AIBU To Think Joey Maynard (Of Chalet School Fame) Was Insufferable

[TheShellBeach]

.............with her eleven children, infuriating husband and bizarre tendency to move house (and country) to live next door to the school her sister inexplicably started when Joey was a child.

She also managed to write (at least) two books a year, have a series of multiple pregnancies and poke her nose into the Chalet School's business on a daily basis.

I agree. If it had been over two books (ie Jack's death announced in one, but reappears in the second) I'd think she just had second thoughts.

I think one of the heads does have doubts, but it's more that can Joey cope if the twin "sees" that he's dead.
I'd have thought Joey's Catholicism would have prevented her from listening/believing if nothing else.

I read an interesting theory once (can’t remember from who) that the difference between child Joey and adult Joey was down to untreated PTSD / mental health issues from the escape from Austria.

I’m sure that’s not what EBD intended but it would make a lot of sense if Jo’s frantic clinging to the school was due to mental illness and a desire to return to an idyllic childhood. It also might explain why everyone went along with it - in reality, my guess is the staff would have long since banned her and her husband would have refused to move with the school at some point.

P.S. Yes, I do know she’s not actually a real person

Wasn’t that vaguely the approach of the Book Loathed By CS fans, Chalet Girls Grow Up? Joey was off her rocker, Jack was suicidal, Len was in an abusive marriage with ghastly Reg, and Mary-Lou was doing the dirty with ghastly Reg?

Bloody hell, maybe I do need to read CGGU….
Was Griselda really such a common name in England at the time, seems unusual for such a central character, especially without EBD ever remarking on it, she was normally a bit name obsessed.
Also a quick google reveals the mythic figure Griselda was renowned for her patience and obedience, not much like EBD’s!

It’s kind of grim kitchen-sink realism, so highly unlikely to appeal to the more devoted type of CS fan, who actually likes Mary-Lou raising her eyes up to the hills, everyone’s mad fertility and ‘quoth Joey breezily’ every few lines.

IS Grizel’s name in fact Griselda? I always thought that was just Joey giving her a nickname of an associated name. She’s never referred to as anything other than Grizel by the narratorial voice, is she? I’ve always found it both unusual and ghastly.

CGGU is badly written. The syntax is shit.

The plot is good, though I quite understand why Chalet fans don't like it.

In one of the books she specified that it’s pronounced Grizelle, not Grizzle. I’d always thought of her as Grizzle.

Griselda was an uncommon name but not unheard of.

I wonder if EBD knew a few Griselda’s in real life.
That might explain her never remarking on Grizel having an unusual name in the books.

Grizel is a really interesting character - she goes through a few typical Chalet School redemption arcs in the early books which we're told we'll soften her (School at the Chalet/Head Girl) but they never seem to last that long as she's regained her 'hard character' by the time the next book comes along. Joey's attitude to Grizel never seems consistent either. In one book Joey says to Grizel that they are 'more than ordinary friends', in another they had never been close as their characters were too dissimilar, or something like that. I can never completely work out how EBD views her.

In one book Joey says to Grizel that they are 'more than ordinary friends', in another they had never been close as their characters were too dissimilar, or something like that. I can never completely work out how EBD views her.

I always wondered about that too. And sometimes she seems to think she’s very close to someone but they don’t see it the same way - she thinks Joey’s asking her to be chief bridesmaid but then Joey says ‘Rob will be that’ and another time, I think it’s Juliet but I’m not certain, she says ‘I’ll be your bridesmaid’ and whoever it is says no, she’s having someone else (I think Joey & Robin). I felt sorry for Grizel both times.

Grizel is very well written. Her early childhood would have been traumatic. Wasn't she shipped off to her Grandmother after her mother died, then suddenly ripped away from her Grandmother when her father remarried (having neglected to tell the second Mrs. C about his daughter until she came to live with them). She was then emotionally neglected (at the very least) by her parents. The poor girl must have had attachment issues?

It's possible she viewed kindness as real friendship, when to the other person, it was kindness/friendliness they would have shown to anybody.

That’s why I think she’s actually quite a weirdly and inconsistently-written character. Absolutely she’s got a lot of neglect and lack of love in her background, and in many ways she’s ‘dumped’ on the CS just as callously as Juliet is. But Juliet gets a fairly standard ‘problematic new girl redeemed by CS —and eventually the love of a total drip’— redemption arc, Grizel is never really redeemed till the end of the series. She has these moments (running away in Head Girl, setting Len on fire and emigrating), but EBD doesn’t push it through, and Grizel goes back to being hard and discontented till she finally catches the eye of an eligible doctor in pretty much the last novel.

Which is of course realistic, but EBD isn’t a realist writer, generally — she deals in classic school story tropes and types and plot arcs, and the CS does conquer all, even, eventually, villains like Thekla and Betty Whatsit, who wore headscarves sluttily and leaked secrets in wartime.

I wonder why she didn’t manage to recuperate Grizel into one of her redemptive arcs?

Yes, Grizel was a bit of a hopeless case, wasn't she? I wonder if EBD based her on someone she knew and disliked?

The difference between Juliet and Grizel is that Juliet's parents died so she was wholly raised by Madge after that whereas Grizel's parent's didn't die and carried on making decisions for her that weren't in her best interests. Grizel was bitter, understandably.

Yes. She might well have been far happier if she’d had the same status as Robin and Juliet.

Almost certainly. There were a lot of awful parents in the CS series. I feel a little sorry for her stepmother. Almost certainly she would have walked away on the spot in 2023 but in 1925 she probably had no choice but to remain with him. Not that it excuses how she treated Grizel, of course!

Wasn't it only after her Father died that Grizel was able to quit teaching? (To move to NZ and for Deira to nick her boyfriend).

It's sad right from the beginning that the only person at home that Grizel was close to was the cook.

I missed (or forgot!) that Deira nicked her boyfriend!
Yes- didn't she want to be a PT teacher, but her father insisted she study music instead?

It was that or cut off her allowance IIRC

Deira might have just nicked the bloke she fancied rather than her actual boyfriend, it's ages since I read Reunion because it's very annoying.

Yes. Fascinating how times have changed in regards to women/girls rights! Part of why I like reading "older" novels is the social history aspect.

I doubt EBD would have written about boyfriends or people nicking them at all, so perhaps just someone she fancied. I don't remember much of the later Swiss books, they were all so dull!

Angel definitely gets her boyfriend nicked in the Lorna books but it's told to us quite subtly.