Readthrough Chapters 5 to 7.

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

Thank you to Lilibulero for letting me have a go at the wheel of the Readthrough. The Ready-Made Family is my favourite Forest book. I love the dynamics of a large family with an 'intruder' in their midst. So such as they are, here are my musings.
I tried to put in the lj cuts so it didn't all show at once, but for some reason they haven't worked!

To Meet The Dodds.

The chapter opens with Peter and Nicola reunited and having a conversation which is both very funny but also ominous at times, such as Selby’s witty but unfunny quote from Hamlet – the funeral baked meats furnishing forth the wedding feast. (As a slight aside, I wonder if Nicola is inspired by this remark to go and read Hamlet, because by Cricket Term she does know something of Hamlet.) Then they imagine if all of the girls had been bridesmaids and Edwin had to buy them all presents – a delighful but daunting idea for any future spouse. Then the funniest pair of lines – ‘ d’ you think there was a ghastly pause after Kay said And there’s another seven at home?’ ‘There was a gruesome ghastly pause after Kay said he’s forty-one with three children,’ – a reminder that neither party in this marriage is facing an ideal situation or an easy time.
Finally Peter points out to Nicola the painful truth that Patrick and Ginty are likely to be wrapped up in each other, and Nicola realises ‘that however certain you may be in your own mind of the truth of some disagreeable fact, it only becomes real when someone else … confirms it for you.’
So the Dodds are finally arriving and Mrs Marlow can’t meet them herself because she needs to wash her hair. Really? I thought ‘washing one’s hair’ was the classic excuse for not going out on a date you didn’t want to go on. Mrs Marlow asks Ginty to go, only Ginty is at her most unlikeable in this book, a self-centred and vain teenage brat. When Mrs Marlow gives up on Ginty with the comment that she doesn’t want the Dodds to feel unwelcome, Ginty is both ‘relieved but resentful’. This is such a true depiction of the teenage mind – Ginty doesn’t actually want to put herself out doing a job for someone else, but neither does she want her mental self-image to be of a mean, unfriendly person.
Both Peter and Ann show their understanding of the awfulness of this whole situation in different ways. Peter thinks as the train comes in ‘This is a very grotty happening. Someone should have stopped it.’ Indeed, but who? And Ann says sorry to Rose, meaning she is sorry that Rose’s parents have divorced, her mother has died and that she has had to leave her home and come and live with strangers. Imagine if the whole book was written from Rose’s point of view – it would be hard for any modern critic to complain that the story was all about privileged children. Rose’s story could be the entire plot of a Jacqueline Wilson book.
I love Nicola and Peter meeting the Dodds. We see them both at their best, I think, especially Peter thinking of buying the sweets to make them feel welcome. Peter is natural and easy with Fob who instinctively latches onto him. And then when Mrs Clavering is pulled onto the platform by Rose, Peter is quite masterful and assertive in insisting she comes to tea, while still being polite and charming and funny – possibly glimmers of officer material showing through.
Nicola and Peter are both obviously naturally ‘good with’ younger children. I wonder if, having always been ‘lower orders’ themselves, they find it enjoyable being ‘upper deck’ in turn. They are now being ‘Giles’ and ‘Rowan’ to versions of their younger selves. (Although I’m sure Peter will be far more kind and consistent with Fob than Giles was with Nicola.)
Chas is an immensely likeable child. The conversation he and Nicola have while walking home from the station is so well written. Chas has had both unthinkable things happen to him – parents divorcing and his mother dying, and he doesn’t have a clue really about what happens next. AF makes him so calm and resigned about it all, even though his questions make Nicola’s heart lurch. AF’s characterisation is so good, we have only just met Chas, and yet we already care about what happens to him, and it’s all done without a trace of sentimentality or ‘ickiness’.


Tea And Stables.

