Gardam, Jane. Bilgewater. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1977.
Marigold Green is a wonderful name. Not so wonderful when your father’s name is Bill. Marigold adopts the unavoidable nickname of Bilgewater as a result (Bill’s + daughter = Bilgewater). As so begins Gardam’s story about teenage angst from the point of view of Marigold Green. Because her father is the housemaster to the boys of a boarding school, Marigold has a lot to be anxious about. Having lost her mother at birth, Marigold is naive when it comes to friendships, fashion, relationships with the opposite sex, and even alcohol. She had never seen drunk people before the age of 18. The one thing she does know is literature and many different works are reference throughout the story.
The quotes that grabbed me: “love had always made him sad” (p 9)
“Flowers in classrooms are as depressing as flowers in hospitals – they just emphasize the fact that you can’t get out and see them growing. Classrooms break your heart” (p 44).
“The frightful, pitiless games of hockey with me always running the wrong way” (p 201).
BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter “Jane Gardam: Too Good To Miss” (97). Pearl says of this coming-of-age tale, “…wonderful for adults who want to look back, from a safe distance, at the ups and downs of adolescence” (p 97).
~*LunaSea*~ 