I don't quite know why, but I really thought this was going to be about pioneers. I was really ready for pioneers. Homesteading, etc. Plenty Porter is still historical fiction, as it's set in the 1950's, and while the Porter family does farm, it isn't quite the book I expected. Especially the ending. I Did Not See That Coming.
Plenty Porter received her name because, as the 11 and youngest child in her family, when she was born, her father said that 11 was Plenty. Sure enough. Things just work out for Plenty. She finds a watch belonging to her neighbor which ends up making her friends and giving her an education, which in turn, gives her access to what she really wants: books. Lots of books. All the while, her family is struggling to make ends meet and to cope with the fact that her sister Marcie is very ill, and no one knows why.
Brandon Noonan, in striving to create an original voice in Plenty used more clauses than I've seen in anything that I wasn't forced to read by one of my many musty literature classes. I've flat out never seen the word 'which' used so much. It was a round about way of language and a little difficult to become accustomed to. I considered bailing a few times, and I might have, were I not unsure of the rules for the Challenge regarding abandoning novels. I'm actually rather glad that I didn't, as it was interesting to see how everything fit together in the end.
Reading this, and not having read summaries or reviews (which I really do try to avoid with books I think I'll actually read), I was a little surprised to see that this was a teen book as it was reading much younger. It makes sense in the end, but what Noonan was doing was introducing all of the elements of the larger mystery and playing them off in a 'moments-in-a-young-girl's-life' manner. I wasn't at all prepared for what was actually going on.
Reading: 222 pages in 2 hrs 48 minutes
Posting: 35 minutes
2 comments:
Guess what?? I am his cousin!!
neat!
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