What do we make of Mrs Clavering? The Marlows and their mother whole-heartedly approve of her. From what we see of her at tea, it seems unfair to think that she would really have been turning the children against Edwin. Has Kay been encouraging Edwin to worry about something that hasn’t actually been happening?
Tea is a successful meal, and afterwards the children are ordered outside by Mrs Marlow for a walk which ends up with everyone except Rose enjoying themselves in the stable yard. Into this scene rides Ginty who proceeds to career across the yard and nearly crush Rose in the doorway. Ginty could perfectly well get off Catkin and hold him at the entrance to the yard until the others are out of the way, but with her head full of thoughts of Patrick she has to show off in front of her earthbound siblings. And why is Catkin so excitable when he has supposedly been out riding all afternoon? I suspect he and Blackleg have been tied up somewhere while Ginty and Patrick gaze into each others eyes, pretending to be Rosina and Rupert. Nicola, quick thinking and resourceful, rescues Rose: a forerunner of what is to come later in the book.
Ginty’s news that the Idiot Boy is for sale confirms for Nicola that Ginty and Patrick have been riding together, and as she usually does when upset, goes off on her own to fetch more sugar, firmly telling herself not to care – saying ‘ “Well – so what?” to herself at intervals.’ It reminds me of the time she had to repeat Sprog’s name over and over.
One of the themes of this book is Nicola maturing. In the conversation with her mother after Mrs Clavering leaves, she seems very young, and at her most Lawrieish. Her mother points out that Mrs Clavering’s daughters have been killed, and Nicola says ‘People don’t mind, do they, not as much, when they get older?’
While waiting for Edwin to arrive the conversation turns to the Idiot Boy and surprisingly Mrs Marlow tells them they can cash their savings to buy him. Has the stress of the wedding made her so distracted that she doesn’t care if two of her children who can’t even ride very well spend a serious amount of money on a pony? And the unfairness of Ginty getting Catkin is brought up yet again.
Finally the dreaded moment arrives, and Edwin is introduced, AF gives us a far more detailed description of his physical appearance than she usually does for any character. Is she making it clear that Karen hasn’t been swept away by good looks? And then the chapter closes; with a splendid economy of words, AF gives us the forbidding sentence: ‘It was no good. They didn’t take to him at all.’

Wedding And Breakfast.

Although the book is referencing ‘Persuasion’ throughout, the wedding reminds me very much of the wedding scene in ‘Jane Eyre’. It is early morning, the church is empty and gloomy and the clothes are drab. Nicola’s reflection over the point in the ceremony where the vicar asks if there are any reasons why the couple should not be wed, and Nicola wonders if anyone ever had, seems to suggest that someone should be stopping this wedding. Has Nicola read Jane Eyre or has she been put off the Brontes for life by the Gondalling?
Patrick, you complete b******. Couldn’t you even acknowledge your former best friend with a smile instead of staring gormlessly at Ginty? That would just be ordinary politeness, as Mrs Marlow might say.
A comic touch is provided by Ginty’s fantasies about clothes – something floaty and black laceish – really? In a church? And then imagining marrying Patrick in the Merrick’s chapel. Oh dear.
The family gather outside the church to see the couple off. The sense of resentment at an intruder making off with one of the family is perfectly expressed by the collective ‘stiffening’ at Edwin calling Kay ‘Katie’. Karen now has a life and a persona which excludes all of them, and even if they liked Edwin, they would still feel that sense of displacement.
Back home for a hearty breakfast, and I do enjoy the descriptions of Chas eating. What is it about small boys with huge appetites that makes them so charming? And the family disperse for the day. Ginty again kicks up a fuss about being asked to do something.
Is Ginty just being a teenager? Because I can’t help wondering, given how opalescent her character is, if spending all her time with Patrick is causing her to reflect Patrick’s personality – self-absorbed, arrogant, single-minded?
It could also be said that Patrick and Ginty are mirroring Karen and Edwin – both couples are obsessed with getting what they want, oblivious to how anybody else is affected.
Rowan in these chapters is rather ghost-like, appearing in silence at meals, and not saying anything, bearing all the weight of Trennels on her shoulders. Come on Mrs Marlow, it’s time you noticed!
The chapter ends with Nicola and Rose in the old playroom. I love the moment when Rose shuts her eyes, hoping for something magical to appear, and then, in a way, it does, with her discovery of a shelf of books that she can escape into. Rose gets to escape from all the uncertainties of her new life into these imaginary worlds, until the chapter ends on another perfectly expressed ominous note: ‘With the end of the honeymoon, however, matters were better ordered; as Rose had feared they would be.’

