Is there a reader alive who didn’t love Anne of Green Gables as a kid? I was absolutely addicted to the Anne of Green Gables 1980s tv show when I was a girl. Gilbert Blythe was my first book boyfriend thanks to this show. I recall buying the books in third and fourth grades but not reading the books until I was an adult when the show Anne and with an E came out on Netflix! Anne with an E was my idol as a girl. Mostly because I too was an Anne with an E so I felt like in some way we had a special connection.
Now as an adult, I can’t tell you a single thing about the movie I watched many many times over as a girl, but I remember loving it and I remember that it made me fall in love with all things turn of the century and that I wanted desperately to move to Prince Edward Island and live on a farm, but I can’t really remember the actual story all that well.
After reading the first book, I had all kinds of nostalgia and I loved revisiting my childhood memories and characters that I loved so much growing up. But while I loved the books (even as an adult), I still hoped for something with a little more substance. This is where this book comes into play. This book follows the life of Anne author, Lucy Maud Montgomery. While I was hoping for something more about Anne, I was open to reading more about the woman who gave us one of literatures most loved heroines.
Summary
A stunning and unexpected portrait of Lucy Maud Montgomery, creator of one of literature’s most prized heroines, whose personal demons were at odds with her most enduring legacy—the irrepressible Anne of Green Gables.
“Dear old world,” she murmured, “you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.” —L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, 1908
As a young woman, Maud had dreams bigger than the whole of Prince Edward Island. Her exuberant spirit had always drawn frowns from her grandmother and their neighbors, but she knew she was meant to create, to capture and share the way she saw the world. And the young girl in Maud’s mind became more and more persistent: Here is my story, she said. Here is how my name should be spelled—Anne with an “e.”
But the day Maud writes the first lines of Anne of Green Gables, she gets a visit from the handsome new minister in town, and soon faces a decision: forge her own path as a spinster authoress, or live as a rural minister’s wife, an existence she once likened to “a respectable form of slavery.” The choice she makes alters the course of her life.
With a husband whose religious mania threatens their health and happiness at every turn, the secret darkness that Maud herself holds inside threatens to break through the persona she shows to the world, driving an ever-widening wedge between her public face and private self, and putting her on a path towards a heartbreaking end.
Beautiful and moving, After Anne reveals Maud’s hidden personal challenges while celebrating what was timeless about her life and art—the importance of tenacity and the peaceful refuge found in imagination. (summary from Goodreads)
Review
I don’t know anything about Lucy Maud Montgomery other than she wrote the Anne books, so in a sense I felt like I was going to be a clean slate. I actually expected this book to be more happy and uplifting than it was. It was an emotional book but in an unexpected way. I had hoped to really feel happy once I completed this book but in the end I was left with feelings of moroseness than joy. I mean Anne was such a free spirit and happy, why wouldn’t the author be the same right? Well that was not what this book was about. This book explored Lucy Maud Montgomery’s life in a way that was unexpected for me as a reader—perhaps others who have read other books about Lucy Maud Montgomery will not find this book so surprising as I did. I guess I was expecting something more in line with the characters from her books but what I got was something else entirely.
The timeline jumps were a bit jarring as well. This book was very well research and had some very elegant writing but I found myself abruptly toggling between the past and present. It made the book read a little choppy and at times I struggled with the pacing. But that said it did have a lot of research and great writing so I think most of my issues centered around the pacing and mood of the story. Really wanted to love this one as I didn’t know much about the woman behind Anne, and this one did send me to Google more times than one to find out more about Lucy Maud Montgomery’s life but in the end I had a hard time keeping up with things.
So how did this one shake out for me overall? Well I had to go wit ha middle of the road review on this one. I liked it and thought parts were interesting and I even though this book was a bit more on the emotional side of things, I still liked it and thought it was interesting to check out more about LMM’s life. I did have a hard time keeping up with some of the timeline parts though which did impact my reading experience. I think the execution on this one could have been a bit better but overall not a terrible read by any means. I ended up going with a three star review which falls right into the ‘good’ category for me.
Book Info and Rating
Format 384 pages, Paperback
Published May 30, 2023 by William Morrow Paperbacks
ISBN 9780063246454 (ISBN10: 0063246457)
Free review copy provided by publisher, William Morrow, in exchange for an honest review. All options are my own and in no way influenced.
Rating: 3 stars
Genre: historical fiction
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