Hello and welcome back to the Freudian nonsense known as V.C. Andrews "Flowers in the Attic."
We last left our narrator, the twelve year old Cathy Dollanganger (seriously my spell check hates me every time I have to write that) and her three siblings being told that they would have to leave their comfortable Pennsylvania home to go and live with their mother's mysterious and obscenely wealthy parents after the death of their father.
Also apparently the Repo! Men are coming for all of their belongings.
Because 50's.
Chapter two opens up with Cathy and Chris having just finished packing their things and getting on a train with their mother and the demon-spawn twins (I do have a reason for hating these two - all will be revealed in due time) and riding off into the night, heading for who-knows-where.
Cathy and Chris spend a good bit of their train time speculating what their lives will be like when they move in with the wealthy grandparents and get to live like royalty.
"And I supposed I'd have my own maid to lay out my clothes, draw my bath, brush my hair and jump when I commanded. But I wouldn't be too stern with her. I would be sweet, understanding, the kind of mistress every servant desired - until she broke something I really cherished! Then there'd be hell to pay - I'd throw a temper tantrum and hurl a few things I didn't like anyway."
It's commentary like this that makes it nearly impossible for me to ever feel any kind of sympathy for this character.
"Looking backward to that night on the train, I realize that was the very night I began to grow up..."
The paragraph I just read before this sentence would suggest otherwise.
So they ride along into the dead of night, when finally the conductor comes and tells them their stop is coming up and asks if someone will be there to meet them - because it's the middle of nowhere at three o' clock in the morning.
Corrine, outstanding mother of the year that she is, assures him - after saying she knows the way, and she could find the house in her sleep, and she lives a few miles away - finally says someone will be coming to pick them up. Lady, if you were gonna flat-out lie, maybe do that first?
The train lets them off at a tiny platform and there's no one there to meet them. Obviously. They begin walking through the woods with Corrine in the lead with the suitcases and Cathy and Chris carrying the sleeping demon four-year-olds.
Corrine explains that she'll drop the kids off that night with their luggage, then walk back to the depot right after and take a train to the next town over, pick up her suitcases, and come back. Because of course. That makes perfect sense, doesn't it?
Cathy's narration claims that it sounded reasonable - but doesn't stop to question why the four of them are being brought to the house in the middle of the night and her mother wants to arrive by herself the next day.
As if that wasn't enough, when the older kids complain that they need to stop and rest, Corrine simply tells them to wake up the twins and make them walk, adding to herself:
"Lord knows they'd better walk outside while they can."
Jesus, Lady!
Cathy overhears this, feels uneasy, but ultimately gets over that momentary apprehension in the next sentence or so. Nice to see she's so easy going.
After that we get a good bit of exposition about Cathy's family and how charming her mother is and even though Corrine had "fallen from grace" she would surely charm and beguile her father into loving her again and writing her back into his will. She explains that the same routine was used on their father whenever he didn't want to spend money or was upset about something.
It's at this point I would like to point out, I could probably write an entire college essay on how Corrine's only skill is her sex appeal and she uses it on literally every member of her family to try and get what she wants ... but who has the kind of time for that?
After another page and a half of them walking and the twins waking up and complaining that they don't like walking in the woods when it's dark and howling about one thing or another, they finally reach the house and are ushered inside by a tall, imposing old woman wearing grey.
This is our first introduction to "The Grandmother" - and yes, she is referred to that way every single time.
She is described as being very tall and broad with stony grey hair tied in a very tight bun and dressed in grey taffeta with a diamond broach pinned at the throat. So... not the nicest looking lady.
Actually the casting for the movie adaptation from '86 was pretty damn perfect, save for the hair color
Those fans of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" know what I'm talking about.
Also in locating that picture I also found quite a few gifs of The Grandmother smacking the bejeezus out of several different characters, so we have that to look forward to.
The Grandmother leads them upstairs to a large but cluttered and very dark bedroom where the kids get ready for bed and Corrine tries to convince her mother that her children are perfect and wonderful and it's a good thing she can't hear any of Cathy's internal monologue because her argument would be out the window.
Cathy tried to put the sleeping twins in one bed like they had been at their old house, but Grandma Guillotine has a problem with that, claiming that the two older children can't share a bed. Corrine comes to their defense, claiming they're innocent and that's where we get the clunkiest phrase in the book that we get to hear over and over.
" 'Innocent?' she snapped back with a look so sharp it could draw blood, 'That is exactly what your father and I always presumed about you and your half-uncle.' "
Seriously, there's just something about the phrase "half-uncle" and their constant use of it over and over that... really just doesn't work. It's clunky and really doesn't pack as much of a punch as I think it's supposed to.
Corrine then pleads that if The Grandmother as such a problem with it, then she should give them separate rooms - because lord knows their giant mansion has enough of them, right? But The Grandmother claims that's impossible because this is the only room in the entire house that has it's own adjoining bath, and on that, I'm calling bullshit.
I skipped over a lot of the description in the beginning, but we hear again and again how huge and expansive and maze-like this house is and you're telling me that only one room in the entire thing has a bathroom attached to it?
Anyway, that bit of unbelievable nonsense aside, Corrine then says that her mother should just give the kids the whole wing since it can be locked at the end of the hall and no one uses this part of the floor anyway. Again, sounds reasonable.
Oh wait - before that is when The Grandmother tells them that they're going to be shut in one room for God-knows how long and they can't make any noise and have to keep the twins quiet because their Grandfather can't know that they exist.
Like y'do.
After that horrifying bit of news is dropped on them like an anvil, Corrine tries to reassure them it'll only be one night and then starts pleading for them to have the whole North Wing - which, again, sounds like an argument that should have been had before now.
" 'Corrine, I make the decisions here - not you! Do you think I can just close and lock the door to this wing and the servants wont wonder why?' "
Yes. Because it's your house.
Corrine argues again and The Grandmother starts gnashing her teeth at her... because I guess people really do this - and says to give her time and maybe she can think of a reason to close down the wing.
The kids are obviously worried, but Corrine tries to, once again, reassure them that it'll only before a short time - a week at the most - until she can win back her father's love. This is the exact opposite of what The Grandmother has been saying right in front of them, but hey, kids don't listen to grandma, apparently.
She asks them to be brave and reminds Cathy that her father loved her very much, and so does she, then drifts over to Christopher to whisper something in his ear that'll probably fuel his Oedipus complex even more.
They all say goodnight and get into bed, and that's where the second chapter leaves us.
I'll probably go chapter by chapter with each recap unless absolutely nothing happens in one of them or they're really short. Most of what we've gotten so far has been a lot of exposition with very little action or real events actually happening.
Until next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment