The Secret of the Old Clock

Nancy Drew sees a little girl nearly get hit by a car. Checking to see if she is okay, Nancy meets the girl's aunts. She soon learns that they have little money to care for the child. They had expected a relative to remember them in his will, but as it turns out, he left all his money to the relatives he lived with. Nancy knows this family, which is both snooty and tacky. All they talk about is money. Nancy gets the chance to talk to other relatives and friends of the man, who also expected him to leave them money.

Nancy, with the help of her lawyer father, gets to the bottom of why the man's will ended up so differently than his friend's expectations. As it turns out, there was a later will.

I remember reading a couple Nancy Drew books as a kid. I remember grownups being happy about me reading them. That made me happy. But the truth was, I had a hard time focusing on the books. I think, looking back, that it was because I didn't like them. Lots of people obviously do like them--they've sold millions of copies. They just aren't my style.

I love to fall in love with a character, and I just don't feel like I know Nancy well enough to feel anything about her. She seems nice enough, and she's certainly smart and capable--I like that in a character. She's popular and pretty--I like that, too. You rarely get an alpha character in a book, and it's refreshing. I guess it's just that I don't hear her voice. She's like the lady you see at school events and think you might become friends with, but she never talks turkey--never offers even one morsel about how she feels about things--not even a joke, so eventually, you just give up.

I do like how the book paints the scenes of the era: the aunts raising the little girl, two other sisters living in the country together. T.V. doesn't seem to be a factor in anyone's lives. There are daily family breakfasts and tea times and maids. That part is enjoyable. But finishing the book (and The Hidden Staircase) was a chore.

In contrast, I watched Nancy Drew the movie last night and loved it. The character was equally as smart, capable, and popular (in her home town at least.) But in this movie, in which she visits Hollywood with her father, those qualities make her vulnerable. Mean girls make fun of her old fashioned ways (the movie is set in the present; Nancy is a bit stuck in the past.)

The role is acted brilliantly by Emma Roberts, who makes you just ache for Nancy at times. I can watch sincerity get made fun of. I don't like it, but I know that sincere people are usually positive and can withstand bumps in the rode. But I will not watch earnest people take a hit. It is just too hard. They are earnest because they take things seriously, and that includes what people say to them. Nancy, in this movie, is earnest. Rest assured that she gets her come-uppance by showing what an amazing detective and all-round person she is.

So the movie worked for me while the books don't. Was it Nancy's vulnerability in the face of mean girls? The conflict (her dad asked her not to sleuth in Hollywood)? Her youth (she was younger in the movie than she was portrayed in the books)? The slightly tongue in cheek depiction of Nancy Drew? I think it was Nancy. In the movie she seemed like a real person. In the books, for me at least, she never did.