osprey_archer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
osprey_archer) wrote2016-01-05 09:23 am
osprey_archer) wrote2016-01-05 09:23 am
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Book Review: Pat of Silver Bush
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.
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.