Book Review: Pat of Silver Bush

[osprey_archer]

I finished reading L. M. Montgomery’s Mistress Pat, which I - enjoyed might be the wrong word for a book where I kept cringing in recognition as the heroine enacted all my greatest faults: aversion to change, intense grudge-holding over petty things, clinging to old relationships long after it is obvious that those relationships have changed beyond recognition.

Pat clings to the idea that she and her brother Sid might grow old and single together, like Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, long after it becomes clear that Sid's definitely going to marry someone someday. I think Sid's portrayal is one of the weakest parts of the book: I never could see what Pat sees in him, which left me with the impression that she was clinging to a halcyon period of companionship that happened when she was about seven.

She's a vivid portrayal of that kind of person, though.

The book gave me a bit of whiplash at the end. It sails along its smoothly domestic round for most of the book - Pat and her sister Rae and their housekeeper Judy Plum, with some help from other family members, care for their beautiful home, Silver Bush - and then ends with “Rocks fall, everybody dies!” abruptness.

Not literally. One one person dies, and that’s actually before the super-abrupt ending. But I definitely got the sense that Montgomery realized that she had no idea how to draw this to a close, having firmly established that Pat was never going to leave Silver Bush ever, even if she kind of maybe sort of has feelings for her childhood friend Hilary. I was already sick of Pat/Hilary hundreds of pages before Pat and Hilary ever got together, just because it was so telegraphed.

Then at the end of the book they did get together, not long at all after Pat’s beloved home Silver Bush burns down - beloved doesn’t fully encompass Pat’s obsession with this house; it is her reason for living and the succor of her soul and when it burns, she feels that all light has gone out of the world.

And then Hilary shows up and kisses her and Pat, who has been firmly convinced that Hilary is nothing but a friend, instantly realizes that actually there is some light in the world and that light is LOVE, and Hilary is love, and they’re going to get married and move across the continent to a house that Hilary already built for them both, back before Pat agreed to marry him and was in fact pretty much wedded to Silver Bush.

I don’t think the book means for us to believe that Hilary burned Silver Bush down, having realized that the house was his only true rival (and hiding his hatred of it behind protestations that it was the most beautiful house ever, because of course if he didn’t pretend to love it, Pat would never love him), but certainly the timing feels suspicious.

I’m just imagining the first years of their married life consisting of a lot of sitting in front of the fire in their house on the other side of the continent, with Pat reminiscing about the lost beautiful days of Silver Bush and blinking back tears, and Hilary silently grinding his teeth because even now that his rival is dead, it still occupies all of Pat’s thoughts, god damn it.

But of course out loud he can only say, “Yes, dear, Silver Bush was quite wonderful. Let’s spend yet another five fucking hours reminiscing about your lost home, which you will always love more than me,” even though really he’d rather stab his eyes out.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Your last paragraph has me laughing out loud (or at least giggling)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Hilary really should have been careful what he wished for. Despite the upbeat tone of the last few pages, I suspect that once the thrill of his reappearance wears off, Pat will find that her heart remains buried with Silver Bush, and he'll continue to play second fiddle.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you're right!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Also, the names Pat and Hilary are interestingly a-gender, so at first I imagined Pat as a boy, and then when I managed to make him her a girl, I made Hilary a girl too, and wow, lesbian romance, oops, no; Hilary is a boy.

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

I kind of root for Pat and Hilary just because their marital problems are going to be so weird. Well, and I do really like their childhood friendship. And the house-identification goes both ways, I think: Silver Bush is Pat's soul, but Pat and Silver Bush (and the close-knit family he never had) are all tangled up together in Hilary's mind, too.

(it is VERY SUSPICIOUS TIMING, though)

In one sense I think Sid's underdevelopment is a flaw, and in another, it kind of works, because Pat doesn't really see him as the person he really is. " clinging to a halcyon period of companionship that happened when she was about seven," is accurate, I think.

Is this the abruptest of all Montgomery's abrupt resolutions? It might be!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I feel like the big argument against Hilary burning down Silver Bush (even though the timing is VERY SUSPICIOUS) is that he did love the house, and I don't think that being away for so long or Pat's semi-rejection soured it for him. He might not be able to bear to burn it down.

Oh, Pat. She had more than two decades to get used to the idea that Sid was going to grow up and get married and not devote himself to her forever, and she's still gobsmacked when he up and does it. She had noticed that he might, but she hopes against hope that he never will until the moment he shows up with May.

[littlerhymes]

LOL! I have never read this book but I love the idea of Hilary grimly/gleefully destroying this house but the memory of it overshadowing their marriage FOREVER.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

At first, Hilary believed that the beautiful new house he had built for Pat would soon overshadow Silver Bush in her heart. But as the years passed, the brutal truth became clear: she would always love Silver Bush, even the mere shadowy memory of Silver Bush, more than she loved him...

He's an architect, so presumably he would bury himself in building new homes. But as the years pass, architecture critics notice something strange about the homes he builds: they're beautiful, but with an oddly sinister twist that's hard to put your finger on.

[littlerhymes]

Is Gothic!LMM a thing? CAN WE MAKE IT A THING? Cause that would be rad. :D

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I think LMM is halfway there already in Emily of New Moon. We just need to throw in a few more howling winds and maybe a ghost, and we'd be all set!

[littlerhymes]

Suddenly I realise why I love the Emily books more than Anne. The ~mystery~ in the well. The ~sinister~ Mr Priest. Good lord. A few tweaks here and there and she could've invented Canadian Gothic. LOL!

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

I had never before thought of the suspicious timing, just that it was lucky for Hilary as Pat had proven she would have to be pried out of the house. Hmmmm.....

Though it would have been pretty unpleasant for her there with just May Binnie and no sister or Judy or mother.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think May's arrival pretty much meant that Pat would have to leave sometime, or else May might eventually manage to ruin even Silver Bush for her. That probably would have been even more painful than the ending we got: Silver Bush still stands, but its been hollowed out from the inside of everything Pat loves!