Again, Truepenny asks for book recommendations

[truepenny]

A conversation on someone else's LJ reminded me of a long-standing curiosity. And now that, hey, I have people around who are extraordinarily well-read, I thought I'd pose the question.

Books about boarding schools that get it right.

There's a long post I made back in December about a number of reasons why Diana Wynne Jones's Witch Week is a better res (Latin for "thing"--I can't think of a word for what I want) than the Harry Potter books. One of those reasons is that Rowling's vision of what boarding school is like doesn't ring true, even to an American reader such as myself. But, when I grumble, Someone ought to write a book that does this properly, I can't put my money where my mouth is, because I don't actually know what I'm talking about. I can just tell a dreamy delusion when I see one. So I'm interested in finding books that achieve a more accurate representation.

Obviously, if the book is sf/f/h, that's a big bonus, but for the purposes of this book-quest, it's the boarding-school-ness I'm looking for. All suggestions welcome and appreciated!

Comments

SPOILERS FOR A COLLEGE OF MAGICS (in case anyone else gets this far)

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Right. Menary. She and Faris's uncle Brinker are both rather Iago-like characters. I'm very fond, btw, of the way in which Brinker and Faris SIMPLY CANNOT STAND EACH OTHER. It's completely unmotivated, and in that respect actually perfectly credible.

My reading of Menary goes like this: she's hollow. There's nothing inside her and never has been. At most, there's a angry, selfish little girl who has all these adult tools at her disposal. She stands against Faris's awe-ful dutifulness, and I think we need Menary's willingness to destroy the fabric of reality to get what she wants in order to appreciate fully Faris's willingness to sacrifice everything in order to stop her. No, Menary has no psychologically credible motivation, but like I said, she's Iago. She doesn't NEED psychology.

But looking at what I've just written, I observe that my take on Menary depends on a particular and idiosyncratic approach to characterization and structure and therefore may not actually constitute a defense. Menary has never bothered me, either for the reasons you mention or for melymbrosia's reason here (http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=melymbrosia&itemid=189118) (down in the comments), although I freely acknowledge that you both have good points. I guess for me, Menary is so obviously the Wicked Queen from fairytales that she just doesn't bother me. She SHOULD, since she doesn't fit in the comedy of manners the rest of the characters inhabit, but she just doesn't.

I have a weakness for unabashedly melodramatic vilainesses.

Re: SPOILERS FOR A COLLEGE OF MAGICS (in case anyone else gets this far)

[lcohen]

yes, i liked uncle brinker a lot too.

i think that there is some motivation for why faris doesn't like him--he apparently disregards her opinion on things, tries to paint her as hysterical and doesn't care about galvaston (did i get that right?) in the exact way that she feels that he should, although she has a revelation along those lines, too. why doesn't he like her? she's opinionated and not tactful about it--not deferential enough? it doesn't have the same "out of left field" feel to it.

i totally get what you are saying about melodramatic villainess but stevermer seems to have taken a lot more time to paint why other people are doing things than she took with menary. don't mistake me--she doesn't ruin the book or anything. probably she bumps against some expectation of mine that a rereading will bring forward, or something.