Permanent Rose (Casson Family, 3)

Another in the series on the artistic Casson family by English writer Hillary McKay. Really delightful children's series, adroitly done and full of intelligence and heart. The deceptively straightforward writing style carries a payload of sudden emotion, and leads the listener or reader to imaginatively comprehend the larks, quirks, and dilemmas and crises the characters generate or and challenged by. Rose the youngest child is especially endearing, though each book focuses on all the family members in turn. I can't say huge amounts of praise, it'll turn into a book report. But my wife and I have been charmed, delighted, and moved by this series, and I think they should be added to the appropriate school recommended-reading lists anywhere. Start with the first volume, Saffie's Angel, to avoid getting out of sequence and marring the magic. When possible, read these books aloud to a child, you'll enjoy inflecting your speech line by line, as the children think, speak and act, and as the author interprets their world. One thing I do love about the English, they value cleverness, intelligence, awareness -- these books are droll, dramatic, poignant page by page, full of significance and emotion; but done in an understated style that makes the reader's imagination and comprehension stay engaged throughout. Nicely done Hillary McKay! Give them a try, you won't regret it.

Many years ago I read Saffy’s Angel, the first in the Casson Family series. In a review of that book I said that the Casson family is a family whose friend circle I hope would include me. They are a dysfunctional family, but dysfunctional in a wonderful way. After reading Permanent Rose, I deeply hope that I would be worthy of her personal friendship. Anyone who is lucky enough to pass Roses friendship test will have a fierce friend, indeed.Permanent Rose, by Hilary McKay, has many satisfying subplots related to her just as fascinating siblings. The main plot deals with the now eight year old Rose dealing with the loss of one of those who earned her friendship, and the efforts of another boy to win her friendship—a boy she happens to loathe.The friend she lost was actually a classmate and friend of her older brother. He was lucky enough to earn a place in the Casson friendship circle. Tom was from America, living for a time with his Grandmother in England. He became fast friends with Indigo and with Permanent Rose even though she was six years younger. When he left suddenly back to America due to an illness in the family, it was, to Rose, as if he had died. For unknown reasons he never wrote or called to give them his number and address. In this story, Rose is in mourning. Her grieving leads her to act out in worrisome ways that her family misses, but David doesn’t.David was in a school gang who tormented the gentle Indigo mercilessly. David was a hooligan. As he put it when he thought of the things he had done to others, “I’m surprised no one died.” All of those things happen in a previous book, Indigo Blue. In this book David has a change of heart and seeks out friendship with Indigo. This is shocking to the Cassons, but Indigo being Indigo allows David a place even against the advice of his siblings—especially Rose.With all the other interesting things that happen in this book, the core story revolves around the development of Rose and David’s relationship. If Rose is a fierce friend, she is a fiercer enemy. I found myself deeply touched as David comes to know himself through the eyes of Rose. This book has Rose’s name, but it is just as much about David’s personal journey. It’s a journey that has the odds stacked against it. It’s a journey that changed me as I experienced it.Permanent Rose is rich with humor and feeling. In the Casson’s, Hilary McKay creates a family unlike any I have ever seen in literature before. In Permanent Rose McKay creates and articulates relationships that makes me think more deeply about my own. Once again McKay has made my life richer and fuller.

