Flowers In The Attic Readalong – Part The First

What a trip to come back from oh-so-wholesome LauraPalooza 2012 only to realize that I had some smutty work to do.

This will serve as a stream-of-consciousness conversation starter about the V.C. Andrews classic. I am dying to hear what you all think. Think of this as the book report you would never dare write.

Summary: Um, four Dollanganger children live the perfect, charmed, perfect, charmed, perfect, charmed life. Until one black day when their blond father dies in a car crash. For some reason their mom decides to take them to her parents’ house, where she locks them up in an attic while she works on convincing her dad to leave her his millions. There is a wicked grandmother, lots of bathtub scenes, and sex talk.

Tone:  Golly-lolly, the tone of this book! I once referred to it as “porn for 12-year-old girls,” and my opinion has not changed. It reads like an entry from a pulpy diary written by a preteen. (Isn’t that the point? Except wait, isn’t it written “in retrospective” by “a woman”?) The entire book has a certain breathless cluelessness, like a puppy dog bumping into the walls with excitement to tell a truly sordid, ugly and mainly inexplicable tale. Such masterful language as:

She took bacon and eggs from the refrigerator, then turned to take me in her arms.

should not be ignored. Modifiers are missed, participles dangle, adjectives crowd together. There are glimpses of good writing in there (on rare occasion). You have to dig within tortuous sentences, however. Example: “Why, you could even see how each strand of hair pulled her skin up in little resentful hills—and even as I watched I saw one hair spring free from its moorings!” (Italics mine: I like the description.)

Themes:  Lest you think the incest begins later in the book, we are disabused of this notion by approximately page 2, which brings us images of Daddy “warming our lips with his kisses” and promising his daughter he will never transfer his affections to another. Oh, and Mom’s boobs and curves are sooooooo alluring. And Chris! He is tall, handsome, blond, and hawt. Ew.

Incest not be enough to get you through this? We’ve got some sadism for you as well. The grandmother (who apparently has a much more minor role in this book than kid Erin remembers) is convinced the Dollanganger kids are the devil’s spawn. No wonder she puts images of hell on their walls, threatens them with beatings, lashes the mother, and doles out food in miserly doses.

What on earth is up with the professions of adults? PR person for a computer manufacturing firm in the 50s? Secretarial school, with those confounded scribbles and confusing typewriters? People named Bartholemew Winslow?

And let us not forget the traits of not-quite-3-dimensional characters. Momma (horrid spelling) breezes through, a blowsy specter. Cory and Carrie (seriously? I keep envisioning Carrie as the half-witted Baby Carrie of the Little House series) throw random tantrums, then are sweet. Mary Sue Cathy is a crackerjack ballerina. And Chris is a doctor! Or maybe he just likes to play doctor?

Things I Noticed: It is really weird to take time to read something that was pawed through and inhaled as a child. I’m surprised at how compelling some of it managed to be despite the lamentable writing. I’m surprised at all of the little details that have come back to me…the swan bed (golly. lolly.), the kids locked in a cupboard watching an over-the-top party that is a child’s imagining of what rich people do, the unnecessary details of the gifts Momma brings.

But enough about me. Next time I’ll talk about fiction and truth, the true identity of good old V.C., and whether I blushed when I heard what happened on that stained mattress. Now it’s your turn. (We will discuss Part II on August 6.)

 

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Comments & Responses

  • Stacey

    Holy crap the writing is so brutally awful. And I had forgotten about the swan bed…I love the endless descriptions of things at the height of 70s taste but supposedly happening in the 50s. I am haunted by the description of Bartholomew’s mustache. Also? I am fairly horrified that I already know I’m going to have to read the rest of the series now….

    • http://www.theheroinesbookshelf.com Erin Blakemore

      YES! The movie is the equivalent of watching one of those 50s 1860s movies you see where for some reason all of the women in hoop skirts have Peter Pan collars and flip haircuts.

      • http://www.facebook.com/meetlauraingallswilder Melanie Stringer

        This very comparison is why I love you, Erin. Even if you did call LP “oh-so-wholesome.” Bonnets, beer, and karaoke. ‘Nuff said.

        • http://www.theheroinesbookshelf.com Erin Blakemore

          Hey. I didn’t say WE were wholesome.

    • http://twitter.com/Jarileigh419 Julie Smith

      The writing is from the viewpoint of how this 12 year old girl is percieving the world & what is going on around her….of course the writing reflections that. Cathy is older in the next book, and it’s by far the best of the series.

