Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Looking for Anne of Green Gables - Review
Looking for Anne of Green Gables by Irene Gammel
Rating: 1 Star
Description: This book is supposed to be an in-depth look at both Montgomery herself and the people and events around her that influenced the writing of her most famous book Anne of Green Gables.
Genre: Non-Fiction
My Impression: I've read books where either the writing style or the subject matter didn't interest me. I've read books where the characters or their decisions irritated me. Very rarely do I come across a book that I actually dislike intensely. Unfortunately, Looking for Anne was on of those books but because I had read all of Montgomery's books this year I felt like I should finish it. There were really 2 primary problems with the book. The first is that I never warmed to Montgomery. I've read her books since I was a child but never read much about the author herself other than the basic summary that is included in the back of the books. I knew she had been raised by and then taken care strict elderly grandparents. I knew she had married later in life. However, it seems that Montgomery was stuck in a prolonged adolescent. Her feelings were regularly gravely injured and she was jealous and clingy in the majority of her relationships. How books like Rilla of Ingleside came from the person shown in journal entries is a mystery to me. My second problem with this book is the basic writing style. Several times throughout the book she halfway introduces someone and then says "We'll get back to them" but when the story comes around to them I only had about a half memory of who they were. The book followed no logical layout and the overly dramatic style wasn't really held up by her discoveries. The only good thing that resulted from this book is I now have zero interest in collecting Montgomery's journals.
Would I Read More of this Series/Author?: Absolutely not
Would I Recommend this Book?: Again, absolutely not.
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I have Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings that I am hoping will be a better non-fiction look at her life. It is by Mary Henley Rubio who also edits her journals.
ReplyDeleteI'll be interested to see your opinion of it. I'd like to read a better biography of Montgomery because all I do know is really the very surface information. After this book I'm a little nervous about picking up one without a recommendation. I really really really didn't enjoy this one at all if you couldn't tell :)
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