The Burning Girl by Claire Messud
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I was drawn immediately in by the mood of tragedy, or disaster, that hangs over the opening pages. But then began to lose interest as the story seemed to follow the familiar pattern of two fast friends who gradually lose interest in their friendship. The element that held Julia and Cassie together seems inexplicable in this story, especially to Julia, but maybe also to the author. I was reminded (for a few pages) of the young friendship in My Brilliant Friend and the way attraction can be difficult to explain and how friends can do terrible things to each other. But The Burning Girl skates over the surface of these deeper dynamics, and I found myself wondering about the narrator, Julia, and why she’s telling us the story. How is it that she’s the one true memory keeper for Cassie? Is she just an observer, or in some way implicated?
By the end, I was brought back into the story by the focus on the terrible weight placed on girls as they move toward being women. But I feel like there’s something just a bit out of reach with the story, some element of Julia’s self-knowledge that’s missing from the page.