Comments

[lizzzar.livejournal.com]

This is an interesting summary, but I don't think the Dodds ever actually divorced. They were separated at the time of the crash, and according to Karen, might still have reconciled.

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

Yes, my mistake, they weren't divorced. I don't suppose the children will appreciate the difference though, especially when their father remarries so soon after their mother's death. It must add all sorts of levels to their grief - thinking that daddy didn't love Mummy anyway, maybe he's relieved she died.

[occasionalhope.livejournal.com]

If they had divorced, Karen and Edwin probably wouldn't have been able to marry in church. It's allowed in many C of E churches now, but I think wasn't in the 60s.

[lizzzar.livejournal.com]

I don't think, myself, that Patrick is actively trying to snub Nicola: but he does come across as at least slightly self absorbed. Now Ginty is home, very likely they are still doing occasional Rupert and Rosina, and this accounts for some of their continuing self centeredness.

[nzraya.livejournal.com]

That and, well, teenage hormones/narcissism/intensity. Their behaviour doesn't surprise me at all -- I remember most teenage relationships (of my friends', since my teenage crushs were all unrequited...) being tiresome in just this way: enthralling to the two individuals concerned, a right pain in the neck for anyone else who just wanted to get on with their lives normally and not constantly find themselves accidentally barging in on a Deep and Meaningful Moment of some kind....

[coughingbear]

I agree (though I might say very self-absorbed). I think in the church he just doesn't notice Nicola looking at him, rather than deliberately snubs her (he is perfectly pleasant in the later scene when she borrows Buster). Doesn't make it any less painful for Nicola, of course, and I always hate that he shows no awareness of how she must feel about him dropping their friendship so abruptly.

Even setting aside hormones, Patrick can only seem to cope with one friendship at a time. And there's some of the only child/large family stuff going on.

[antfan.livejournal.com]

I think he's not deliberately snubbing Nicola in church, the painful thing is he's so wrapped up in Ginty that he just doesn't notice her. But I do think they are snubbing her later, in the stable yard. Politely, but polite snubs can be just as (perhaps more) painful.

The Young Dodds

[antfan.livejournal.com]

I like them too. Does anybody else find Rose very reminiscent of Esther? I actually wonder if Forest makes her afraid of dogs deliberately to differentiate her. And Fob I see as younger Pomona Todd (well, Pomona in Cricket Term anyway).

Peter's relationship with the young Dodds is very nicely done - as with Thuggery, I find Peter extremely sympathetic in these books. I like the bit about him being a "male nanny" and he isn't bothered. Although Peter and Nicola are both impressively kind to the young Dodds, though, I'd say Nicola is only really a natural with Chas, and that probably they both struggle a bit to relate closely to Rose, who does seem very withdrawn and isolated throughout the book.

Rose almost being trampled - there's actually a lot peril, isn't there, given that this is a family/relationships oriented book.

Re: The Young Dodds

[lilliburlero.livejournal.com]

I've always linked Rose and Esther for some reason. And I love Fob's limpet-like attachment to Peter (I think he's rather flattered by the immediate and unstinting devotion, though it would not be The Marlow Way to show any sign of it).

Re: The Young Dodds

[scarletlobster.livejournal.com]

I must say I find Ginty's behaviour in the stable yard annoying. She reminds me of those dog owners who tell you it is your own fault their dog has torn your leg off because 'they can smell fear you know'. Rose certainly isn't in danger of being smothered with too much sympathy; you get the feeling if it hadn't been for Nicola she would have been trampled underfoot, and the others would have said it was all her own fault.

Re: The Young Dodds

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

Yes, Ginty is behaving in a completely unnecessarily dangerous way. If nothing else, she shouldn't be riding into the stable. There's no reason she couldn't have turned Catkin away or got off and held him. Fred Studdart would have had something to say to her if he hadn't been off (presumably) having his tea break.

Mrs Clavering

[antfan.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's important isn't it, the "people don't mind..." comment. (Though Nicola was capable of feeling sorry for her grandmother for losing four sons in WWI - then again, think her compassion was mentioned as being surprising. And they were her own family.)

