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26 Nov

‘The Stepdaughter’ by Caroline Blackwood – Fiction and Real Life

Posted November 26, 2024 by Anokatony in Book Reviews. Tagged: , .

 

‘The Stepdaughter’ by Caroline Blackwood        (1976) – 94 pages               

 

I have never read so hostile or negative a description of a child character in a novel as that which J uses in ‘The Stepdaughter’ to describe her 15 year old stepdaughter Renata.

“It is difficult to describe how she manages to be so disturbing, this Humpty Dumpty of a girl. She gives one the feeling that somewhere in the past she took such a great fall that everything healthy in her personality was badly smashed.”

“The thing that Renata lacked so painfully was the very smallest grain of either physical or personal charm.”

J even describes how Renata uses so much toilet paper that the toilet overflows and the stuff gets on the floor and she has to call the plumber.

“Renata’s problems seemed so insoluble that one starts to feel such a fierce impatience with her that although I have to admit it one often has a longing to try to damage her even more.”

Perhaps it is the way she has been burdened with this stepdaughter that causes J to be so hostile toward her. Her husband Arnold went off to Paris leaving behind his daughter Renata from a previous marriage. Now Arnold has sent a letter from Paris saying that he wants to leave J. He now has a girlfriend. So J is stuck with Renata.

“If Arnold imagines he can start a new and beautiful life with his new and beautiful French girl, I can think of nothing more guaranteed to soil and smash his idyll than the arrival of this ungainly and unhappy girl who has survived the debris of her father’s two former marriages.”

I won’t write anymore about the plot of ‘The Stepdaughter’. I found this epistolary novella to be very well written and quite moving. What I do want to write about is the backstory of this author, Caroline Blackwood which somehow explains this novella.

Caroline Blackwood was born into the Guinness family, owners of the Guinness Brewery, so she was fabulously rich from the beginning. As a young woman, Caroline was known as a somewhat wild socialite who hung around with that other wild socialite, Princess Margaret, younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II. Later Caroline was married to three famous husbands, the bohemian artist Lucian Freud and the pianist/composer Israel Citkowitz and the famous American poet Robert Lowell. It was during this last marriage to Lowell, that Blackwood took up writing fiction.

The poet Robert Lowell had severe manic depressive episodes for which he often had to be hospitalized or institutionalized. His previous wife Elizabeth Hardwick figured it must have been during one of these manic episodes that Lowell took up with Caroline. Ultimately Lowell did divorce Hardwick and married Blackwood. However Blackwood could not deal with his mental problems, and Lowell died of a heart attack returning to the home of Hardwick.

On her deathbed, Caroline Blackwood confessed that one of her children she had while married to her second husband Citkowitz was not his child. After you read ‘The Stepdaughter’, you will understand that when Caroline Blackwood wrote this novella ‘The Stepdaughter’, this must have been on her conscience.

“Mother felt that, as it was, women, had to do all the work for children – Arnold had no right to make a big fuss about whether her child was his or not.”

 

Grade:    A        

 

13 responses to this post.

  1. Janakay | YouMightAsWellRead's avatar

    Posted by Janakay | YouMightAsWellRead on November 26, 2024 at 9:13 PM

    Enjoyed the review as always! Blackwood is such an interesting writer & personality, isn’t she? I’m definitely drawn to tales of dysfunctional relationships, particularly if they include black humor & are written by someone with such an interesting life! I’ve been intending to read The Stepdaughter for quite some time now but . . . so many books etc. I HAVE read Blackwood’s Great Granny Webster, another novella with a punch, which I enjoyed (perhaps not QUITE the right word; found “very absorbing,” maybe?). I also have a copy of Blackwood’s Corrigan, which (so embarrassing) I can’t remember if I’ve read.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Anokatony's avatar

      Posted by Anokatony on November 27, 2024 at 12:56 AM

      Hi Janakay,

      Here is an article written by Thomas Mallon about the Hardwick/Lowell/Blackwood triangle that really got me interested in ‘The Stepdaughter’:

      https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/16/marriage-betrayal-and-the-letters-behind-the-dolphin

      Thomas Mallon is one of my favorite US writers of both non-fiction and fiction. I wish he would come out with more fiction.

      This was my first Caroline Blackwood, and I guess I was pleasantly or more accurately, unpleasantly, surprised.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Janakay | YouMightAsWellRead's avatar

        Posted by Janakay | YouMightAsWellRead on November 27, 2024 at 1:28 AM

        Thanks for the link! I had read a little about this oh-so-interesting triangle (think it was from an intro or some such to Hardwick’s writing) but had missed this article. I agree that Mallon is a very good (and interesting) writer. The only thing of his I’ve read was Henry & Clara, which I loved. Oddly enough, however, I’ve never read any of his other novels nor was I aware that he was well respected for his essays & other non-fiction.

        Liked by 1 person

        • Anokatony's avatar

          Posted by Anokatony on November 27, 2024 at 7:24 AM

          Thomas Mallon tends to write historical fiction about recent history such as Watergate, the Reagan years, Bush, etc. These eras don’t interest me much, so I haven’t read much of his fiction besides ‘Henry and Clara’ and ‘Dewey Defeats Truman’.

          A long time ago, I subscribed to the New Criterion just to read Mallon’s book reviews, so I still look out for his writings. He used to be a conservative Republican for which I forgave him. Apparently he quit the Republican Party in 2016.

          Liked by 1 person

  2. Cathy746books's avatar

    Posted by Cathy746books on November 27, 2024 at 11:40 PM

    I didn’t know that bit of biography about the parentage of her child Tony. Certainly explains The Stepdaughter!

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Rach's avatar

    Posted by Rach on December 2, 2024 at 2:10 AM

    Great review, certainly a book I would be interested in reading!

    Like

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