REVIEW: Second Fiddle
Aug. 15th, 2010 05:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllSecond Fiddle: Doris O. Pocock Nelson. 1930 or earlier.
The children of a musician father and a long-dead mother, Molly and Michael Carfax return to London upon the death of their father. He arranged for them to live with the father that he never talked about. Brought up to be ‘artistic’, Molly and Mick don’t like to think of themselves as snobs, but that is how they come across when they learn that their grandfather runs a music shop, lives in poky rooms above it and expects Michael to become his assistant and eventually run the shop – something their father ran away from.
Molly is almost equally upset about what this will mean for Michael, being an ‘ordinary’ girl herself, used to hear her talented violin-playing brother praised by musicians and living in a time when her subservience is seen as womanly. Her grandfather decides that both their (haphazard) educations are over, Molly he can afford to ‘keep’ at home (where she proceeds to do a lot of housework). Of course, this hard lesson in discipline and the meaning of struggle does Michael (and Molly) good. Their stern grandfather unbends slightly, or they learn to appreciate and understand him better. So when chances come for them to lead the life they’ve always dreamed of, having grown up a little, they can ascertain the true value of what they’re being offered.
This was a quick enough read. Molly comes across as sillier than the writer intended now, and for all the commentary on the long-lost relatives turning up being like something in 'a story', the solution that is offered to the Carfaxes is equally romantical in its own way.
What is interesting is why she is listed as Doris O. Pocock on my copy and as Doris A. Pocock on some other copies as per this list. Applying Occam's Razor, I assume it was a mistake and that Doris A. Pocock, Doris O. Pocock and Doris Pocock are all the same person as it's a distinctive surname.
Edited on 24/2/11 for typos.
The children of a musician father and a long-dead mother, Molly and Michael Carfax return to London upon the death of their father. He arranged for them to live with the father that he never talked about. Brought up to be ‘artistic’, Molly and Mick don’t like to think of themselves as snobs, but that is how they come across when they learn that their grandfather runs a music shop, lives in poky rooms above it and expects Michael to become his assistant and eventually run the shop – something their father ran away from.
Molly is almost equally upset about what this will mean for Michael, being an ‘ordinary’ girl herself, used to hear her talented violin-playing brother praised by musicians and living in a time when her subservience is seen as womanly. Her grandfather decides that both their (haphazard) educations are over, Molly he can afford to ‘keep’ at home (where she proceeds to do a lot of housework). Of course, this hard lesson in discipline and the meaning of struggle does Michael (and Molly) good. Their stern grandfather unbends slightly, or they learn to appreciate and understand him better. So when chances come for them to lead the life they’ve always dreamed of, having grown up a little, they can ascertain the true value of what they’re being offered.
This was a quick enough read. Molly comes across as sillier than the writer intended now, and for all the commentary on the long-lost relatives turning up being like something in 'a story', the solution that is offered to the Carfaxes is equally romantical in its own way.
What is interesting is why she is listed as Doris O. Pocock on my copy and as Doris A. Pocock on some other copies as per this list. Applying Occam's Razor, I assume it was a mistake and that Doris A. Pocock, Doris O. Pocock and Doris Pocock are all the same person as it's a distinctive surname.
Edited on 24/2/11 for typos.
