E-Paper
Bittersweetness of life
In Jacqueline Wilson's book Clean Break, it is life that teaches the best lessons.
Clean Break
Jacqueline Wilson
• Price — £10.99
• Publication — Doubleday
Em loves it when her stepfather calls her ‘Princess Emerald’. She loves it when he gives her an emerald ring. She loves him. But the day that begins as the perfect Christmas for Em and her small half-sister, Vita, and half-brother, Maxie, ends in the revelation that he is planning to leave home. How many chapters must pass before Em learns that her ring is no more than glass and paste?
Jacqueline Wilson’s particular talent is to find a bittersweetness in the dysfunctional families she describes. Her books are both hard and marshmallow-soft. Her stories traverse the gap between childhood’s dreams and treats and messy adult realities.
In Clean Break, she commutes between love and desertion, fun and responsibility. She is especially good at writing about the gallantry of children, their determination to go on being children and having fun. But, at the same time, her children are often compelled to be more mature than their guardians.
Em is a nice, unselfish girl whose unhappiness is manifest in her comfort eating and in her jokes about looking like a hippo. The adults are well drawn. Wilson never spells out anything — she shows, but does not tell. The stepfather is a good guy with a bad conscience. The mother is a pretty, needy, grown-up child.
In Clean Break, it is life that teaches the best lessons. When Em tries to pawn her ring (she wants to treat her family to a holiday), she discovers it is worthless. But far from throwing it away, she continues to love it — it is her talisman. Jacqueline Wilson understands sentimental value.
