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Book Review: Anne of Windy Poplars
Jun. 4th, 2024 08:18 amIf I recall correctly, L. M. Montgomery wrote the last two Anne books purely for the money. Authors sometimes do write masterpieces under such conditions (Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol to stave off the threat of bankruptcy), but Montgomery achieved the more usual result of grimly extruding something rather dull. This is where my childhood readthrough of the Anne of Green Gables books ground to a halt, and I can see why.
Really Anne of Windy Poplars bears a resemblance to Chronicles of Avonlea: a collection of more or less unrelated episodes, sewn loosely together by the presence of Anne, most but not all involving matchmaking. (Anne of Windy Poplars also features a story about a pair of terrible twins – Anne can’t escape the curse of twins! – plus an elderly rich lady who takes a gruesome joy in relating all the untimely deaths that have occurred in her family.)
But Chronicles of Avonlea, being forthrightly a short story collection, uses variety in format and point of view that makes each match-making tale feel fresh and different. Anne of Windy Poplars, on the other hand, gets repetitious.
However, I forgive the book everything else for the sake of Katherine Brooke, Anne’s bitterly sarcastic second teacher at Summerside High. Katherine Brooke hates everyone and everything, can scarcely speak without unleashing a sarcastic jibe, and bears a particular spite against Anne, both because Katherine wanted the principle-ship which Anne got, and just in general because Anne seems so disgustingly happy. She is horrible. I love her. I am baffled that Anne wants to befriend her, because after about twenty minutes of Katherine I would want to wring her neck.
But Anne believes that deep, deep (DEEP) down Katherine feels trapped and lonely and wants a friend, and of course she is correct. Eventually she manages to inveigle Katherine into accepting an invitation to spend Christmas at Green Gables, and after an invigorating snowshoe walk Katherine pours out the tale of her lonely, embittered childhood. This festering sore lanced, Katherine begins to heal, and blossoms out extraordinarily while retaining her sarcastic edge.
The Tale of Katherine Brooke looms so large in my memory of the book that I was surprised to find it really only takes center stage for a couple of chapters. Katherine Brooke, the world’s most aggravating coworker, is a C-plot for the first half of the book, bursts into prominence for those Christmas at Green Gables chapters, and fades away into the background as Anne gets back to matchmaking again.
Really Anne of Windy Poplars bears a resemblance to Chronicles of Avonlea: a collection of more or less unrelated episodes, sewn loosely together by the presence of Anne, most but not all involving matchmaking. (Anne of Windy Poplars also features a story about a pair of terrible twins – Anne can’t escape the curse of twins! – plus an elderly rich lady who takes a gruesome joy in relating all the untimely deaths that have occurred in her family.)
But Chronicles of Avonlea, being forthrightly a short story collection, uses variety in format and point of view that makes each match-making tale feel fresh and different. Anne of Windy Poplars, on the other hand, gets repetitious.
However, I forgive the book everything else for the sake of Katherine Brooke, Anne’s bitterly sarcastic second teacher at Summerside High. Katherine Brooke hates everyone and everything, can scarcely speak without unleashing a sarcastic jibe, and bears a particular spite against Anne, both because Katherine wanted the principle-ship which Anne got, and just in general because Anne seems so disgustingly happy. She is horrible. I love her. I am baffled that Anne wants to befriend her, because after about twenty minutes of Katherine I would want to wring her neck.
But Anne believes that deep, deep (DEEP) down Katherine feels trapped and lonely and wants a friend, and of course she is correct. Eventually she manages to inveigle Katherine into accepting an invitation to spend Christmas at Green Gables, and after an invigorating snowshoe walk Katherine pours out the tale of her lonely, embittered childhood. This festering sore lanced, Katherine begins to heal, and blossoms out extraordinarily while retaining her sarcastic edge.
The Tale of Katherine Brooke looms so large in my memory of the book that I was surprised to find it really only takes center stage for a couple of chapters. Katherine Brooke, the world’s most aggravating coworker, is a C-plot for the first half of the book, bursts into prominence for those Christmas at Green Gables chapters, and fades away into the background as Anne gets back to matchmaking again.
