'The Saturdays' by Elizabeth Enright

MY THOUGHTS: 

I discovered this treasure in a secondhand bookshop when I needed a bit of cheering up. It's the first novel in a series about the four Melendy siblings, who live in New York City around the late 1930s or early 1940s. Their widowed father is a writer and lecturer, and their warm-hearted housekeeper, Cuffy, holds down home base, pretending to have a short fuse although they know her patience is bottomless. The pragmatic handyman, Willy Sloper, is almost a member of the family too, since neverending maintenance work, especially on the temperamental furnace, keeps him always nearby. 

The four kids each receive a weekly allowance which is welcome but limited. One day they come up with a brilliant egalitarian idea. Each week they will pool the total and take turns on Saturdays doing something more grandiose and expensive than they'd ever be able to afford separately. 

Aesthetic and whimsical Randy (short for Miranda), kicks off by visiting an art gallery exhibition where she makes a stunning discovery about somebody they thought they all knew well. The following weekend, her mischievous and musical brother, Rush, attends an opera and makes an unexpected friend who ends up being a life saver. Next, their eldest sister Mona, pushes the boundaries with an impulse that shocks her family. Then the youngest, little Oliver, decides to break out as a rebel by making a sudden circus trip. 

This is just the sort of vintage juvenile fiction I love. All the good-natured snarky comments never hide the fact that they all have each others' backs. Self-conscious Mona likes perfume to be so strong that people can enter a room 24 hours after you've left and still know you've been. Inquisitive Oliver hasn't learned his limits with food, and gorges until he busts. Resourceful Rush develops wonderfully sensible ideas about accepting charity, and dreamy Randy has a knack of discovering things that belong to her in a special way that has nothing to do with ownership. 

The adults are great characters too, with combinations of strengths and flaws. Somehow, it tickles my fancy when down-to-earth old Willy humors young Rush by discussing opera with him. When he finally tells his twelve-year-old friend, 'What you see in stuff like that is more than I can understand,' I had to laugh.

Perhaps Randy speaks for all of them when she comments that although their lives are probably pretty humdrum as a rule, somehow they never seem humdrum. They all have the fortunate skill of appreciating the small things, despite occasional bouts of boredom. 

Going on with the rest of this series is a matter of course.

I reckon these kids might've been born roughly the same time as my Dad, which gives me a buzz. Now I must add Rush and Randy to my favourite bro-and-sis bonds in classic lit. They even share the same dream one pivotal night. And if you do pick up the book, I think my favourite chapter is the one with the furnace. You'll instantly know when you get to that spot.

(Note: Its structure and theme reminds me a bit of this book which I read about a year ago, but I think the intentional nature of the Melendy family plan makes The Saturdays the superior novel.)

Look out for more of my reviews of The Melendy Quartet, which are coming soon.

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