trennels | Readthrough Chapters 5 to 7.

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Readthrough Chapters 5 to 7.

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.’

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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.

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.

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....

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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

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.

Yes, I didn't mean to imply it was a deliberate snub in that sense. But the Marlow family is all there, not long before he was friends with Nicola, it would be natural enough to cast her a passing smile. He is an unusual boy in so many ways, isn't he? It's more often the girl in a relationship who drops all their friends.

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.

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.

Even if the divorce had been settled many years earlier, the bar to remarrying in church disappears on the death of either spouse.

If Mrs Dodd had been alive and well, the marriage in church would not have been allowed, because Edwin would still be bound by the promise "to have and to hold ... till death do us part". He isn't keeping that promise, so he isn't allowed to make it again.

Once Mrs Dodd dies, even if it's 20 years down the line and they've been apart all that time, Edwin can remarry in church. The reason being, you aren't banned from a church wedding because you have failed to keep promises in the past. Edwin now can't keep that promise, so even though all the signs are that he would not keep the promise anyway, there is still the tiny hypothetical possibility that he may have changed his mind if Mrs Dodd's death hadn't put an end to it.

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.

@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.

I presume the thread in question is still somewhere in the vaults of Trennels. Basically I said something along the lines of 'how could Nicola be so stupid as to think that?'. She is intelligent, perceptive, well-read, makes friends easily with adults etc. I think the line would fit Lawrie much better.
The best counter argument was that Nicola has been brought up in a world where adults don't show emotion so she thinks they don't feel it. But so was I, and I still knew at thirteen that adults felt things.

Yes, true. I think I have the idea that Rose articulated her belief to Edwin once and got thoroughly crunched for it. Edwin thought he'd hashed the silly child's delusion once and for all, while Rose resolved never to mention it again in her father's presence, and was perhaps even confirmed in her belief by the ferocity of his crunching. But there's no textual evidence for that at all...

I think one of the things that I like about Forest is the way she writes maturation proceeding in fits and starts, and sometimes characters even regress from insights that they've had. I'm mildly surprised that Nicola articulates the sentiment, which does seem to be a Lawrie-ish thing to do--Nicola usually has more social nous about what's acceptable to articulate. I'm not so surprised that the full truth that adults feel things as vividly as teenagers do hasn't quite sunk in for her, and perhaps in this emotionally turbulent situation, rattled by Rose's displays of grief and Chas's innocent but revealing natter she does regress a bit.

Nicola's remarks are also in keeping with the young Marlows' belief that Ginty, especially, articulates in this book and Peter's Room that nobody could possibly want to live beyond forty.

I guess it's an exaggeration for comic effect...or maybe it isn't. Maybe it just is how teenagers think. (I read both books as a teenager and don't remember these passages jarring.)

There are parents - very much the minority I think and hope - who do feel they love their children less once they start looking like adults. Some of them articulate this to their adult children with absolute clarity. Some of them complain repeatedly to the adult/ adolescent child that they "look horrible" now and go on and on about how sad it makes them that their child is no longer a "sweet little golden haired.."
Maybe AF had overheard one of these - or known one, maybe a friend of a friends parent or something similar and hence wondered what Nicola would think if she had heard it - more use of public transport means more enforced over-hearing perhaps? Perhaps Nicola is also articulating a fear - that as she and Lawrie stop being children her parents might care less about them? Or perhaps that they already care less about Rowan?
As an adult daughter, I was well aware I still mattered to my parents, but that is because they had in their own quiet and undemonstrative way made it clear to me, and not because society in general had done so.

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.

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.

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.

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Readthrough Chapters 5 to 7.

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The Young Dodds

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Mrs Clavering

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