This might not be impossible or implausible, but especially after reading others' comments, it does seem unlikely. The character would have to not only have access to many books, but NOT have access to anything that could make marks on a surface so she couldn't "accidentally" learn. I recall a friend telling how his four-year-old daughter picked up a rock and wrote her initial on the car door (though admittedly, she had surely already been taught to print letters, at least for her name).
I started learning reading in the first grade, where I also learned printing letters. I recall the first class on printing, the teacher had us write a bunch of Ds across the page.
This was in the 1960s, and I understand since then some of this is taught in kindergarden (it seems that when I attended kindergarden it had something to do with socializing and playing nice with the other kids in the class, in preparation for "actual learning" of ABCs in the first and later grades).
Yes, these are "separate" skills even if I associate them being learned together.
We used crayons and paints-and-easels in kindergarden. That surely helps with hand movement and hand-eye coordination. I'm thinking had this character had crayons at a young age, and access to any kind of writing or marking tools later on, she would have learned to "write" something on her own, even if it were only a few marks that she had her own meanings for.
So yes, at most any time in history, it seems being well-read but unable to write at all would be extremely unusual (teach reading and provide books, yet withhold rules or blank paper and writing utensils), and probably the result of what we would now call child abuse. One can have smaller holes in one's education, but I don't see this particular thing being some "random" character in a book.
The last chapter of the book is a long letter written by the character. At the beginning of the letter, she casually mentions that she's (obviously) learned to write. So, there was no fundamental difficulty for her, at least not one that was put on the page.
It seemed a strange treatment of that minor plot point, but it wasn't the only odd thing in the book.
Is there any indication of how long it took her to learn to write?
Where did you get that? We are expected to write in cursive. It's part of basic education, and if you can't write in cursive, you can't write at all.
Maybe this explains me.
I was on the schedule to learn cursive in the 3rd grade, but I got shoveled off into a special class for a few years and never learned it. It was something I often regretted not learning.
In college I discovered computers (well, mostly computer terminals and a KIM-1). After a a year I could type on an ASR-33 about as fast as I could print.
I had a fine motor delay which prevented me from writing anything legibly by hand until I was 11 or so, but I learned to read at age 3, so it's certainly possible to be able to read and not write. Of course, if that's the case, the character would be unable to do any fine skills.
It still pisses me off that I struggled so hard to learn a skill which is now completely obsolete. Since getting my tablet 2 years ago, I haven't touched a pen except to sign my name.
Imagine people learning to touch-type now. I wonder how much longer there will be "keyboarding" classes in school.
Cursive is pretty much useless.
Writing anything by hand is on its way to being obsolete.
I recall when PDAs had cursive writing recognition. Then there was the tiny physical keys as on the Blackberry, and now that has been replaced with an onscreen touchscreen keyboard.
Even typing is on its way to being obsolete. It's not quite in widespread use, but most computers can be semi-reliably operated by voice command, and some are almost exclusively. Just ask Siri or say "
Ok Glass."
I'm wondering if I should sell my collection of Model M's while they're worth something, or keep them a few more decades with the hopes that everyone else with any kind of computer keyboard throws theirs away, resulting in these becoming uber-desirable for the few who would want them.