I Capture the Castle

I was not terribly impressed by this story. It was well written with wonderful character development of the narrator, Cassandra, however the overall plot was dull. I think what really threw me was the very beginning of the novel, when Cassandra and her family describe their overwhelming poverty, and then they all come to the conclusion that not a single person in the house can go out and work to make money. Why not? What are they doing with their time? Cassandra day dreams and writes in her journal, I have no idea what Rose is up to, Thomas goes to school, Topaz keeps house, the father does crosswords and mopes all day about not being able to write, and the only person who does go out to make money is the orphan serving boy who shouldn't even be giving the family money in the first place.

Instead of self sufficient pluck to get the family out of poverty, the plot revolves around her sister Rose snaring a rich man, which in turn leads to the family's fortunes turning around (and a lot of other stuff happens).

It reminded me a lot of “A tree Grows in Brooklyn,” but what made that such a wonderful read was the tenacity of the family, never giving up to pull themselves out of poverty through hard work and determination and not waiting around for things to be handed to them.