  • http://twitter.com/eleanorwrites Eleanor Brown

    I am so glad you proposed this read along. I agree that it’s fascinating to re-read a book like this as an adult. So here are some of my random thoughts.

    1. What is UP with the new cover? It makes it look like a beach romance. All over the world, teenage girls are being traumatized. At least the cover I read (with the cutout) made it look like horror. This looks like a Sweet Valley High book!

    2. Also, I am distressed that my bookseller had it in the YA section. That’s kind of stupid, because I (and it seems everyone else) read it as a young teen, but to market it as such is just….odd.

    3. I had totally forgotten that incest runs in the family. Also the mother is completely inappropriate from the beginning. “…our mother spun around and the black chiffon of her negligee flared like a dancer’s skirt, revealing her beautiful legs from feet to hips.”

    4. Chris is creepy. My recollection was that they fell into this incestuous relationship after being locked up in the attic for years, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. In Part I he’s all lurking in shadows watching her dance.

    • http://lifemerging.com/ Melissa

      There are so many books in the “YA” section that I take issue with — books that weren’t YA at all until some marketing department decided YA should exist as it’s own genre. I mean, Pride & Prejudice?! To Kill a Mockingbird?! YA?! 

      • http://www.theheroinesbookshelf.com Erin Blakemore

        Eh. This only is a problem if you don’t like YA (and if it keeps these books off the radar of adult readers, which I think is even more dangerous). I’m excited to have young readers access such books (though of course THIS book is totally inappropriate…and most of us read it when we were approximately 12).

        • http://lifemerging.com/ Melissa

          I love YA, but I think there is a danger in calling something YA that turns adult readers off. Of course, any early VC Andrews novels in YA is weird. Later works published under the Andrews name were far more YA (and much shorter) — one series was about orphans. Part of the appeal when I was 12 is that I thought I was reading something forbidden, I also read Stephen King around the same time…my parents really didn’t pay attention to what I was reading!

    • http://www.theheroinesbookshelf.com Erin Blakemore

      New cover: I know. I KNOW! This is not a beach read about people holding hands and falling in love. Plus, the old covers were like irresistible lures for a preteen. You’d look at them and know that this was a steamy, lurid Gothic romance/horror story, which it was.

      YA: I know, too. But what adult would read this voluntarily…? :)

      Incest: Dude. Momma is clearly THE villainess of this story (how was that not clear in the past? Especially given my proclivity to see all stories as parent/child struggles?). And Chris is really a perv. The thing that amazes me is that she writes all of it off as just his normal boy ways.

      • http://twitter.com/Jarileigh419 Julie Smith

        I think 4 children living in one bedroom, with the attic to play in, at those particular ages I can easily see this happen without Chris being a Perv. But you have to get so psychological to explain it. So i don’t know if the average reader will ever be able to understand. It was the circumstances that pushed them together, Chris saw his Momma disappearing in the beginning, ANY type of extreme stress can cause people to latch on the nearest, most appropiate person of the opposite sex & confuse the stress with love.That is the non-technical version. Real Life Example:Christie Brinkley married the guy she was in the helicipter crash with, then later found they had nothing in common.

  • http://twitter.com/eleanorwrites Eleanor Brown

    Oh, FFS. I hit enter or something. Anyway, there’s more!

    5. Yes, the writing is so, so bad. Especially the dialogue. Here’s 14-year old Chris: “…and keep our house and our furnishings?” WHO SAYS FURNISHINGS? Also, “You just wait and see my discoveries!” Though my fave may still be, “Cathy, you’re twelve years old and it’s time you grew up.” Completely agreed. I’m sick of all those 12-year olds complaining that they can’t understand the global energy crisis because they’ve only been sentient for a decade. Grow up, kids.

    6. Do we think Momma had good or bad intentions at the beginning? I’d forgotten how quickly she starts ignoring them.

    7. What do we think the underlying message of this story is? I’m especially wondering about portraying religion as this dark, evil thing through “the grandmother”. There’s even the scene where Momma gives the kids a very confusing and age-inappropriate lecture about religion and sin.

    To be continued….

    • http://www.theheroinesbookshelf.com Erin Blakemore

      Writing: I highlighted so many lines. Don’t you die to know who edited this thing?

      Momma: I’m really not sure what her intentions are. She seems like a totally reactive, psychotic person. I think she was easily swayed by money and the return of her old, comfortable lifestyle (and probably had some kind of lingering trauma from her own incest life).

