[Book Review] Daddy-Long-Legs

Daddy-Long-Legs, largely known to us as صاحب الظل الطويل . When I knew it was an actual novel, I borrowed it from my friend the same day because who can miss such a chance? Turned out, it's a famous classic written by Jean Webbster back in 1912.

Back in the days, I used to ADORE the cartoon show so much that I had many dreams revolving the mystery identity that is Daddy-Long-Legs. And in each time, someone from real life appeared to be him. I was forever indulged in finding who this mysterious long man was. Because, apparently Judy was in love with him as much as I was myself.

However, the book is a bit different. It is divided into two part, the first is of a narration of the incident when a trustee of the orphanage that Judy was in, came forward and offered to send her specifically to college. The second part, which is the whole half of the story is a bunch of letters sent from Judy to the trustee whom she calls Daddy-Long-Legs. She saw his long shadow when she was asked to have a word with her teacher about her future. The trustee's condition was that she writes to him, telling about her academical progress, without expecting a reply back. That she write him once every month without the knowledge of him real name, etc.

Even though she was asked not to, she still required about his real name in most of her letters, his descriptions but there was no answer back. Although there was some good gestures here and there when he sent flowers or have his secretary reply or give her permission to do several things. Meanwhile, she met Jervis, her friend Julie's uncle repeatedly. All along, she wrote to Daddy explaining every encounter and confessing about her love. It grew frustrating at times because I already know Jervis is Daddy himself and it was kind of awkward.

Either ways, at the end, Daddy agreed to meet her when he was sick and it turned out he was Jervis himself all along. The book came to an end at this point which made me curious to know more in the sequel, Dear Enemy.

Keeping the fact that it's a classic, an easy language was used to provide a high-schooler flowing way of talking and some humorous parts were added. This was a total bonus in making it a fast and enjoyable read. My rating: 8.5/10