Chalet Girls Grow Up
WARNING: contains spoilers
I know CGGU is seen by some to be written as though the author hates the CS. I don't think that at all. I think it's actually very well-thought out, if a bit overdramatic in places in best EBD tradition. It's just very bleak - it's been grounded a bit too well in reality, if you ask me.
Take Len and Reg, for instance. What would you expect to happen when a sheltered Catholic schoolgirl marries a much older man who is repeatedly described in Jo Returns as having a chip on his shoulder? Especially when Reg's boss is Len's father. So when the story opens, the San has started to fail as TB is virtually eradicated in Europe, Reg wants to move to America, and he and Len have 4 kids (2 boys and twin girls). Reg feels stifled by the kids but Len as a good Catholic doesn't believe in birth control. We have some episodes of domestic violence (including marital rape) with heartbreaking scenes where the eldest son tries to protect Len. Then Mary-Lou appears back on the Platz and she and Reg fall in love. It's not written as 'Mary-Lou the manstealer', but rather that Reg admires her for what she's achieved (with incredible double standards because he never gave Len the chance to achieve anything or to really grow up and establish herself as an adult). That all rings pretty true to me. What Merryn Williams seems to be missing there is that Mary-Lou is unfailingly described as kind. She would never have done that to Len, IMO.
The other main thing is that as soon as the action moves away from the Platz, it seems to lose the Chalet School flavour. The character Con becomes doesn't seem at all like her, and I really don't like the portrayal of Margot, although I think her storyline is quite clever. It's more that Margot becomes really grim and humourless, which I don't think is right. In the real thing, she's always portrayed as quite light-hearted when she's not being jealous and/or raging.
After Jack kills himself, Len and Joey move to England and live in Plas Gwyn with Len's children. The most unrealistic part of the whole book is that Joey is totally sidelined - she goes slightly dotty, is dropped by her publisher but carries on writing books anyway, which pile up in her study. But she turns into a peripheral character who hardly ever makes an appearance. That just doesn't have the true ring to me - Jo the Ever-Ready, not centre of attention wherever she went? Especially when she could be busily being the most annoying granny that ever lived, telling Len what to do and how to cope?
Oh, and the School itself has to shut down - Sybil and Josette turn up to represent Madge's shares in the business, and refuse to vote to save it. Sybil because she's mercenary and wants the cash released, and Josette because she's decided single-sex boarding schools are anathema.
All in all, it was interesting but after a while you almost forget who the characters are supposed to be - they grow into quite boring middle-aged women who don't really achieve anything. It's quite realistic in that probably most people do just that, but it's nothing like reading EBD.