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A review by abroadintime
Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp
3.0
I completely enjoyed this book... until I didn't.
For the majority of the book, Cluny's innocent (though often nonsensical) way of looking at the world was endearing & charming. She reminds me a bit of Anne of Green Gables—a bit whimsical, flighty, and unpredictable in peculiarly charming ways and, having been raised on Anne, I quite enjoy reading about characters who are deliciously overwhelmed at the wonder of discovering and experiencing things for the first time. That wasn't the focus of this book, however. A variety of distractions were presented by other characters, but worse, the ending rather undid all of that. While Cluny was all of those things to the very last word, for me, she lost her peculiar charm with the author's final twist of the tale.
The ending came out of nowhere and felt baseless. Right when Sharp had me feeling as if I understood Cluny and the other characters, right when my heart was warmed by the prospects laid out by the plot, Sharp essentially upended the whole thing by taking the story, and Cluny, in a direction neither felt meant to go. Cluny's decision didn't clarify or affirm her character as I'd come to know it—instead it cast doubt upon it—but her decision didn't necessarily show growth as a character either.
Throughout the book, Cluny is frequently asked, "Who do you think you are?" As she ponders this question, we as readers ponder it, too. And, by the nature of storytelling, we are given many opportunities to get to know her... leading us to believe after some time that we do. Her thoughts, words, and actions—as revealed by the author—are shared to help us get to know her, to comprehend her unusual thoughts and actions in a more gracious, understanding light... until her thoughts and actions are no longer shared with us, and we no longer can understand her.
I think the ending *could have been written to make sense, but it wasn't, so the story (that was trundling along quite well) just sort of fizzles out nonsensically at the end. For that reason, I've decided to hold a different version of the story in my own mind—one that permits Cluny to be herself—a young woman I quite liked just as she was—right up to the very end.
For the majority of the book, Cluny's innocent (though often nonsensical) way of looking at the world was endearing & charming. She reminds me a bit of Anne of Green Gables—a bit whimsical, flighty, and unpredictable in peculiarly charming ways and, having been raised on Anne, I quite enjoy reading about characters who are deliciously overwhelmed at the wonder of discovering and experiencing things for the first time. That wasn't the focus of this book, however. A variety of distractions were presented by other characters, but worse, the ending rather undid all of that. While Cluny was all of those things to the very last word, for me, she lost her peculiar charm with the author's final twist of the tale.
The ending came out of nowhere and felt baseless. Right when Sharp had me feeling as if I understood Cluny and the other characters, right when my heart was warmed by the prospects laid out by the plot, Sharp essentially upended the whole thing by taking the story, and Cluny, in a direction neither felt meant to go. Cluny's decision didn't clarify or affirm her character as I'd come to know it—instead it cast doubt upon it—but her decision didn't necessarily show growth as a character either.
Throughout the book, Cluny is frequently asked, "Who do you think you are?" As she ponders this question, we as readers ponder it, too. And, by the nature of storytelling, we are given many opportunities to get to know her... leading us to believe after some time that we do. Her thoughts, words, and actions—as revealed by the author—are shared to help us get to know her, to comprehend her unusual thoughts and actions in a more gracious, understanding light... until her thoughts and actions are no longer shared with us, and we no longer can understand her.
I think the ending *could have been written to make sense, but it wasn't, so the story (that was trundling along quite well) just sort of fizzles out nonsensically at the end. For that reason, I've decided to hold a different version of the story in my own mind—one that permits Cluny to be herself—a young woman I quite liked just as she was—right up to the very end.