Oh wow, this is fascinating! What an interesting take. I have no idea how I'd've reacted to it as a kid reader, but I'm intrigued by it now.
It reminds me of a family story (warning: child death mention)
about my grandmother's brother, who died when he was 8 and she was a few years older, 12 or 13 or so. My mom asked her once what he was like, and she said, "Oh, Polly, I don't know. I thought he was a pest." Which my mom at the time took as Grandmom repressing her feelings or whatever, and then she looked at me and my younger brother when we were around those ages. And she was like, "Oh, no, this is what she'd remember of him at this stage, huh?" Clearly in this book, Veronica and Stanley both had reason to shape Mary Rose's memory into a hero or villain over the years, but it still makes me think of it -- the limiting effect of only having the kid perspective of a sibling you're not necessarily close to, on top of the inherently limiting effect of memory and subjectivity etc.
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Date: 2023-05-06 03:41 am (UTC)It reminds me of a family story (warning: child death mention)
about my grandmother's brother, who died when he was 8 and she was a few years older, 12 or 13 or so. My mom asked her once what he was like, and she said, "Oh, Polly, I don't know. I thought he was a pest." Which my mom at the time took as Grandmom repressing her feelings or whatever, and then she looked at me and my younger brother when we were around those ages. And she was like, "Oh, no, this is what she'd remember of him at this stage, huh?" Clearly in this book, Veronica and Stanley both had reason to shape Mary Rose's memory into a hero or villain over the years, but it still makes me think of it -- the limiting effect of only having the kid perspective of a sibling you're not necessarily close to, on top of the inherently limiting effect of memory and subjectivity etc.