View Beyond My Father

This was a breakthrough book for Mabel Esther Allan, who abandoned her former cautious writing style and wrote this story with energy, courage and black humor. Its heroine, Mary Angus, has been blind for two years and is stifled by her father's sentimental overprotection. Craving new experiences, intellectual stimulation, and a chance to take action, she rages inwardly and provides the reader with ruthless, hilarious portraits of her family and middle-class suburban society. Hope for Mary comes in the form of a new neighbor, an intellectual boy whom she greets with hormonal teenage enthusiasm, and--a miracle only vaguely described--an operation that restores her sight. Armed with restored vision, she gradually challenges the barriers women and children face in timid 1930's suburbia. Allan wrote this semi-autographical book in the first person, and Mary's strong, clever, honest voice makes the story ring. Readers who enjoyed Jean Little's "From Anna", Robin McKinley's "Beauty" and L.M. Montgomery's "The Blue Castle" will enjoy this book.