      Underlying message: That is a GREAT question. At first I thought it was “evil lurks around every corner,” and now I’m starting to think it’s something like “shit happens and we can survive it and overcome it despite all odds,” which is really…not much of a message in this context.

      • http://www.facebook.com/meetlauraingallswilder Melanie Stringer

        I would argue that the underlying message is:
        A) Make sure you get yourself enough education and skills to never have to rely upon someone else for financial security
        –AND–
        B)Take out a hefty life insurance policy on your incestispouse, because one day there might be a horrible “accident” that saddles you with four (apparently unwanted) children and a lot of bills to pay. And shopping to do.

    • http://twitter.com/Jarileigh419 Julie Smith

      Chris was a book worm….I didn’t find that word out of character, for, as he is described by Cathy a regular guy on the outside, but a book worm, (nerd) at home at the beginning of the book. I think the Mother was in shock in the beginning & just trying to get a roof over her 4 kids head with no income. Once she got there & saw all that would one day be hers…..she gradually became more and more corrupted. Unlike the other comments I’ve read, I think the Momma went to secreterial school, then thought….work my butt off to starve to death, or have power & money? It’s very easy to see how she came to that conclusion. There were also the undlying issues between Corrine & her Mother, she wanted to get over on her Mother by inheriting all that money. It was something that drove a wedge between them since she was a young girl.The Grandmother has to have a reason for being so crazy/mean….a religious zealot interpreting the Bible only as she sees fit so that all her behaviors are covered by “The Lord”. I think it was just the writer’s choice in the antagonist b/c it plays perfectly against the sin & sex backdrop of the Mother & Father, Cathy & Chris.

  • http://twitter.com/eleanorwrites Eleanor Brown

    8. V.C. Andrews never met a piece of foreshadowing she didn’t like.

    9. Wait, my favorite line is, “Lunch without cookies was an abysmal thing.”

    10. Chris is really kind of unpleasant. I am fond of Cathy’s reaction to
    his lecture on snails: “Christopher, when Cory and I want to know about
    a snail’s tubular intestines, we’ll send you a telegram, and please go
    sit on a tack and wait for it.” (This is my new favorite insult.)

    11. Good golly-lolly.

    12. Oh, here’s some more inappropriateness with mom and Chris: “…draw his head against her soft, swelling breasts, and let him drown in the sensuality of being cuddled close to that creamy flesh that must excite even a youth of his tender years.” What is WRONG with these people?

    13. I don’t recall (and maybe I never noticed before) how much of a parental role Cathy and Chris are taking on to the twins, and I’ll be interested to see how that influences their sexual relationship.

    14. Wow, golly day!

    15. Like Erin, I remember hating the grandmother, but this time through I’m totally hating the mother more. Sure, the grandparents are sadists (the whipping scene is horrific on all kinds of levels), but the mother is just so, so awful and cruel.

    • http://www.theheroinesbookshelf.com Erin Blakemore

      This reminds me: What is up with the parental fetishization in this book? There’s so much staring at Daddy’s lovely chest, longing to have Momma’s heaving curves, etc. It’s like it’s impossible to have a non sexually charged relationship in that family. Also, the grandmother actually seems reasonable at times (am I saying this?) given that her psychotic daughter has breezed into town and charged her with the impossible and that she’s a terrifying moral paragon with a sadistic streak.

  • http://twitter.com/eleanorwrites Eleanor Brown

    I had forgotten about the swan bed too. And what’s going on with the baby swan bed? This family has clearly been askew for generations.

    • http://www.theheroinesbookshelf.com Erin Blakemore

      Never have there ever ever ever been as many exclamation points as in the swan bed description. And…OMG INFANT SWAN BED! I totally forgot about that! Do you think it’s supposed to be some kind of reference to Cathy since she danced Swan Lake?

  • http://lifemerging.com/ Melissa

    Reading the comments and your post makes me want to re-read it, too!

    (A comment on the bad writing…as a whole, our love of bad writing has never gone away. Look at the popularity of Twilight and Fifty Shades — the writing isn’t great. At all, but are your average Americans in it for the writing or the STORY — creepy stories are best!)

    • http://www.theheroinesbookshelf.com Erin Blakemore

      Read it! Read it! You know you want to… :)

  • Jmndowning

    I remember reading this book as a teenager and thinking it was the best book ever.  A few decades later, I am astounded that I thought this was good! 

