Review by New York Times Review
With guidance from Charlotte Brontë, the heroine of Margot Livesey's novel goes in search of herself. WHEN Margot Livesey was 9 years old, growing up motherless and lonely in Scotland, a book on her father's shelf caught her eye: "Jane Eyre." Livesey's discovery of Charlotte Brontë's masterpiece was transformative. The promised friend between the covers, a character whose indomitable spirit has consoled and inspired readers for over a century and a half, allowed Livesey to understand that "life is change." "Like Jane's, my life had changed for the worse," Livesey wrote in an essay a few years ago, "and like hers, it could also change for the better. Time would, irrevocably, carry me to a new place." And back again. "The Flight of Gemma Hardy," Livesey's appealing new novel, is, as she has explained, a kind of continued conversation, a "recasting" of both "Jane Eyre" and Livesey's own childhood. Set mostly in Scotland in the late 1950s and '60s, the narrative follows the fortunes of a young girl, Gemma Hardy, who is beset by bad luck. Born to a Scottish mother and an Icelandic father, she was orphaned by the age of 3, when she was taken from Iceland to Scotland by her mother's brother. There her original Icelandic name was discarded. As the novel opens, 10-year-old Gemma's beloved uncle has also died, and her cold, snobbish aunt is sending her off to be a "working girl" at a harsh boarding school. Standing on a train platform en route to the school, Gemma realizes that "no one within 50 miles knew my name, or my whereabouts. I too could disappear, blown away iike the dry leaves I saw skimming down the tracks." Locating the people who will know her true name, her true self, becomes Gemma's quest. Although she does make one school friend, it isn't until she is almost 18 and accepts a position as an au pair (governesses, she is told, "are out of fashion") at a manor house in remote, windswept Orkney that such a person materializes: who else but thundery Hugh Sinclair, master of Blackbird Hall. As evidenced by novels like "Eva Moves the Furniture," which featured a pair of ghostly female characters, Livesey is drawn to literary gambles, and there's no question that modeling her new book on a classic is a risky move. For the most part, she succeeds. It's a delight to follow the careful dovetailing of the two novels - starting on the rainy day when both stories begin, with each heroine in a window seat, finding solace in the pages of an encyclopedia of birds. Livesey is a lovely, fluid writer. There's much pleasure to be had in her descriptions of neolithic sites in Orkney and, most of all, her abiding affinity for the natural world: "the limpet's frill of muscle" found while the young Gemma pulls shells off the rocks in a windswept cove, the "gleaming scar" on a beech tree that has lost the branch where a rope swing once hung, the experience of "retrieving two warm eggs from a drowsy red hen." It isn't, however, until the final third of the novel, when Gemma, risking her own life, is forced to leave what she loves and act independently, that "The Flight of Gemma Hardy" becomes its most satisfying self. Here Livesey's reach is extended - she too must leave what she loves - and we stop ticking off her clever updatings of "Jane Eyre," lulled by the sense that we know just what will happen next. Gemma's act is life-altering, and so the geologically complex landscape of Iceland seems a fitting place for her to experience that change. "I saw the twisted black rocks, the pointed shapes of old volcanoes," Gemma tells us, adding that "the countryside was wilder and emptier than any I had ever seen." For Gemma, this is strange terrain indeed, and yet some part of her knows it well: it's where she was conceived, where she was first named and first loved. Only by returning to such archaic places and taking conscious flight from them, Livesey seems to imply, can we hope to marry what we were to what we are, and to find ourselves truly air- (or is it Eyre-?) borne. Sarah Towers teaches creative writing at the Bard Prison Initiative.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [January 22, 2012]
Review by Booklist Review
The talented Livesey updates Jane Eyre, changing the setting to Scotland and the Orkneys during the 1950s and '60s but taking care to home in on the elements of this classic story that so resonate with readers: a resourceful orphan makes her way in an uncaring world and not only endures but also triumphs. Despite readers' familiarity with the story line, they will be held rapt as Gemma Hardy, orphaned at age 10, is taken in by a loving uncle only to lose him, too. Her aunt so cruelly shuns her in the wake of her uncle's death that she looks forward to attending boarding school, but her status as a working girl means that she has little time for her schoolwork, often laboring to the point of exhaustion. Still, Gemma's high intelligence and fierce resolve see her through many difficult experiences until she lands a dream job as an au pair on the isolated yet beautiful Orkney Islands. There she meets the family that will change her life (minus the madwoman in the attic). A sure bet for both book clubs and Bronte fans.--Wilkinson, Joanne Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Inspired by Jane Eyre, Livesey (The House on Fortune Street) offers vibrant prose and a feisty heroine in her fascinating sixth novel, set in Scotland in the early 1960s. After 10-year-old Gemma Hardy's parents die, she is taken in by a kind uncle, much to his wife's dismay. When her uncle dies, the novel takes on shades of Cinderella as Gemma (who had been accepted by her cousins) is made into a scullery maid. Though her aunt attempts to break her down, Gemma works hard in school, earning a scholarship place at the Claypool boarding school. Again little more than a slave, Gemma learns how to survive among the working girls. When the school closes, Gemma takes a position in the Orkneys, where she will live at the estate of the mysterious Sinclair and look after his wild niece, Nell. She and Sinclair fall in love, but Sinclair has a secret that drives Gemma to change, as well as inspiring her to trace her Icelandic roots. Although guardian angels and kind strangers turn up like an army of deus ex machinas, these plot missteps don't detract from Gemma's self-possessed determination. Captivating and moving, this book is a wonderful addition to Livesey's body of work. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Any novelist attempting to reconstruct a classic faces a monumental challenge, and basing a book on Jane Eyre is no exception. Livesey (The House on Fortune Street) rises to that challenge by creating an original tale set in mid-20th-century Scotland and Iceland that follows the life of Gemma Hardy, a determined orphan seeking answers to questions about her past. Like Jane, Gemma is both proud and principled, but there is a definite modern twist to her character. While romance plays a prominent role in this story, Livesey's tale centers largely on Gemma's internal journey and her physical trek. Within the classic framework, Livesey molds a thoroughly modern character who learns to expect the best of herself and to forgive the missteps of others. The author has a gift for creating atmosphere, most clearly demonstrated in her descriptions of the scenery during Gemma's travels. -VERDICT This original slant on a classic story line captures the reader's interest and sustains it to the end. Fans of modern interpretations of the classics will particularly enjoy. [See Prepub Alert, 8/22/11.]-Catherine Tingelstad, Pitt Community Coll., Greenville, NC (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Jane Eyre," says Livesey (The House on Fortune Street, 2008, etc.) about her new novel in the foreword. However, this story bears more than a passing resemblance to Charlotte Bront's immortal classic. Poignantly narrated, Livesey's tale opens in late-1950s Scotland where, after her uncle's death, harsh new conditions are imposed on 10-year-old Gemma by her cartoonishly callous aunt and cousins. Sent to horrible Claypoole School as a working pupil, Gemma becomes a lonely, bullied drudge until befriended by asthmatic Miriam, whose sad death gives Gemma the power to endure. After the school's closure she moves, now almost 18, to a remote Orkney island, to work as an au pair caring for Nell, the unruly niece of taciturn banker Hugh Sinclair. Love and a surprise proposal follow, and it's here the story parts company most noticeably and least convincingly from Jane Eyre. Shameful secrets, foreign travel and a quest fulfilled follow, before Gemma finally establishes a future on her own terms. Nicely, touchingly done, and the familiar story exerts its reliably magnetic pull, but fans of Jane Eyre will wonder why.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