I think there might be a clue to Edwin's later behaviour in Mrs Clavering. She can't bear to keep witnessing Rose's distress because of her own grief...and I wonder if something similar explains why Edwin is so remote with his own children (on the top of the fact that he probably has a rather distant fathering style anyway). He must find it very hard to witness their grief.

Re: Mrs Clavering

[lilliburlero.livejournal.com]

In particular, Rose being in denial about Rosemary's death can't be easy for Edwin, who doesn't strike me as the sort of person who can deal with that sort of delusion at the best of times.

Re: Mrs Clavering

[legionseagle (from livejournal.com)]

It's a smoking gun, of course. Interesting that there's no evidence that Rose has shared this belief with anyone other than Chas.

Re: Mrs Clavering

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

I first read this line when I was the same age as Nicola. It really bothered me that someone my own age - who I really admired and almost hero-worshipped (if it's possible to hero-worship a fictional character) could say or think that. I did start a thread about it years ago and got rather snapped at.

Re: Mrs Clavering

[mudkickerkicks.livejournal.com]

@jackmerlin: If you don't mind sharing, would love to know your thoughts in that thread and why people disagreed? Do you mean the line where Nicola says she thinks people 'mind less' about relatives dying when they (the bereaved) are older? I'm (still) in two minds about that line after reading it at Nicola's age.

[mudkickerkicks.livejournal.com]

Lovely summary, thank you. I particularly liked this:

Imagine if the whole book was written from Rose’s point of view – it would be hard for any modern critic to complain that the story was all about privileged children. Rose’s story could be the entire plot of a Jacqueline Wilson book.

I met Jacqueline Wilson last week so may be still slightly starstruck, but I think yes, this would be an ideal plot for one of her books. I wonder whether writing a book about someone like Rose in a similar situation would be Not On re copyright?

I always felt sorry for Rose when Edwin and Karen returned from honeymoon. To read 'as if for a wager' would have been (still is) my idea of bliss too, and how horrid to be forced out of it and into activities you know you don't shine at.

Agree that Chas is very likeable in the scene walking back from the station. And my heart lurched too when he said something like 'Granny says Daddy is only marrying Karen to have a housekeeper.' How awful for Nicola to hear that, both in not wanting to correct Chas and in wanting to help Karen. The next lines, where she desperately thinks what to say, are so well done.

The infant Dodds' understanding of the events in their life

[sprog-63.livejournal.com]

I too like the infant Dodds: even the less obviously appealing Rose (probably as I shared her love of books and mistrust of dogs). I think they are brilliantly portrayed and also very endearing. I first read RMF as a teenager, and then I especially liked Chas.

I wonder how much (if anything) Rose, Charles and Phoebe were actually told about the separation or their mother's death, let alone the living arrangements after their father re-marries.

"We're going to live with Granny for a while because Daddy has to work such long hours in Oxford," seems to me a likely line. Even today, when people are not sure whether they are separating for ever or not, they tend to try and fudge things for children- especially those as young as Fob. (Not endorsing this practice particularly, merely noting it.) Equally, adults routinely underestimate how aware children are of dissension (or violence) in the parental / adult relationships around them, so Rosemary Dodd probably thought her children were unaware of any tension.

I can also imagine Rose tearfully asking her mother if Daddy has died (because of his absence) and being re-assured he is alive and has just gone away for a while (shades of The Railway Children); and then the same phrase being used when her mother goes on holiday with her aunt. It is also quite possible, in fact, more than likely, that in the 1960s the children would not have even gone to the funeral(s)/memorial service(s). Putting all that together, it is not hard for Rose to ignore that she has been told that her mother is dead and instead tell herself / almost believe that she too has gone away and will return.

I think the comments Chas makes on the way back from the station and the breakfast scene still to come in Chapter 11 indicate that the infant Dodds have no idea what is happening to them. A more extreme version of the way the "lower decks" are oblivious to the changes which will ensue in their lives following Jon's death. I wonder if the Dodd children had even met Karen before they arrive at Trennels - there is no evidence that they have. She'd hardly have been taken to meet them in the Clavering household while Rosemary was alive or in the weeks following her death; nor, if Rosemary took them to Oxford to visit their father would Karen be around. I can't see Mrs Clavering taking them to visit their father and his new fiancee in Oxford shortly after burying both her daughters. There may be some Greek tragedy where this is required of a mother ...