    The writing is Horrible.  Yet, I simply couldn’t put the book down.  (a little like 50 shades. I hated that book from the start, yet I could not put it down.  I keep reading books expecting them to get better and end up disappointed when they don’t.)

    I too found Chris to much creepier this time around.  I left the book thinking, well if he couldn’t have his precious Momma, he would take Cathy instead.  The guy just likes the women in his family a little too much. 

    And as for Momma, maybe because this time around I am a mother myself, but I found her more destable then the Grandmother.  I can’t imagine doing what she did, for any reason what so ever.  What a selfish woman!  This time I around I also really noticed how much she flaunted her freedom in front the kids with all her outings and clothing purchases.  Just detestable.

    I’d love to know if when Flowers In The Attic came out if people realized how awful it was, and was astounded by how many copies it sold, like 50 shades. 

    • http://www.theheroinesbookshelf.com Erin Blakemore

      This is cracking me up. I, too, was stunned by the awfulness of the writing…AND COULD NOT PUT THE BOOK DOWN. I am unsure of why…I didn’t even expect it to get better. I think it’s just so lurid and like a trainwreck unfolding.

      Chris and Momma were totally boyfriend and girlfriend there for a while, right? She should have just run away with him.

      I wonder if Momma has actual motivations at all. She really seems like a potentially quite compelling character, but at the same time very poorly drawn so we don’t really get what makes her tick. And I wonder if the flaunting of all of the clothing, etc. is more of a “let’s drool over RICHES” type of thing on the part of the author?

      I will delve into reception of FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC in the next installation. Because…there has got to be a reason this thing has been on shelves so long. I don’t think it ever went out of print.

  • Stacey

    I love that there is the minutiae of every day….until it jumps like two years.

    Also, they have the worlds most perfect family…except that Momma doesn’t seem to grieve for more than a half a minute for her dead husbuncle.

    I also believe that my willingness to adore and forgive Chris for his creepy behavior when I was a preteen must be in direct connection to my imagining Hamas Christopher Atkins from The Blue Lagoon, and therefore, too adorable to dislike.

  • http://twitter.com/_karenbee_ Karen Bee

    Golly-lolly day! I like how you referred to this as “porn for 12 year old girls”, because that’s how old  I was when I first read it. And it’s BAD. I can’t believe I used to read all these books. 
    The parental fetishism and ongoing incestual overtones going on here really make me think that even if the kids hadn’t been locked up in the attic, they would have made some … questionable … life choices.
    I think the most obnoxious part for me was Momma telling the whole story about falling in love with her husbuncle and wanting them to understand. And instead of being a normal kid with a normal reaction, Cathy’s all “Fairy tales can come true!”
    Uh – what?

    • http://www.theheroinesbookshelf.com Erin Blakemore

      Well, with a mother like that there is basically no way the kids could have turned out anywhere near normal.

  • http://www.facebook.com/wendy.mcclure1 Wendy McClure

    One of my favorite parts is the police officer’s amazingly long and freakishly detailed description of Daddy Dollanganger’s car accident. I can’t remember it enough to quote it, just that the cop is all, “Sorry to ruin the birthday party, but let me tell you about ALL the chances your husband had to survive the accident if it hadn’t been for that truck, and then that other truck, and then the car went into a ravine, and then it caught on fire….”

    I know it’s supposed to be tragic, but it’s just awesome.

    • http://www.theheroinesbookshelf.com Erin Blakemore

      YES. I loved the guest who immediately started to babble about “OUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED.” Who invited her?

    • http://www.theheroinesbookshelf.com Erin Blakemore

      PS I keep envisioning Momma as the hoey Fantasy Island incarnation of Alison Arngrim.

  • http://careysbookproject.wordpress.com/ Carey

    So, unlike most of y’all, I never read FITA in my tween years, but I so wish I had. This was my first time reading it. The writing was horrid, but that is part of the fun, don’t you think? For some reason I had always assumed it was set in the 70s, so I was rather surprised to note it was set in the 50s. I think Momma was initially driven to the family estate out of desperation, but then very quickly became seduced by the money and life style that she could have only if she continued to keep the children hidden. I doubt she ever actually went to secretary school, but why did Chris and Cathy stop asking her about it once she stopped talking about it? Were they really that mesmerized by her that they didn’t think that it was odd that after awhile she never brought it up again? The Grandmother (and I love that they called her “The Grandmother”) was a b*tch, but Momma was certainly the real villian of this tale!

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