Kathleen Thompson NorrisBesprekingen

I really enjoyed this well-written vintage gothic mystery. Kathleen Norris was a very prolific writer, authoring 93 novels and many other pieces of work. The quality shows---I'll be hunting down more from her asap!

Set in the days when California was all cowboys and ranches and quiet orchards, this is one of those "houseful of people waiting for someone to die" sort of stories---but no sleaze, no contrived impossibilities---just normal classic behaviors one would expect in this sort of a story. It's one of the perfect gothics, in my opinion, and the big secret was a total shocker. Yep, rarely do I get very far into a book without having the whole thing figured out. This one got me---well written for sure!

Yay Kathleen Norris. We miss your kind.

A nice read. A young widow with two daughters comes to live in a California town where she had spent some time as a child. Rumored to be incredibly wealthy, she becomes the focus of her neighbors who are constantly trying to outdo each other. Their materialism gets a lot of attention, but many of them benefit from her different way of doing things. She dresses simply, isn't interested in refurnishing her old-fashioned house, and is actually interested in what her children are learning and doing. Also, her next-door neighbor is an attractive man with a young son. He used to have great ambitions and a career before him but now he is blighted. She goes into business with him so that he can buy the local newspaper. Basically just by being cheerful, helpful and sensible, Mrs. Burgoyne wins the affection of most everyone around her. I did have trouble keeping track of the neighbor ladies, though.

This is a book my dad collected along with some other older books. Need to read.

FROM GOODREADS: The story of Mary Campbell Sylvester "Cam", a lonely married California socialite who falls in love with the handsome writer John Kilgarif. Cam leaves her beloved children and life to be with the man she loves,but will his love demand to much of her. Strangely gripping romance novel that paints a skillfull portrait of emotional neediness and includes an interesting gothic element of psycological suspense. However, the author does not carry through and complete the picture.She ties up the ends too neatly ,so as to conform to the formula of the genre.

I thought this might be some kind of Piper book, i.e. with Pipers of some sorts. But it appears to be more along the line of a moral relating to "he who pays the piper...." Even so, I liked the book quite a lot. When I tried describing the book to my spouse, she thought it sounded rather creepy.

So, we have Harriet Field living in the household of Richard Carter, a rich business man who has an estate, he has named Crownlands, overlooking the Hudson river. Harriet wears several hats in the household, she's the nanny for Carter's teenage daughter, Nina, private secretary for Carter's spouse, Isabelle, and, since Isabelle is more focused on personal pleasure than anything else, de facto housekeeper at Crownlands. That is to say, she, more than Isabelle, deals with the daily concerns of getting the servants organized to keep the house running smoothly.

Well, problems arise. Richard Carter's spouse, Isabella, runs off to Europe with a handsome, if not stable, young man. That results in Harriet's becoming even more important in the running of the household.

Another complication arises. A roué from Harriet's past, one Royal Blondin shows up and begins bestowing his attentions on Harriet's charge, Nina. Harriet would like to speak out against him, but doing so would also expose her to some scandal, and would likely compromise her comfortable situation. She and Royal strike a sort of truce, each promising not to bring up the past. But, how to save Nina from the heartbreak almost sure to follow if she gives into Blondin's attentions?

Well, I could go on, but that wouldn't be a good idea. Suffice to say, it was a rather fun book. I may well hunt us some more of Kathleen Norris works for future reading. Note, that Kathleen Thompson Norris was a novelist in the first half of the 20th century, and is not to be confused with the contemporary poet, Kathleen Norris.

Large sections of this book were unenjoyable because the "heroine" is such an idiot about a weasel of a man. Really, the only parts where I liked her were at the ranch, when no men were around, and maybe the last page and a half, which is the only part where she's thinking like a reasonable person.

I think I like Faith Baldwin better, now that I've read both of these; she writes stronger/more sensible women, and has more hilarious quotations.

Movie tie-in edition

I read this because President Theodore Roosevelt sent a copy to someone who wrote to him (according to his autobiography). It was very encouraging! I think every Christian woman should read it!

Readable, well-detailed, decidedly earnest though not off-puttingly preachy. An easy to take up and put down light read.

Teenage Loveday, daughter of a much-respected family of once-wealthy California Quakers, falls tempestuously in love with a young man of not quite top-drawer origins. She promises eternal faithfulness, and sends her fiancé off to flight school with the promise to marry him as soon as he can finish his training and set up a modest starter home.

