Harriet spies again Book

This book has things going for it. I'll admit that. It is clearly written by someone with a lot of love for Harriet the Spy. There are moments, passing flashes, where the author manages a funny moment or turn of phrase which almost, almost echoes the charm of the original. It was well-paced and absorbing enough to keep me reading from start to finish. There are many excesses and violations against the spirit of the original which the author mercifully failed to commit.

Here is what's wrong with it.

1. Author not nearly as smart or funny as Louise Fitzhugh (but who is?)

2. Harriet defanged. She's too nice. She has a bit of the random sense of humor of the original, but she doesn't have the acerbic meanness or grand ego or delicious hatred or lonely angst.

3. Ole Golly defanged, although that's part of the plot. It's stupid, though. Really, Ole Golly shouldn't have come back at all, ever. That was like, one of the main points of the original book. I know it's hard to write Harriet the Spy without one of the major beloved characters, but honestly.

4. Plot turns out to be pretty stupid. It was touch and go for awhile and then it went. Got all goofy and improbable and sentimental at the end. If there is one thing Harriet the Spy shouldn't be, it's sentimental. "No more nonsense" is how Ole Golly ended her (canon) letter to Harriet, as the book reminds us, but doesn't adhere to that maxim.

5. Wrong level of detail. I was distracted by the amount of silly detail given--noting that Harriet wrote in an Ultra Fine Sharpie, for example--while at the same time there wasn't enough detail on other things. There was almost no information about Harriet's school life, or any of the things that really helped you picture her world in the original. On a related topic, what time period are we in, anyway? A lot of things (Harriet's father drinking martinis, use of the word "fink," the family having a cook) don't make sense outside of the sixties, but certain details made me think they were trying to do it modern (FYI Ultra Fine Sharpie was introduced in 1989). Any book which leaves you in doubt as to whether the book was supposed to be set in 1962 or 2002 has insufficient detail.

6. Stupid new character I hate. Harriet has enough interesting friends; she doesn't need a Mary Sue who is So Quirky!!! and From a Broken Home and Also Interested in Spying. Bleeeecccchhh. (Although it's hinted in an ad in the back for another "Harriet the Spy" sequel that she's a lesbian, so I might read that, if it ever even got written.)

7. The main excess committed by this author, covering basically all the lesser ones, is a lack of subtlety. Harriet's mother isn't just rather vapid, she's a complete idiot; Sport isn't just tidy, he's a vacuuming fiend!

I can certainly imagine a less subtle book. I'm not saying it was the world's least subtle book. (I'll admit I didn't solve the "mystery" until Harriet did, but in my defense it was a stupid solution, and since when does Harriet solve mysteries anyway? She's a spy, not a girl sleuth.)

But the original Harriet has such a light hand, hinting at what's going on in the adult world without getting unrealistically involved in it (we find out about Golly and George's relationship through hints, mostly, not through direct explanation like in HSA). With the possible exception of Janie, none of the characters are caricatures (Harriet's mother is slightly vapid and doesn't understand her but isn't a complete imbecile like in HSA). Even people who love each other don't always understand each other or like everything about each other (Harriet and Sport, for example, are way too sympatico in HSA). Things are left unexplained (what's wrong with Golly's mother, for example, would never have been left so mysterious and raw and confusing and painful in HSA). A larger world is hinted at by meaningful details (Sport's interest in housecleaning is part and parcel with his father's inability to deal with life, not just something he likes because he is Quirky! And has Traits! as in HSA). Things don't fit together perfectly or get resolved neatly (especially not in a big wacky Thanksgiving scene like in HSA). It's real in a way this book just isn't.

I don't know; maybe I would have liked a book like this if it hadn't aimed so high. But I suppose I knew what I was getting into.