Mrs Clavering's remark that Edwin is marrying for a housekeeper was, I hope, overheard by Chas, rather than directed to him (and I always wonder if it is part of Nicola's cautious hesitation about Mrs C.) and I shall put down to her own grief - for otherwise, it is malicious and unhelpful and proves Edwin was right that the Clavering household was driving wedges between Edwin and the children.

I see why it make literary sense to go straight from the Marlow (and our) first impression of Edwin to the wedding scene, but I would like to see that meeting of the children and Karen, and to read Mrs Marlow's letter to Geoff that night.

Re: The infant Dodds' understanding of the events in their life

[lilliburlero.livejournal.com]

I missed the 'housekeeper' remark...where's that?

At the end of Chapter 5 Chas does say 'Gran says Daddy's marrying her for company because he's lonely...' which is probably just the truth as Mrs Clavering sees it, or at least all she's prepared to say devant les enfants. It doesn't seem to support Edwin's feeling that she tries to turn the children against him.

Re: The infant Dodds' understanding of the events in their life

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

Another likely line (actually used on a friend of mine) would be 'Daddy's writing a book so he needs lots of peace and quiet to get on with it.'

[lizzzar.livejournal.com]

Ginty's comment is in the context of the Brontes, who she finds romantic, including their early
deaths. Although it is odd to think of Jane Austen also dying in her early forties.

[legionseagle (from livejournal.com)]

Austen was the youngest to die of her family, and several of her siblings lived on into their eighties (one of the two admirals managed to die of dysentery during the storming of Rangoon, suggesting that he might have gone on practically forever if he'd had a less exciting life). So you don't have the universal misery of the Brontes.

Dodd/Clavering back story

[antfan.livejournal.com]

From what we see of her at tea, it seems unfair to think that she [Mrs C] would really have been turning the children against Edwin. Has Kay been encouraging Edwin to worry about something that hasn’t actually been happening?

How about this?

Edwin Dodd, shy, former grammar school boy, meets Rosemary Clavering, trainee primary teacher, in his last undergrad year at Oxford. Also bookish (in a later time period, she’d probably have been doing a history degree herself) she is more outgoing than Edwin, but their personalities seem to compliment each other. Rosemary’s parents own a family engineering firm making railway parts: gregarious like their daughter, they find Edwin a bit of a dry stick. But they recognize the couple seem happy, and when they get married give them a substantial sum towards a house in Oxford.

Initially Rosemary works, but when Edwin’s career is established she stops to have Rose and Charles. It’s basically a happy marriage, although Rosemary is increasingly aware how much Edwin and her lives have polarized, and she is looking forward to developing her own interests as the children grown older. The pregnancy with Fob is an accident and afterwards Rosemary suffers severe post natal depression. Distressed but clueless how to help, Edwin retreats more and more into his work, to the disgust of Mrs Clavering, who is spending a lot of time with the family. Further, although never bad-tempered with Rosemary, his stress shows in irritability with the children and Mrs C.

Rosemary slowly recovers but remains much closer to her parents and outspoken about her resentments with Edwin and her way of life: she particularly complains about Oxford, its academic snobbery and attitude to wives. Edwin focuses on location as the problem and something he can fix – he eventually manages to line up the Streweminster job (perhaps subconciously pleased its further from his in-laws) and presents it to Rosemary almost as a fait accompli. But Rosemary is furious – he really doesn’t get it – and her parents are equally furious, especially as they see it as Edwin using the money they gave the couple to move their daughter further away from them. Rosemary decamps to Chester with the kids, and in a bold move, goes on holiday with her sister to the Alps…

Re: Dodd/Clavering back story

[nnozomi.livejournal.com]

I find that one very plausible option, both practically and emotionally. (While it's only a backstory to your backstory, I like the Clavering firm making railway parts, which is clearly where Chas comes by his enthusiasm for trains?).

Re: Dodd/Clavering back story

[sue marsden (from livejournal.com)]

Hadn't they been separated 'nearly a year'? And the Strewminster job is a new thing.