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Chautona Havig

Chautona Havig

Using story to connect YOU to the Master Storyteller

This Writing Technique Produced a Love-to-Hate Girl

by Chautona Havig · 7 Comments

Church breakdown about ten years ago.  I was using a carpet sweeper and chatting with the pastor. If I recall correctly, we were talking about Lorna Doone and how I loved hating Carver.  That’s when I said it.

“The best thing about fiction is that it’s not a sin to hate the bad guy.”

I totally cracked him up.  And when he realized I was serious… he laughed even harder.

But it’s true. There’s a certain catharsis in despising characters like Captain Hook and Jadis, The Queen of Hearts and Eustace Clarence Scrubb. I also take great satisfaction in seeing someone like Eustace change at the end.  We like that, too.

But of all the characters I loved to hate, Nellie Oleson probably tops the list.  Self-centered, snotty, rude, unkind… and best of all, though we didn’t know it as kids, an overachiever.

You see, Nellie wasn’t just two-faced. She was three-faced!

This Writing Technique Produced a Love-to-Hate Girl

Note: links are probably affiliate links that provide me with a small commission at no extra expense to you.  Additionally, I requested a review copy of this book and chose to review it.

This Writing Technique Produced a Love-to-Hate Girl

I noticed it first in the Anne of Green Gables movies.  Several characters from the books ended up combined into one in the movies.  It reduced the number of necessary characters while still showing personalities and events that people would enjoy and recognize.  I’ve seen it used in other book-to-movie situations since.

But one of the first instances of it that I ever read was Nellie Oleson. As a girl, I loved the books—read them all.  As an adult, I reread them and other books that told about the Iowa years, what happened after Almanzo’s stroke, about their life in Missouri.  In one of those books, I learned that Nellie Oleson didn’t actually exist.  She was a combination of three girls who had antagonized Laura’s child and girlhood.

In The Three Faces of Nellie, we learn about the girls who gave us someone we loved to hate. Except that since she’s based on real people and events, I don’t think it’s right to let myself hate her.  Drat.  Just kidding.

This isn’t a storybook.

If you expected a compelling narrative depicting the lives of these three girls, you may be disappointed in the book.  This book was obviously written by and for people who are fascinated with the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Through meticulous research, Robynne Elizabeth Miller peels away the ambiguity surrounding these girls and lets us see who they were and why Laura Ingalls so disliked them.

One of the things I loved most about the book was reading the actual accounts of things I’d read as a story in the series.  So many are almost indistinguishable from the versions I’d read as a girl, while others are very similar but with different motives, or in the case of Nellie, people.

There has been some criticism of the dry factual nature of the book, and it’s valid—if you expected a story.  I didn’t.  I expected research on these people, and I got it.

Where my criticism lies is that there was actually more about the three Nellies’ families (parents and children) than there was about them.

Still, I think any LHOTP lover will find the book fascinating. 

It may not be one of those books that you read straight through on a Sunday afternoon, but it was fascinating to see both the information Ms. Miller discovered about each of these ladies and the research process she must have gone through to discover it all.

Recommended for genealogy buffs and Ingalls aficionados, The Three Faces of Nellie will never win awards for its riveting narrative, but it will keep you digging to know more about Willie (Owens) Oleson, about potential land fraud, and more!

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Comments

  1. Cari Shepard says

    December 9, 2018 at 3:41 pm

    Sounds like an interesting tale.

    Reply
    • Chautona Havig says

      December 9, 2018 at 4:53 pm

      It’s not a story, though. It’s research so a lot of people would find parts of it dry.

      Reply
  2. amyfields417 says

    December 9, 2018 at 1:18 pm

    This is on my to read list!

    Reply
  3. Kathy Jacob says

    December 9, 2018 at 12:15 pm

    I read this for the tour, and my thoughts on the book were validated by reading your review. Thanks for posting!

    Reply
  4. Ava Gunn Kinsey says

    December 9, 2018 at 11:06 am

    Why have I not heard of this book? Just about every year, I put a LIW-related book (or three) on my Christmas list to the in-laws (and then I buy it myself if I don’t get it), but I’ve not heard of this one.

    Reply
  5. realworldbiblestudy says

    December 9, 2018 at 10:40 am

    I loved LHOTP!! And, ok, I loved a straight up biography of Laura too, so this one would probably be right up my research nerd alley.

    Reply
    • Chautona Havig says

      December 9, 2018 at 4:54 pm

      If you lvoe research, you’d love it. I really enjoyed it myself. However, parts I just didn’t care about.

      Reply

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The Because Fiction Podcast

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Episode 262: Chatting about The Legacy of Longdale Manor with Carrie Turansky
byChautona Havig

Chatting with Carrie Turansky is always fun, but guys, this gal is such a trouper!  But with her newest novel (Split-Time!!!), The Legacy of Longdale Manor coming out, and with it taking place in the Lake District (we were probably there at the same time!!!), I am crazy excited about this book. Listen in to see what a shepherd’s crook has to do with art and two women, a century apart, who both are dealing with daddy issues that only a Heavenly Father can truly help.

 

Note: links may be affiliate links that provide me with a small commission at no extra expense to you.

What Heart Issues Connect These Two Troubled Women Together?

Carrie Turansky and I were both in the Lake District in May (we probably overlapped a few days even! AAAK!), and I love the area she wrote about. I actually looked up Langdale Chase (the house that inspired Carrie’s book) as a potential for a book I’m writing in the area. I had decided to move it closer to Ambleside. Isn’t it amazing how two authors can take the same inspiration and write two totally different books?  I love that. 

The faith elements she’s put into The Legacy of Longdale Manor just touch my heart so deeply. Any time you are dealing with a shepherd or fatherhood, I’m all in, and I can’t wait to see what she’s done with it. 

The Legacy of Longdale Manor by Carrie Turransky

Two women–a century apart–embark on a journey to healing, faith, forgiveness, and romance.

In 2012, art historian Gwen Morris travels to England’s Lake District to appraise the paintings and antiques of an old family friend, hoping to prove herself to her prestigious grandfather. While at Longdale Manor, she meets David Bradford–the owner’s handsome grandson–who is desperate to save the crumbling estate by turning it into a luxury hotel. When Gwen stumbles upon a one-hundred-year-old journal and an intricately carved shepherd’s staff similar to one in a photo of her parents, she’s left searching for answers.

In 1912, after her father’s death, Charlotte Harper uncovers a painful family secret she can only confess to her journal. She and her family travel to the Lake District to stay on a sheep farm, hoping eventually to find a home with Charlotte’s grandfather at Longdale Manor, but old wounds and bitter regrets make it a difficult challenge. As Charlotte grows closer to shepherd Ian Storey and rebuilds her shattered faith, she must decide whether she will ever trust in love again.

Learn more about Carrie Turansky and all the goodies for preordering The Legacy of Longdale Manor on her WEBSITE.

Also follow her on BookBub and GoodReads

BakerBookHouse.com has The Legacy of Longdale Manor on sale for 40% off with FREE shipping.  And don’t forget to go get your goodies, too!

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Episode 262: Chatting about The Legacy of Longdale Manor with Carrie Turansky
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