Mildred Pierce was actually a really good book! At first I really didn’t like it, but the more I read, the more I wanted to read. I think what made the book so good were the characters and their relationship to each other. Of course that leads me into talking about Veda, who certainly has a personality. Veda became more pronounced as a character, as the book went along. At the beginning of the book, Veda had more of a quieter attitude. She would always talk proper, and would go behind her mother’s back, as if to embarrass her, but wouldn’t yell at Mildred or publicly make a mockery of her. For example like the uniform. Veda obviously knew that it was Mildred’s uniform but Veda had Letty wear it, as if she were trying to make a mockery of Mildred. As the story progresses Veda’s personality definitely come out. She is some character. She is one of those people that you wish you could just reach into the book and slap! Time and time again she underminds and double crosses her mom. At one time, Veda claimed she was pregnant, and had Mildred believing that is was a director’s boy that did it. After having Mildred hire a lawyer, and a private investigator to reach the boy, so that he could marry Veda. Veda revealed that she was not pregnant and said the infamous line: “Mother, it is a matter of opinion, and in my opinion I am.”. What I couldn’t understand is, why did Mildred keep trying to get Veda back? Why was Mildred so obsessed with Veda?
I mean for goodness sakes, when Ray died, Mildred said thanks goodness it wasn’t Veda. That is horrible for a mother to say. I never understood Mildred and Veda’s relationship. It seemed more like a parsitic relationship, and Veda was the parasite. Overall the book was really good, I definitely thought that a lot of time was put into writing it, and it paid off. This weekend I plan on finishing the movie, which is slightly different from the book, but so well casted, that while reading the book I had the picture of Joan Crawford as Mildred in my mind.
