Miss Fix-It
Adele de Leeuw
1966, The Macmillan Company

Annis Reeve has little patience for the way other people seem to falter at adressing their problems head-on, and no compunction about doing the job for them. Over the course of a season at her family's summer place on the beach, she learns the hard way that her nickname "Miss Fix-It" does not apply only to her skill with fixing up small appliances and broken objects, but to her habit of tinkering with others' lives - and that it's not a fond nickname.

Although Annis is realistic and clearly drawn, the other players are more general - the distant dad, eccentric little brother, amused love interest, exasperated best friend, etc. Her track record of alienating people despite having good intentions rings true, however, and carries the book. One troubling note is that Annis doesn't seem to have any role models for nice behavior except the cliched slyness/'feminine wiles' behavior of her mother and sister. It seems to imply that there are only two ways to be female - one a brusque girl with the sensitivity of a 10-year-old boy, and the other an eyelash batterer who knows how to get her way.

I simply didn't like the character, and can't find much to say about the book.

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