L. A. K. (owingsreader) reviewed on 2/7/2012 + 6 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

One part "Jane Eyre", one part "Rebecca", with a bit of "Smilla's Sense of Snow" thrown in, this 1950's-1960's re-do of "Jane Eyre" is well-written and heartfelt. The description of Gemma's early years at school, where she longs for an education but is stymied by bullies and forced into working as an unpaid scullery maid, are vivid and heartbreaking. Later she journeys to the Orkney Islands to work as an au pair for Hugh Sinclair, a charismatic banker/landowner with his own secrets. Their relationship seems natural and unforced, a mutual attraction between two desperately lonely people. The other characters are not so well drawn, however, and while the addition of a Heathcliff-like estate manager may help along the plot, it adds little to the story in my view. I've always thought "Jane Eyre" was a book about how suffering and being tested crystallizes belief--in oneself, in God, in truth, and finally, in love. "The Flight of Gemma Hardy" is also about a journey to self-understanding, but painted in the more muted colors of a modern era where women have more choice and control over their destinies, and where true love is not the final destination but a stop along the way to self-fulfillment.

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