A Charmed Life: Growing Up in Macbeth's Castle

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

The last child to be born in Macbeth's castle. Originally named Cawdor Castle, the castle is somewhat of a natural landmark as it was the featured castle in Shakespeare's Macbeth. But what was it originally, why would Shakespeare base a play on it. This beautifully written, stunningly harsh and fluid novel tells of a child's avant-garde lifestyle growing up in such a historic house. 

Liza Campbell, descended from the Thane of Cawdor watched and reported her life, through the life and death of her strict grandfather, through the finical ruination her father erected after his fathers death, and through his affairs, wasteful spendings and the very closure of the castle. From the outside her life and that of her siblings where regarded as fairytale, but the intimacy of her family was thwarted by the sheer weight of it all. She spares no details, digging in the historical background of the castle and how her family came to own - and eventually lose - control over it. 

When her grandfather - Thane of Cawdor - her father inherited everything, as Liza explains clearly, her father was not the sort of person to run a large estate such as Cawdor castle and because of it he slowly slipped into lunacy. Her mother upper-class born and bread society lady suffers under the weight her husbands affairs, of their finical ruin and in the end divorces him. 

Liza Campbell Dancing.

Liza gives her reads the exactitude of how it was to be raised underneath the oppression of upper-class society, as diamonds cut they as children were expected to be seen not heard, to be compliance to elders, to be respectful and prompt at all hours, to be honorable and because of such, wistful, they were expected to be elegant and knowledgeable so that if an elder asked for your opinion you did not disgrace your family name in any sort of way. 

The book was so thick with eloquent detailing that I found myself immersed in her life, I felt her desire for her father approval, her mothers love and both her parents attendance to her, I felt her sorrow after losing her father, the hint of pride while explaining the historical background of he heritage. She made the book breath with its roughness, its exemplary behaviorism's, the way her dry witted humor seem to scream, 'I have found a way to disregard the expected pleasantries you have placed over me,' and the way she shoved her childhood, adolescence, and adulthood into the face of those who restricted what she could and would not be able to do.

Truly a wonderful portrayal of a life that was damaged, and an inside look into inner workings of the upper-class, it gave new meaning to never judging people for how they look or what they're last name is. Absolutely a brilliant read that had me flipping pages through the entire third person narrative of Liza Campbell.