Eva Ibbotson! I have *so many* opinions and feels about her. I too would read the 500-page book on her relationship with Judaism -- or really anything biographical on her -- the bits I've picked up from wikipedia and the occasional autobiographical piece she's written online are fascinating. (Her father was a doctor in a fertility clinic, who was recently found to have fathered hundreds of the baies from the clini! -- I feel like this probably explains a lot. And her mother was a successful author and career woman, I'm curious about her novels.)
But yes, I'm with you on the thing where Ibbotson is *so compassionate*, up until the point where you notice the limits of her compassion. I think I noticed it first with the uncle in *Journey to the River Sea* who collects glass eyes, which yes is weird but I felt didn't get compassion. And the psychologist lady in *Madensky Square* who is Insufficiently Feminine and has facial hair! >:-( But her flaws are more noticeable because the rest is *so good*...
But yes -- I love her writing / settings / protagonists / side characters much more than her love interests/romance plots (who for the most part can defenestrate themselves as far as I'm concerned). I discovered *A Company of Swans* at age 14 and fell in love with the writing and story, but that was the only one of her books my library had in the YA section, so I didn't find the rest until I was in my 20s, none of which lived up to my memory of *A Company of Swans* (which didn't do as well on reread either). I really like her setups, but then I want more self-actualization and less romance.
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But yes, I'm with you on the thing where Ibbotson is *so compassionate*, up until the point where you notice the limits of her compassion. I think I noticed it first with the uncle in *Journey to the River Sea* who collects glass eyes, which yes is weird but I felt didn't get compassion. And the psychologist lady in *Madensky Square* who is Insufficiently Feminine and has facial hair! >:-( But her flaws are more noticeable because the rest is *so good*...
But yes -- I love her writing / settings / protagonists / side characters much more than her love interests/romance plots (who for the most part can defenestrate themselves as far as I'm concerned). I discovered *A Company of Swans* at age 14 and fell in love with the writing and story, but that was the only one of her books my library had in the YA section, so I didn't find the rest until I was in my 20s, none of which lived up to my memory of *A Company of Swans* (which didn't do as well on reread either). I really like her setups, but then I want more self-actualization and less romance.