What Maisie Knew is a startling story about a childhood that was never allowed to be innocent. The setting is England in the 1890s. The novel opens with the nasty divorce of six-year-old Maisie's parents. By agreement, Maisie will spend six month alternating between the custody of her father and mother. Quite early it is obvious that neither parent loves the daughter, but values her only as a weapon to use against the other. Each parent remarries, and Maisie immediately develops a closer relationship with her two step-parents than with her natural parents, eventually bringing the two of them together.

What Maisie "knew" is both the theme and the content of the novel. It is told in third person, but entirely from her perspective. What Maisie "knows" about her parents' and step-parents' affairs also becomes a tool--even a weapon--which the girl can use to further her own interest.

Most of James's novels deal with innocent (or at least naive) Americans under the corrupt influence of Europeans. What Maisie Knew is an exception, since all the characters are English. But the theme of innocence corrupted is still there. The image of an unloved child in limbo between warring parents can be disturbing, and some might argue that no real child could handle the situation with Maisie's equanimity.

The language of What Maisie Knew is quite readable--not the "Mandarin" style of James's three post-1900 novels--though the verbal coyness of the characters' dialogue can sometimes be difficult to interpret.. The novel is full of wit to balance the often harsh emotions, especially when Maisie's overadorned mother comes on the scene. ( )

It's a difficult book but genius in construction. To me, the subject matter was more cringe-inducing than the writing. It's written in third person, yet purely from the POV of Maisie, who thinks she knows a lot but doesn't because she's a child, surrounded by manipulative and selfish adults who think they are worldly and cunning and know nothing of themselves or other people. It's about knowledge, lack of, gaining of, and it takes a while to get to the point where we can understand the novel. This doesn't lessen my love for Henry James. (Kind of increased it, actually.) The reader must remember that although none of the characters KNOWS the complete whole, James and the narrator does, and the creator is absolutely in control. Brilliant but understandably not absorbing. ( )

Painful. I choked down about 200 of the 280 pages and then couldn't take anymore.

At the risk of offending a Henry James afficionado (21-year-old goof or otherwise), I have to say, I am not a big fan of his. It's ironic, I love his friend Edith Wharton and will have to type up a few reviews raving about her. All this negativity gets me down.

Anyway, Henry just always seems to get in the way of himself with his own commentary, and his books, including this one, are way too dense. 10 year old fruitcake dense. Osmium dense. George W. Bush dense. (Hey if I'm going to offend, why not cast the net wide :-) At his best his character's dialogue speaks for itself; unfortunately, this is rare, and at his worst, his long, awkward sentences need to be re-read to be remotely understood.

But I'm sure it's just a personal taste thing and I'll be promptly corrected by a legion of erudite James lovers.

What I liked about "What Maisie Knew":

1. Concept of writing about divorce and awful adult behavior through a child's eyes in 1908 was well ahead of its time.

2. Concept of rescuing this little paperback from 1954 from a Library book sale. Don't you love those? The cover alone did it.

3. Nothing else. Oh, wait, one more. Finally deciding to put it down without finishing it. I felt too guilty to do so at page 70 when the urge first hit me. As I picked it up nightly and continued dutifully slogging through it like a condemned man, a little horned devil on one shoulder kept whispering to me, "don't finish it, you don't like it, there are so many books to read, so little time, why go on...". Naturally a little angel on the opposite shoulder appeared in James' defense, saying "don't listen to him, James was a genius, watch for the deft psychological touches, I'm sure the story will become compelling eventually, and oh by the way what will your LibraryThing friends say if you review something you didn't even finish...".

What can I say? I think the last he was seen, the angel was nodding off out of boredom and had drool dangling out of his mouth, while the devil had gone from whispering to shouting, "life is too short! Go get another book!" So I did. ( )

painful ( )

A classic novel, extensively researched, written about, and commented on. Maisie is the first fictional child to be the product of a broken home. Her parents hate each other, and treat Maisie as a weapon, something all to familiar to modern readers. Maisie ends up as a pawn between not only her parents but her stepparents and a governess. An awful mess, but a good read. ( )