Today I’d like to talk about Susie Derkins. Remember her? She was the sometime playmate, sometime arch-nemesis of Calvin from the beloved and brilliant comic strip Calvin and Hobbes created by Bill Watterson. I’ve already expressed some of my deep-seated adoration for Calvin and Hobbes, and there are a lot of reasons why Watterson’s comic resonated so much with me. It was one of my first vividly remembered reading experiences and it was also the first reading experience I had that I could truly share with someone else.

My grandfather, who was quite possibly one of the most voracious readers I’ve ever known, had the BEST sense of humor and would read the Sunday funny pages (along with every single page of the Boston Globe) before he passed them along to me. After I read them, we would talk about our favorite moments in the comic strips and the punchlines we thought were the funniest. Calvin and Hobbes was our mutual favorite and I think those discussions represent the first time I understood that people could have the same reading tastes and actually talk about what they read as something they shared and enjoyed in common. As a result, pretty much every gift-giving holiday I would get my grandfather the latest Calvin and Hobbes book collection which he would promptly read and then pass along to me. It was reading these books that I remember encountering Susie Derkins.

Susie was the first female character I remember being strong, amazing and completely relatable as Susie and I had a lot of the same ambitions (and some of the same flaws). She was smart and not afraid to show it (hence why Calvin usually tried to cheat off of her ) and she had plans. I remember specifically the moment I realized that kids could not just dream about education beyond college, but to actually plan for it and work towards it. Calvin had gotten Susie in trouble and they were outside of the principal’s office awaiting their fate. Susie was panicking that this incident was going to go on her permanent record and affect her future when she turns to Calvin and says:

I’m not exaggerating when I tell you this was a defining moment in my young reading life. Susie was bossy and demanding, but she was so because she didn’t want anyone getting in the way of her plans for being a high-powered Wall Street executive. I was a little girl watching a resourceful, take-no-crap little girl stand up to bullies, get bullied and go through all of those normal childhood ups and downs, but doing so with the understanding that she was going to make something of herself and be more than what those experiences (particularly the downs) added up to. In essence, Watterson created the first strong, complex female character that I related to. For me, Susie Derkins came before and remains above Ramona Quimby, Alice, Nancy Drew or many other female heroines I encountered in childhood.

So in honor of Susie, I’d like to share some other strong female characters that I’ve encountered as an (alleged) grown-up. These women are not always likable (let’s face it, Susie had her moments, too…), but they do represent a (hopefully) burgeoning trend of women being portrayed as complex and working towards taking charge of their lives.

Eustacia Vye – Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy 

Eustacia Vye is not the most likable character in the literary canon. She can be called conniving, manipulative and even whiny. She is, however, a Victorian woman (in a novel written in Victorian times) who is doing what she can to be in charge of her own destiny. In a time when women didn’t really have much of a choice in the matter of their own lives, Eustacia does what she can to secure a future for herself on her own terms. Because she tries to accomplish this under any means necessary, it makes her somewhat less sympathetic but infinitely more complex.

Westie Butler – Revenge and the Wild by Michelle Modesto

This book is a wild ride with a fascinating female character taking the lead. Westie is flawed both emotionally and physically. She has a mechanical arm fashioned by her adopted father after it was cut off by cannibals while her birth family was in a wagon train heading West to California. (Did I mention this is a steampunk western? Just trust me on this one… This is definitely one of those “Fantastical American West” novels.) Since that traumatic incident, Westie has channeled her trauma into productive (though fairly un-ladylike) pastimes. She’s an expert hunter, is talented with weaponry (her father also fashioned her a parasol whose tip is a rifle barrel and whose stem is a sheathed sword), is an accomplished rider and is fueled by revenge. She is also, however, intelligent, crafty and resourceful, able to adopt the mannerisms of a “proper lady” when necessary and is fueled not only by revenge, but by love and loyalty for her adopted family. This book hit all of my buttons and I found, even when Westie was making some impulsively rash mistakes, I still rooted for throughout the entire book.

Lilliet Berne – Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee

This book was twelve years in the making, but I think it might have been worth the wait. Lilliet Berne is a Paris opera sensation in the 1800s having a talent that few are born with and even fewer can cultivate and sustain. She is a falcon soprano. She also has a checkered past that is marked by resourcefulness unlike I’ve seen in any character, man or woman, in literature in a very long time. An orphan who loses everything at a young age, survives solely on her wits to travel across the US and through much of Western Europe, Berne has an intuition into human nature and a sense of self preservation that takes her through decades, identities and situations most people would never have survived. While the theme of fate is woven throughout the novel, Chee doesn’t really portray Berne as “lucky.” She has survived because she is a survivor and wants to see what else the world can hold for her and this, I find, makes not only Lilliet Berne, but also Queen of the Night, remarkable.

Since our wonderful blogger-in-residence Arabella loves recommendations, has eloquently railed against the categorization of “women writers” earlier this week, and reliably follows and reports on the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, I thought it fitting to inquire after some of her recommendations for strong, complex women characters. She didn’t disappoint. Here are her selections:

Libby Day – Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

I really respect the fact that Gillian Flynn creates “unlikeable” female characters, by which I actually mean women who acknowledge their own shortcomings/vices/issues and don’t try to be hide those for anyone, but I really really came to respect Libby.  She hasn’t really moved on from the horrific night when her family was murdered (mentally or physically…she’s, like, 4’10” or something).  But she has no money and no options until a local “murder club” offer to pay her to investigate that night.  Libby is spiteful and nasty and angry and a drinker and a kleptomaniac, but she’s also deeply empathetic, smart, honest, and, eventually, comes to realize all of that.  I was stunned by how much I enjoyed this book, and the fact that I kind of miss Libby now.

Hero Jarvis – Where Serpents Sleep by C.S. Harris

I really love this historical mystery series because it’s so firmly rooted in history, and still so compelling–and because C.S. Harris totally blindsided me with Hero.  I started off thinking that she was a stereotypical, blue-stocking [and] cranky…, but in this book, we begin to see how angry she is at the world and all those who refuse to take her seriously, and how far she’ll go when those people she cares about are put in jeopardy.  I truly never, ever expected her to become the heroine of this series, but I am so glad she did.  She makes the hero an infinitely better guy, and I loved that she continues to prove me wrong all the time.

Thanks so much to Arabella for her input! I’d like to note that these great, complex, interesting women were written by both men and women writers, proving that anyone who cares to can write engaging, believable characters. Till next week, dear readers, I hope you are able to cozy up with or recall a character that you relate to or find fascinating. If you have a favorite female character that you think falls into this category, feel free to mention in it the comments. It will combine two things we love here on the blog: learning about great, new characters and hearing from our patrons!