I have tried three times to capture the plots of the final installment of the Casson Family series, and find myself wholly unable to adequately capture the spirit of the novel in the usual way. This is, of course, not helped by the fact that I haven't reviewed the first two novels in the series, which introduce the chaotic and unique family members.
Each novel is named for one of the four children, who are themselves named after paint colours - second daughter Saffy (Saffron), only boy Indigo, youngest child Rose, who all live with their artist mother Eve in a ramshackle house, and oldest child Caddy (Cadmium), who went away to college.
Caddy Ever After is told in chapter format by each of them in turn, focusing on their particular concerns - Rose is misunderstood at school, and focused on her art projects; Indigo is worried about family friend Sarah, who can't go to the school's Valentine's Day dance because the tickets are only sold in pairs; Saffy, who feels she's failed her best friend, Sarah, in a time of need; and Caddy, who's getting married even though her family don't support the idea. Except for Daddy, and he really doesn't understand.
McKay writes child characters that are complex and real - Rose, in particular, thinks like young children think. Her novels are real, with the kinds of distressing events that affects families - parental abandonment, infidelity, disability, cruelness and bullying - but uplifting and triumphant. This is children's literature at its finest. - Alex
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