Friday, December 04, 2009

2009 book 250

Penelope Farmer's Charlotte Sometimes
Although I couldn't find the books I was looking for when I was home for Thanksgiving, I did grab this one, which I loved when I was younger and hadn't read in years. It's an interesting look at identity, about a girl who starts boarding school only to find herself swapping places with another girl from 1918 in the nights. She gets stuck in the past, playing the part of the other girl, due to WWI, and she and her counterpart's sister have to find a way to switch them back. (I think I like books about inadvertent time travelers mistaken for people from the past--cf The Devil's Arithmetic--are there others?) I was looking up Farmer online--this is apparently one of three books about this character, but I've never read the others and they're not in print--and discovered that this is the revised edition from the 80s and is missing a chunk of the ending. Man, the 80s were so lame! I really want to read the real version now. Also, though I've never talked to anyone else who read this, apparently it inspired a song by the Cure and the name of some other band.

1 comment:

k8 said...

Ohhhhhhhh, Charlotte Sometimes. Excellent choice! I remember the atmosphere of that book so very well.