This is not a book that I enjoy reading for the story - I am not too wild about the title either! The plot is rather contrived, and I don't find the American scenes and characters very convincing; they don’t hold my attention at all and I have nothing to say about them. Amy Lee herself becomes much less interesting once she grows up and moves to the USA too.
The many references to parts of north London in the early chapters of the book are another matter; I love to read about places that I know very well.
Just as Michael de Larrabeiti’s detailed descriptions of Battersea and Wandsworth came from personal experience, so did Stella Gibbons’s descriptions of places such as Highbury and the Holloway Road.
My American opens with a description of the beauties of Hampstead’s Kenwood House and its grounds, which Stella Gibbons obviously liked very much as she mentions Kenwood in several of her other novels.
The most relevant and significant aspect is what this book says about the personality, outlook, behaviour, problems and experiences of a developing young writer and about writers and writing in general. Stella Gibbons makes some very insightful comments from time to time. Some of this material may be autobiographical; some of it may be wishful thinking!
I detect a few more examples of Stella Gibbons’s white magic too.
While most of Stella Gibbons’s other books - apart from The Shadow of a Sorcerer - inspire little or no commentary, My American is full of relevant and quotable material, some of which comes very close to home.
My American opens with a description of the beauties of Hampstead’s Kenwood House and its grounds, which Stella Gibbons obviously liked very much as she mentions Kenwood in several of her other novels.
The most relevant and significant aspect is what this book says about the personality, outlook, behaviour, problems and experiences of a developing young writer and about writers and writing in general. Stella Gibbons makes some very insightful comments from time to time. Some of this material may be autobiographical; some of it may be wishful thinking!
I detect a few more examples of Stella Gibbons’s white magic too.
While most of Stella Gibbons’s other books - apart from The Shadow of a Sorcerer - inspire little or no commentary, My American is full of relevant and quotable material, some of which comes very close to home.
It is a book that is partly boring, partly annoying, partly painful and partly fascinating to read.
It even contains a few amusing passages.
Amy Lee as a child
The story starts in 1928; Amy Lee is 12 years old and living in Highbury.
Amy Lee as a child
The story starts in 1928; Amy Lee is 12 years old and living in Highbury.
At this stage in her life, Amy Lee is not pretty or attractive; she is cool, reserved, guarded, secretive and wary; she appears dull and quiet; she is shabby and has a neglected air. She is young for her age in some ways and old in others.
She is an only and a lonely child; her beloved mother has been dead for a year and her father, who is a gambler, drinks a lot, pawns his watch and gets behind with the rent and often leaves her on her own, never wanted and doesn’t much care for her. He thinks that she looks like a little old woman; she keeps out of his way as much as possible.
Amy is responsible for the shopping and cooking - mainly frying and opening tins - and keeping their lodgings tidy.
Amy’s father often leaves her to her own devices; she finds solace in reading, researching, collecting material and writing long exciting adventure stories. She started writing around the age of six. Her mind is full of imaginary people and she usually has a writing-related project on the go.
Although she doesn’t get much pocket money, she spends most of what little she has on books from the second-hand bookstalls in the Charing Cross Road.
Lying and hiding
A major element in Amy Lee’s personality is the compulsion to protect her inner world and hide her writing from almost everyone around her. She is afraid of being shattered by misunderstanding, opposition and criticism. Spending much of her time reading is barely acceptable, so admitting to writing would make her situation much worse.
“Her father and Old Porty, Dora Beeding and Mrs. Beeding, and even Mona, her nearest approach to a best friend, were always picking on her about her accent or teasing her, trying to organize her spare time or worrying her to tell what she did in the evenings with the sitting-room door locked.
Against all such intrusions into her secret life she had no weapons except deceit and lies, and naturally she used them. By the time her mother had been dead a year, she was rapidly developing into a sly little girl.”
Anyone who has experienced criticism, harassment and being pestered with unwelcome demands from people who just cannot understand that some introverts need to be left alone with their inner world will feel for Amy and understand why she would lie about how she was spending her time.
She also tells lies to protect herself, fob people off and get them off her back:
“Scarcely a day passed on which she did not tell a lie or deceive somebody by keeping silent when most girls would have spoken, but she deceived and lied so naturally that she never felt guilty about these attempts to keep bullies at bay, and idly inquisitive people out of her secret world. Since her mother’s death she had bitterly learned that a child is not even safe if it keeps still, and quiet, and tries not to upset people.“
That last bit is sad but true.
Amy frequently lies to her teacher about needing more rough note-books for her schoolwork: she actually uses them for her stories.
When out on one of her self-imposed assignments, she deflects kindly enquirers in places such as museums by telling them that she is making notes for a school project when they are really for one of her stories.
The love of solitude
Amy Lee is the sort of person for whom solitude is essential:
“Her love of her secret world, her love of being alone, had grown in the past two years to a passion. Day by day she cared less for people and more for imaginary pictures so strong that they were more like feelings or dreams than ideas inside her head.”
She hates going to places with her classmates as this distracts her from appreciating the attractions.
When her landlady Mrs Beeding’s extroverted and intrusive young daughter Mona invades her privacy, Amy switches off and doesn’t listen to the non-stop monologue; she blocks it out because it does not interest her at all.
There is also the problem of feeling over stimulated and overloaded:
“She had had enough of the Beedings. For nine hours she had never been out of the company of some sort of Beeding, and as her natural air was solitude, she was beginning to feel desperate with the need to escape.”
Anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed and trapped while surrounded by a lot of noisy people will feel for Amy.
Some serious problems for Amy Lee
Amy Lee’s life changes when her father is killed not long after the story starts. She has to go and live with the noisy Beeding family. She has to find a way of continuing to read and write while hiding her activities from them.
Things are looking bleak:
“The Beedings have got me now, she thought, and I’ll never be able to get away. It will be awful. If I say can I go upstairs to the flat for a bit they’ll say “What for?” And Mona’ll want to come too. And where can I write The Mummy’s Curse without them seeing and wanting to read it?...And where will I sleep? If I have to sleep with Mona I swear I’ll kill myself, I’ll keep on buying ether for a toothache and save it up until I’ve got a whole jug full and then drink it. And where will I keep all my things? Oh, it’s going to be dreadful. What shall I do?"
Preferring to die rather than share a bedroom with a noisy, intrusive girl sounds melodramatic and extreme, but it is how some people feel when faced with the unbearable prospect of being forced to live a life that is all wrong for them.
Amy will have to endure her new life for some years, at least until she is old enough to leave school.
Amy Lee with the American boy she meets at Kenwood on her 12th birthday:
