Falconer’s Lure: Dated, Difficult or Plain Dreadful?

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This kind of follows along from the last discussion, but I thought I would give it a new thread.  It’s basically that I just can’t get along with Falconer’s Lure.  I fell joyfully on my GGB copy, having not read it for decades, only to find it a crushing disappointment.  (And Marlows and the Traitor, too, sad to say.)

 

It feels so dated. The characters seem much less complex than in later books (for the first time I understand why people find Nicola annoying) and the style doesn’t seem so assured.  It’s a much more conventional family story than the other holiday books: dad makes the decisions – nobody really questions his authority – mum is gently supportive -  the only character who really steps out of line (Ginty) is shown the error of her ways.

 

In terms of her writing craft, AF doesn’t seem to handle her material well: a key theme is Jon’s death and the family’s reactions, yet we hardly get to know Jon; all the Unity Logan discussion seems a bit pointless when we never encounter her (and I just can’t imagine the adults being that interested in a totally unknown adolescent); in the scene in the attic, there are no less than three big chunks of poetry read/sung aloud to intense reactions from the audience – over-egging it surely?   (And so many blooming competitions: diving, sailing, swimming, reciting, singing, gymkhana…) Its structure is a bit of a mess, and usually that is something AF does so well.  

 

Above all, there are no really magnificent, memorable passages, like, say, the hunt in Peter’s Room.  (Here I don’t think AF did herself a favour picking falconry.  “It was quite impossible to make them understand why the flight at gull had been so thrilling” – quite. )

 

So I’m wondering:

 

i)                    Is Falconer’s Lure irredeemably “dated”?

ii)                   Or do AF’s books simply need to be read several times?  Will I eventually come to appreciate FL? 

iii)                 Or does AF’s writing simply get better as she grows into her style/gets to know her characters?  Are the middle books just better than the earlier ones?