel have to give such a terrible outcome? Or did she just like being a bitch? Well, that's a stupid question), but does remembering fix things or does Nina still hate her and is her mother still depressed and angry and miserable?
