OK - so I read it.
It wasn't bad. I gave it 3 stars because I liked what was behind it all.
The best thing about the novel was the title because it bounced around the prose on almost every page. What did Maisie know? What did she not know?
It's such a subject for discussion throughout because James cleverly leaves you guessing most of the time whether she knows anything at all, or she is just adaptable to whatever truth happens to arrive at the time. And she was
very adaptable - in all ways.
One of the things I found interesting was that Maisie's life should probably have been rather miserable. But James continued to portray her full of innocence and optimism (although her innocence may have finally been slipping towards the end).
I found the enormous tug of war for the rights to Sir Claude at the end of the novel rather baffling, especially when two out of three of the combatants were ready so quickly to quit him completely. But James leaves us hanging at the end doesn't he? We're left wondering whether Maisie could be happy with Wix - and is there some secret to Wix I didn't fully understand at the end there? And do we think that Sir Claude would likely be happy with Mrs Beale?
I confess that I care very little with what would happen to Maisie's original parents. They seemed to exist to elicit disgust.
I could have enjoyed the novel more if it wasn't for James' prose which felt tortured on almost every page. Additionally, he seemed to obscure meaning wherever possible. Very frustrating.
I don't think I'll bother with his
The Golden Bowl any time soon.