14. Crusoe’s Daughter

By Jane Gardam 

Crusoe’s Daughter (1985) been on my list for some time with this short description:  Book-loving girl lives with 2 isolated maiden aunts by Irish Sea; off-beat female British writer.

This is obvs in my wheelhouse, so imagine my delight when I found a used copy somewhere for 8 bucks (can’t remember where exactly).

In 1904, six year-old Polly Flint goes to live with her two spinster aunts in their house by the sea, near a village so isolated that she “might have been marooned on an island”.  And there she stays for eighty-one years while the century raged around her.

This was my first book by Jane Gardam, apparently a well-loved but less well-known author compared to her contemporaries (like Maeve Binchy maybe).  I wonder if it’s because Gardam didn’t start writing fiction until well into her forties, though she had a career in journalism and the book industry.  Crusoe’s Daughter is one of Gardam’s earlier works of adult fiction (she began writing books for children) and according to her, is her personal favourite among all the books she has written.

Crusoe’s Daughter was simply a lovely and lovingly written book; the kind of book that you can curl up to under a wool blanket with a hot mug of tea.  There were some really nice reviews on Goodreads that pretty much encapsulated how I felt, so will just paraphrase them here (and save myself some time!):

   Northern England, 1904, and young Polly Flint is brought to stay and to be raised by her two very Christian aunts. Books are her solace and Robinson Crusoe her favorite. Throughout the years she would turn again and again to this book, so identifying with him and his situation.
   She would very seldom leave the island again, due to circumstances, tragedies and obligation. She would compare the plight of being a woman as being stuck and imprisoned, like her hero Robinson Crusoe.
   Although she would seldom leave, history would be brought to her, World War I and II, would both change her life in various ways.
Although this is an early Gardam, her wonderful writing ability, which would only get stronger in subsequent books, is already apparent. Beautiful descriptions, especially of the marsh, humorous passages, quirky characters and a story that covers over six decades in very few pages.
   A profound and entertaining look at a young woman's survival, her fight to find a life for herself within the limitations and tragedies inherent in her situation. Enjoyed this very much. Made me want to re-read Robinson Crusoe.

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It's hard to write a review for a book I loved so much because I want to gush over it. I have read a couple of other Jane Gardam books and loved them, but this one really resonated with me on a very personal level. In short, Polly Flint read "Robinson Crusoe" as a child and used him as a guide for her life. She was marooned with two very religious maiden aunts in a house by the sea, but created a landscape for herself from the fiction she read. It's a book about how fiction can save us, and how we can also get lost in it if we're not careful. Like Crusoe, she finds her Friday who helps to save her from an island of her own making. Eighty years in the life of a woman who uses a book written in the eighteenth century to navigate her life in the twentieth. Wonderful!