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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

The Because Fiction Podcast
The Because Fiction Podcast

Taking the pulse of Christian fiction

Episode 215: A Chat with Henry O. Arnold
byChautona Havig

I had a chat with actor and author Henry O. Arnold a while back, and boy did we have a lot of fun. His Song of Prophets and Kings series features the advent of Israel’s kings from Samuel’s birth through David hiding from Saul (so far) and onward. Listen in as we chat about his most recent release, The Singer of Israel.

 

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

What Made David Such a Man after God’s Heart?

I think this series will show us. I love that Henry O. Arnold started back at Samuel’s story to prepare us for the story of arguably the most influential king of Israel. Yes, Solomon was the wisest and richest, but David offered something that Solomon didn’t have. He was an average guy—a shepherd, no less—chosen by God to lead his country.

In a sense, it’s kind of the ancient Jewish version of a poor, everyday guy growing up to become President of the United States. If you know what I mean.

This five-book series is available as an eBook, in print, and as an audiobook, too! Henry read a snippet of it to us, and boy you get a feel for his love of Scripture and God’s people as he reads.

And if that wasn’t enough, he even gave us a hint of his upcoming Christian suspense/thriller “series. He says he has two books planned for sure, so… at least a duology, but maybe we can talk him into a trilogy at least? Get those odd numbers and everything?

The Singer of Israel by Henry O. Arnold

A singer’s voice inspires a troubled nation…A shepherd’s courage vanquishes a giant

The last official act of the prophet of Yahweh was to secretly anoint a replacement for the king of Israel who has been brought low by an unbalanced mind. The great prophet of Israel lives in fear of the wrath of the king. Then out of the hills of Bethlehem emerges the last-born son of a family of shepherds to become the unforeseen hero of Israel.

When David sings of the glory of Yahweh, this shepherd wins the hearts of the royal family and restores King Saul’s troubled mind. But when the singer/shepherd defeats the champion of the Philistines in single combat, David becomes forever known as “the giant slayer.” Saul quickly sees that David is now a threat to his kingdom and secretly plots to have him killed.

David may be the champion of the people of Israel, but he must live under the constant threat of Saul’s wrath until he is finally forced to flee for his life.

The Singer of Israel is a tale of triumph and tribulation, deepest love, and burning rivalries; the new epoch is given a voice…and it is The Song of Prophets and Kings.

You can learn more about Henry on this WEBSITE.

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