The Far Cry by Emma Smith – #1949Club

Karen and I are unusually in sync with our club reads this time. Not only did we both visit Beverley Nichols’ All I Could Never Be earlier in the week, we are both finishing with Emma Smith’s The Far Cry. (Here are Karen’s thoughts.) Apparently I bought my copy in February 2012, so it is good to finally get it off the shelf – and it was nothing like I expected. This isn’t my first dance with Emma Smith. Years ago, I loved her childhood memoir and another memoir about working on the Grand Union Canal. They were written with a curious sort of confident naivety, and I didn’t know how that would translate to fiction – and, indeed, Smith only published two novels: The Far Cry in 1949, and a second in 1978. The heroine of the novel is Teresa Digby, who is 14 years old but often feels rather younger or rather older. She is a bit spoiled and petulant, but also worldly-wise and manipulative – and yet still an enjoyable, spirited person to be around. Perhaps we like her because she is so…