The clever girl
of the title is Stella, born in 1956 and raised by her single mother. Her
upbringing makes her fiercely independent, so when her mother remarries Stella
is not thrilled; within hours of moving into a brand new tract house with him,
she already knows she does not like living with him. Her luck with lovers is
bad; one disappears the day after he makes her pregnant; another dies while she
is pregnant with her second child. It seems that in all her relationships, no
child is raised by its biological father.
Told from Stella’s
point of view as a 50 year old woman, she writes with awareness of her mistakes
and misconceptions in the past. The chapters each tell of a different time in
her life and we watch her as she figures out life. She is a clever girl;
extremely bright and a lover of books- at least most of the time. Despite her
high marks, when she becomes pregnant the first time she leaves school and home
to do things her own way. After her frustration as a child of being under the
power of her father and mother, she makes sure that she is never dependant on
anyone again. She always pays her way. She also chooses her own family-
friendship and closeness trumps blood in her book.
A number of
reviewers have stated that they did not like Stella; I didn’t dislike her at
all but she felt rather remote to me. Even during her times of great loss I
didn’t feel her pain; she is a character so independent that she doesn’t even
need for the reader to care for her. But I liked the book. I couldn’t love the
book because of the strange disconnect from Stella (the other characters are
even more distant), but I thought it was very well done.
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