Book Review #1 - The Flight of Gemma Hardy

Unlike some fellow anglophile romantics, I never really enjoyed the love story in the novel Jane Eyre.  Oh, I liked Jane well enough.  Her scrappiness, morality and can-do attitude made her an obvious protagonist to root for but Mr. Rochester always seemed kind of unlikable, a tad scary, and, tragic as his situation was, an unlikely love interest for such a young woman (notice I didn't say suitable marriage candidate as men were often quite a bit older than their young brides but I think it was rare that the romance between such couples was spontaneous).  It's probably because I first read Jane Eyre when I was about Jane's age and when she falls in love with Mr. Rochester and I remember thinking, "Ewwww."

Like this modern day re-telling of Jane Eyre (it can hardly be called an original story), I liked Gemma Hardy well enough.  Gemma follows the same trajectory as Jane: being an orphan, living with a cruel and abusive aunt and cousins, surviving at a cold and unloving boarding school and eventually gaining the position as au pair (updated from governess) when she has nowhere else to go.  I think because Margot Livesey followed Charlotte Bronte's story so closely, I had a very hard time putting this story in a more modern setting.  Words like, "minivan" and "radio" jolted me from my comfortable victorian imagery and tried to place my thoughts into the author's 20th century.  Sometimes it worked but the farm setting, cold attic bedrooms and stern matrons combined with my memories of a classic made it hard to stay in the 1960s.

As much as the author borrowed from the original, she didn't choose to copy the best part: the mad wife  blocking the heroine's path to long-denied happiness as well as the strict moral code that keeps the heroine on her straight path when the temptation to veer of course seems most fair.  In my opinion, Gemma's story is weakened when her guiding light becomes her - her lineage, her opportunity for education, her narrow view of truth - rather than a belief in right and wrong. The redemption she finds is ultimately less satisfying because I never felt like she sacrificed for her prizes.  Suffered, yes.  But there is a different lesson between snatching happiness when available and deserved and trusting it will come from a loving God.  Some would consider that difference archaic and naive, but I noted and missed its absence.

Still, the story is interesting and I enjoyed reading it.  Gemma is a fantastic character and the setting in northern Scotland and Iceland, including the unusual names and inclusion of these remote countries' histories, was well done.  The secondary characters faltered, as did the inclusion of more modern issues,  but I kept turning pages to discover the outcomes.  Overall, a decent homage to a better book.