From: Maia <maia>
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 07:19:10 -0400

I have found the discussion of Paterson's characters interesting. Myself, I remember receiving Jacob Have I Loved as a gift and hating it - it seemed so outrageously unfair and emotionally contorted. It probably didn't help that I couldn't particularly _like_ Louise, though I certainly pitied her.

Megan said, "To me, It seems both honest and courageous to write about child characters who aren't wholly likable and embracable--aren't we all that way?", and several people have commented on the reliability/unreliability of Louise. What about the un/reliability of Paterson herself? I suppose I have to say that I think these two novels turn on the reader, leaving one somewhat bereft and betrayed. There also doesn't seem to be much happiness or hope in her characters (or plots); and unlike Voigt's or Taylor's characters, hers don't seem to have an underscoring faith or perseverance. I'm not exactly leveling this as an accusation, but more as a commentary. Maggie Bokelman said, "But even had Paterson chosen to end the book earlier, I think the reader would have harbored a lot of hope for Louise," which I thought was interesting, because it was such a different take than my own - I wouldn't have married Louise and hope in the same sentence!

But what has stuck with me for many years are not the characters of Paterson's books, but rather her development of place. Terabithia will probably always be a real and vivid woodland in my mind and is a metaphor I still use with some frequency; and, beyond a visual impression of a sharply shadowed Louise and her fluorescent sister, what I retain from Jacob is a strong sense of the island, the sea, and rain. I admire Paterson's gift for world-making... even when the worlds she makes aren't necessarily places I'd want to visit myself.

Maia Cheli-Colando maia at littlefolktales.org
Received on Fri 20 Aug 1999 06:19:10 AM CDT