Note: This was a book recommendation which I came across in another novel, often the best way of discovering new reading matter. Sometimes suggestions from fictional characters are worth following up even more than those from our real life friends. It happens that Jane Penderwick counts Finn Taverner, from this story, among her favorite imaginary book boyfriends. So when I spotted the spine at the secondhand shop, I thought I'd take my chance on it.
MY THOUGHTS:
Although published in the early 21st century, this YA novel has real vintage, steampunk vibes. The story starts in 1910. Maia Fielding is an orphan who's being sent out to the Carter family, distant relatives of hers who live along the banks of the Amazon River in Brazil and operate a rubber plantation. She looks forward to meeting their identical twin daughters nearly her own age. Maia is accompanied by the resourceful Miss Minton, who's been engaged as governess for all three girls.
Reality is a rude shock. It turns out Mrs Carter is a germ phobe who has transformed their home into a sterile bubble to keep out the tropical environment. Mr Carter is a creepy collector of glass eyes, and Beatrice and Gwendolyn's whole goal in life is to shun work and plague people. What's more, the Carter family has only agreed to take Maia under their roof in order to receive the financial benefits they'll be paid.
But Maia befriends two boys who are in dire straits of their own. Finn Taverner is the son of a deceased naturalist. He's doing his best to dodge two private investigators who are determined to take him back to England to claim an inheritance he doesn't want. And poor, wistful Clovis King is a young itinerant actor traveling with a crooked troupe who exploits him. Clovis' nostalgia for England is unrelenting. (I quickly anticipated a possible plot of intentional mistaken identity, but the story delivers so much more than that. Deception is brilliant when everyone benefits, including the dupes.)
The novel is a tribute to the Amazon jungles and rainforests, and the mighty river which sometimes seems to swell to the size of the sea itself. (Hence its title.) The pages are bulging with capuchin monkeys, manatees, alligators, sloths, umbrella birds and many other colorful critters. Yet Ibbotson provides a balanced view that it is not everyone's cup of tea. Clovis' hankering for British rainstorms, bread-and-butter puddings, and village greens is equally convincing.
A highlight for me is the influence of Miss Minton, governess extraordinaire, whose quiet, behind-the-scenes wisdom and manipulations are pure gold. She prioritizes spending her salary on excellent books, at the expense of her threadbare wardrobe and sparse personal effects. ('If you want something badly enough, you usually get it. But you have to take what goes along with it.')
Ibbotson's droll descriptions get my thumbs-up too. Those poor detectives, Mr Trapwood and Mr Low. 'Both their stomachs had become boiling caverns of agony and wind.' And the Carter twins are described as, 'pale insect grubs who exist only to be fed and groomed by others.'
So overall, Miss Minton's words hold true. 'Whether a place is a heaven or a hell rests in yourself, and those who go with courage and an open mind may find themselves in Paradise.' Yet at the same time, there exists a geographical and lifestyle sweet spot for every one of us, which we owe it to ourselves to discover if we possibly can.
I'm willing to track down more of Ibbotson's YA books on the basis of this one.
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