Much drama then ensues. Loveday becomes orphaned; we learn of a mysterious family fortune possibly hidden somewhere in the decaying family mansion; Loveday is semi-adopted by a wealthy family and introduced to high society and rich living; Larry-the-fiancé stops writing; Loveday finds herself in a mutually-attracted relationship with an already-married playwright; heart rendings all round!

Eventually Loveday and Larry reunite and marry, but things go swiftly downhill. For Larry is something of a ne’er-do-well. He can’t keep a job, he argues with any sort of authority figure he comes across, he’s deeply jealous of Loveday’s affection for her adopted family, who keep swooping in with welcome cash donations to ease Loveday’s continual financial woes, for she and Larry and their three small children are sliding ever deeper into a lower strata of society than either of them started out in.

Re-enter Loveday’s other lover, the wealthy playwright Chris. His wife has just died, and he feels himself free to woo the still-lovely Loveday, as her husband is obviously unwilling to man up and support her in the way which she deserves. And Loveday must admit that she returns the illicit passion. But will she be able to set aside her marriage vows and divorce her sad-sack spouse? Larry, though continually inadequately employed, occasionally sullen, and generally slightly mopey, is quite a sweet guy at heart, who has never done anything to deserve spousal desertion.

Hmmm…

This not particularly top rate novel is redeemed by its generous period detail and its depiction of rural California life in the early World War II years, when America was poised on the brink of committing to the overseas conflict. There is ongoing discussion of the situation in Europe and the role which America should play in the escalating war; some characters go north to Canada to join the R.A.F.; during the course of the novel the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor takes place, precipitating the U.S.A.’s decision to jump into the fray. Back on the home front, wives and mothers scramble to compensate for breadwinners heeding the call to arms, and, just a little later on, to deal with the inevitable deaths of loved ones and the return of the wounded.

By 1942 Kathleen Norris had honed her writerly craft to a very competent level, and working one’s way through this melodramatic tale some 75 years after its publication is no great hardship, with the expected allowances for era-expected attitudes, as well as a soupçon of bigotry and racial slurs. Those of Chinese ethnicity come in for most of the little digs, as Loveday’s household staff (for of course our heroine has devoted family retainers despite her desperate poverty) are descendants of the California Gold Rush “coolies” of a generation or two before. A typical off-the-cuff comment from Loveday, in reference to her housekeeper: “The Chinese are trustworthy because they find it pays better to be honest.”

As in the other Norris novels I’ve read, the chief heroine is almost impossibly beautiful, universally admired, and stunningly competent at everything she does. Though she temporarily allows herself to be tempted – remember that clue-providing title? – “Eve”, “apple”? – I couldn’t work up any surprise upon finding out that she ultimately does the morally right thing. And of course earthly rewards follow thick and fast, though Norris pleased me by not tying up quite every loose end.

An interesting concept at the beginning of the book - a society which addresses food security by serving daily meals to all comers every day of the year at schools. Less crime, less violence is the result.½

The book for me to read anytime I need to be reminded about the nobility of motherhood. A delightful story with a mother figure worth emulating in my own life as a mother of a house full of children.

This is not your typical romance story. The workaday heroine falls in love with the son of a weathy and historic family. After they marry, his character flaws become more obvious, and his older brother becomes her friend and protector. She realizes that she made a mistake.
Read it to find out what happens. You might be surprised.
This one stays with you.

This is the story of a young woman who has grown up in a large, simple, and rather poor family, and is now embarking on finding what she believes is the true place for a woman: society, success, independence. Her new life "opens her eyes" to the "folly" of women like her own simple mother, who squander their lives in having babies and suffering the dullness and boredom of home life. I don't want to spoil the outcome of the story for you, so let me just say that you MUST read "Mother". It is charming, touching, and beautiful. It will make you laugh and cry at family life! Yes, it's short, but then you can read it over if you want...

"Pamela, where were you last night?"
"We ran out of gas," Pamela explained firmly.
"And you sat in the car all night? That's - obviously - impossible!" ejaculated Mrs. Broome.
"No. There was a sort of - shanty. We went there."
"Without a chaperon?"
"Mrs. Broome, what else could we do?" Pamela said desperately.

Pamela Raleigh, young, beautiful and headstrong, finds herself caught up in a whirlwind of malicious gossip and social ostracism as a result of an unfortunate but innocent mishap. In love with Chester Hilliard and certain that he loves her, she faces the town defiantly. But then Chester, to improve his position as an up and coming banker, becomes engaged to wealthy Rose Catherwood, and Pamela is once more thrown upon the mercies of an unforgiving community.

Here is a story so poignantly moving that you will not be able to help sympathizing with Pamela Raleigh's struggle for the right to happiness.