Well, this is a pleasant surprise. After reading “Indigo’s Star,” the preceding book in the Casson series, I decided to go on to “Permanent Rose” but wasn’t sure if I would continue with the series after that. “Indigo’s Star,” after all, was a bit of a letdown, and I thought “Permanent Rose” might go the same way. But darned if I didn’t like this one almost as much as “Saffy’s Angel.” No, I still don’t adore the series, but this installment did such a good job of building those little yet important moments that I think I’ll seek out “Caddy Ever After,” after all.In the wake of Tom-from-America’s departure, the Cassons are searching for what to do next – and in some cases, they find it. Caddy finds herself engaged to her Darling Michael, the ponytailed driving instructor, but she isn’t exactly given to wearing her ring, or talking about wedding dates. Indigo takes refuge in playing his guitar and reading a very old book about another group of loyal friends. Saffron and her friend Sarah are busy trying to determine the identity of the former’s birth father (remember, her mother was Eve’s twin sister). Rose, however, is totally lost without her friend Tom, and all she can do is wait for messages from him and shoplift small items to fill her spare time. But she’s caught by David, former thug and would-be-friend of Indigo. Will he be able to help? More importantly – or rather, urgently – will any of the Cassons ever see Tom again?Now, when I began this book, I was in a skeptical frame of mind. I was worried that this book would turn into something like the last – cutesy twee obscuring all the best things about the Casson family, not to mention the insufferable Rose getting away with absolutely everything yet still intended to be likeable. But “Permanent Rose” was different. There was less cuteness and more genuine humor – but not really ha-ha humor, more like smile-on-your-face humor.Remember what I said about little moments? Here’s a real gem. Darling Michael notices that Rose is forever staring at the postman in hopes of a letter from Tom, so he brings her a different rose every morning (usually plucked from somebody’s garden). On one of these occasions, Michael happens to mention that he doesn’t enjoy his job as a driving instructor. Rose asks why he keeps it, and he says, “For money. Why d’you do the things you do, Rose?” Then, when Rose’s eyes are hooked once again by the postman, Michael answers his own question: “For love.” Subtle, simple, yet poignantly demonstrating that both of these characters want something they don’t have.Several of these little moments also center on David, the thug turned friend of Indigo. David is in awe of the Cassons, especially Rose, and he worries about the latter quite a bit. More than anything, he wants her to think he’s good for something, because no one else he knows does. At Sarah’s mother’s birthday party, Sarah offers David a piece of cake and tells him to make a wish. When he says he wished for Rose to be okay, she gives him another one, and he says when asked, “I wished Rose would be okay again.” He eats three or four more pieces, wishing sometimes for himself but always, at the same time, that “Rose would be okay.”And, of course, there’s Bill, the cynical patriarch of the Casson clan. The moments between him and Rose are wonderfully done. Rose has always been her father’s daughter, and as much as the two butt heads, they also can understand each other in fantastic ways. There’s a bit when Bill expects Rose to be angry with him, and his pleasantly baffled surprise that she’s not is sweet and fulfilling to see.Now, I still don’t adore the Cassons as some do. I still think the books try a bit too hard to be cute and different when it isn’t necessary. But this book, at least, hits the mark. I suppose I’ll have to go on to “Caddy Ever After” now – but somehow, I don’t mind it a bit.

日本語版で出ていた「サフィーの天使」「インディゴの星」を読んでカッソン・ファミリーにハマリましたが、日本語では続刊が出ていないようす…検索したら、原本のシリーズはかっこいいフォトカバーになり、価格も安くなっているので英語の本ではありますが思い切って買いました。時間はかかったけど、１冊読みきれました。児童書だからもあるけど、とにかく話のヒキがうまい！ぐいぐい引っぱられて、どんどん読んでしまいます。いろいろな事件が起こるけど、それは子どもの成長にかかわる小事件ばかりで、そんなに大変な事が起こるってわけでもないのにここまで読ませるのは、やっぱり作者の力量かな。家事をほぼ何もしない絵描きのお母さん、浮気っぽい長女、養子だということにいじける次女、おだやかな長男、末っ子は頑固者で天才画家のローズ。都会派のお父さんは別居中。こんな変り者ばかりのカッソン・ファミリーが、本を読むほどに好きになってしまいます。たぶんそれは、おたがいに好き勝手ばらばらなことをしているけど、カッソン・ファミリーの中には強い結びつきと愛がある、からだと思います。しかもそれは一般の家族によくある排他的な愛じゃなく、外のひとにも暖かく向けられる愛、ほんものの愛だから。読めば誰もがカッソン・ファミリーを好きになると思います。家庭の喧騒を嫌い、ロンドンに住んでる得体の知れないアーティスト父ちゃんが今回は好きになりました。しょーもない男だけどね。