September Book Reviews

All told, September was a very good reading month! I began it with David Copperfield by Charles Dickens—followed by Child of the Kaites by Beth Wangler, and Agatha by E.B. Dawson—and ended it with Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, and Anne of the Island, all by L.M. Montgomery. Any time I find myself unable to fit all of the books I read onto the blog post header, I know I've done a lot of reading! 

And so, I present to you these six reviews, in a post which will probably be the last of its kind for a while. Life has gotten much busier of late, and as much as I love writing book reviews, (and blogging in general), they're both one thing too many at the moment. I may continue to write the occasional short review on Goodreads, but for now, I'm going to take a break from all blogging. Thank you so much to everyone who has been on this journey with me!

David Copperfield
Charles Dickens
My rating: ★★★★

David Copperfield reads like a fictional autobiography, and from the very beginning, the first-person narrative put me in mind of Great Expectations. I was invested in David from the moment he was born at twelve o’clock on a Friday night, and the suffering of his boyhood did nothing but strengthen it. He could have become hardened and closed himself off from the world, but he didn’t, and I found that to be a refreshing change. 

As is usual with Dickens, the characters are vivid and varied, the settings are so life-like I could almost taste the salt air of the seaside, and all the subplots twist together to create a satisfying finale with no loose threads. By the end, the good-hearted but rather young David has matured enough to discipline his heart while still retaining everything that made him such a likeable character to begin with.

There were also a couple very unique things about this book that I would like to mention:
1.) Both a dwarf and an (autistic?) man were portrayed in a positive light.
2.) The girl the protagonist marries is not necessarily the right one. 

Many books—old ones, especially—tend to look down on people just because they’re different, so the fact that these two characters even existed, was a pleasant surprise. I have to admit that I winced a little when Miss Mowcher first came on the scene, but she soon showed that bodily defects do not equal mental ones. And Mr. Dick, by contrast, proved that what some would call those same mental “defects,” were not defects at all, and actually enabled him to see the world in a way few others could.

As for the second point, I won’t say much for fear of spoilers, but so often, the first person the protagonist really falls for ends up being Mr. or Miss Right. The fact that this trope was not used was a refreshing twist.

Content comes in the form of childhood abuse, drinking, one passing reference to “lovemaking” in connection with a honeymoon, and a light smattering of language. There’s also a Lydia Bennett-esque elopement (minus the marriage), and the aftermath of such a disastrous decision, in which Lydia is repentant.

David Copperfield is not merely a pointless, wandering chronicle of David’s life—it’s a tale of hasty decisions, and living with them. It’s a journey from innocent child, to impulsive youth, and finally, to a matured man with an understanding of life, and of family. It’s a tale of growing up, and the mistakes we make as human beings. And I think that’s something we can all relate to.

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