Ashley > Recent Status Updates

I’ve been enjoying Flavia’s precociousness but just hit a snag that’s disappointing. I acknowledge that this book is set in 1950, but it just referenced a character “dressing up” to “be” Chinese, similar to Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. This racial insensitivity may be historically accurate, but it’s off-putting in a 21st-c book, especially as one that so subtly questions gender norms.

I know we’re supposed to dislike Fanny, or at least find her flippant, but she remains a delightful foil to the very proper Amy. Consider how she ends her letter to Amy: “My husband always sends his love to you; and as for my baby if it does not love you I will disown it.”