Clover and Katy

So yeah, I wound up re-reading Susan Coolidge. Many people say that What Katy did next is their least favorite Katy book. My least favorite is, oddly enough, What Katy did. I skimmed it on this re-read (as opposed to reading the others in the series). Lois Keith does a good job of explaining some of the odd tensions in the book in Take up thy bed and walk, so I won't rehash all of that here. What Katy did deals with disability in odd ways, even for the era (Katy can't leave her room for four years, but Cousin Helen travels with impunity). Worse, though, is the feeling that the book is carefully constructed to teach Katy some hard lessons.
Recently, I posted on a listserv about my dislike of Clover, Katy's sister. It's almost impossible to believe that such a major character could be as poorly characterized as she is; Coolidge does much better by Katy, Elsie and even Dorry. I enjoyed Clover more than I would have expected when I read it over the summer. I just started a re-read, so I'll see how it fares.