Cat in the Mirror, by Mary Stolz
A children's fantasy timeslip novel about a modern girl in New York and a girl in ancient Egypt, who may somehow be the same girl. This was a re-read of one of my favorite childhood novels. I've re-read it a bunch of times, though not recently, and it holds up.
Erin, living in New York City in 1975, has problems. She's bullied at school, has what are clearly panic attacks though she has no idea what they are, and is forever fighting with her glamorous mother, Belle, who is confused and annoyed by her weird daughter. Erin loves her father, Peter, a businessman fascinated by ancient Egypt, but while he's loving to her when he's there, he's often gone and avoids conflict when he's present. She loves cats, but Belle won't let her have one.
Erin's sources of comfort are the straight-talking housekeeper Flora, and her slowly budding friendship with the new boy at school, Seti, who is Egyptian. (Not, as he keeps having to explain, a descendant of the ancient Egyptians.) There's some excellent low-key comedy when the school bullies decide to make a movie set in ancient Egypt, and Seti quietly places bets with himself over exactly how cliched it will be.
This is all very sharply observed, with lightly sketched but real-feeling characters. Because Erin, her father, and Seti are interested in ancient Egypt and it's being discussed at school, there's a lot of discussion about ancient Egypt and its beliefs. It's interesting in its own right, but also works as characterization because the characters are personally invested in it for various reasons.
The bullies alternately mock Egypt and think it's cool because it's a vehicle for their own status, Belle points out (correctly!) that it had slavery and (arguably) that all they cared about was death, because she dislikes her husband having interests other than her. Peter, who wishes he'd been an Egyptologist instead of a strike-breaking businessman, argues that the slaves were relatively well-treated and that the preparations for death were because they loved life and believed that it continued after death. Seti, who has an analytical frame of mind, notices the contradictory beliefs in both a perpetual afterlife and reincarnation, with people working their way up through animal forms and back to human over a 3000-year timespan.
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Erin, living in New York City in 1975, has problems. She's bullied at school, has what are clearly panic attacks though she has no idea what they are, and is forever fighting with her glamorous mother, Belle, who is confused and annoyed by her weird daughter. Erin loves her father, Peter, a businessman fascinated by ancient Egypt, but while he's loving to her when he's there, he's often gone and avoids conflict when he's present. She loves cats, but Belle won't let her have one.
Erin's sources of comfort are the straight-talking housekeeper Flora, and her slowly budding friendship with the new boy at school, Seti, who is Egyptian. (Not, as he keeps having to explain, a descendant of the ancient Egyptians.) There's some excellent low-key comedy when the school bullies decide to make a movie set in ancient Egypt, and Seti quietly places bets with himself over exactly how cliched it will be.
This is all very sharply observed, with lightly sketched but real-feeling characters. Because Erin, her father, and Seti are interested in ancient Egypt and it's being discussed at school, there's a lot of discussion about ancient Egypt and its beliefs. It's interesting in its own right, but also works as characterization because the characters are personally invested in it for various reasons.
The bullies alternately mock Egypt and think it's cool because it's a vehicle for their own status, Belle points out (correctly!) that it had slavery and (arguably) that all they cared about was death, because she dislikes her husband having interests other than her. Peter, who wishes he'd been an Egyptologist instead of a strike-breaking businessman, argues that the slaves were relatively well-treated and that the preparations for death were because they loved life and believed that it continued after death. Seti, who has an analytical frame of mind, notices the contradictory beliefs in both a perpetual afterlife and reincarnation, with people working their way up through animal forms and back to human over a 3000-year timespan.
( Read more... )
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