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sophia_sol) wrote2017-11-21 09:14 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2017-11-21 09:14 pm
The Story Girl, and The Golden Road, by Lucy Maud Montgomery
These two books really read like one narrative that happens to be split into two parts. It's the story of one year in the life of a group of seven kids who spend all their time together that year. Five of them are siblings/cousins, one is a hired boy, and one is the neighbour girl.
There's no real overarching plot, just a series of incidents in their lives. The books do a good job of showing characters, and of writing believably about childhood. But the whole thing is suffused with a very strong theme of feeling nostalgia for a good time of life that is gone forever. And I found this theme pretty wearing!
I mean, based on what wikipedia says about the stage in LMM's life when she wrote these books, I understand why she'd write that theme, but it's not one that's calculated to appeal to me. Childhood was not a perfect golden time, and also I'm the sort of person who's much more inclined to live in the present rather than pine for a time gone by, whatever that time may be.
So overall these books just don't really work for me, even though I do care about the characters and their lives. Ah well!
There's no real overarching plot, just a series of incidents in their lives. The books do a good job of showing characters, and of writing believably about childhood. But the whole thing is suffused with a very strong theme of feeling nostalgia for a good time of life that is gone forever. And I found this theme pretty wearing!
I mean, based on what wikipedia says about the stage in LMM's life when she wrote these books, I understand why she'd write that theme, but it's not one that's calculated to appeal to me. Childhood was not a perfect golden time, and also I'm the sort of person who's much more inclined to live in the present rather than pine for a time gone by, whatever that time may be.
So overall these books just don't really work for me, even though I do care about the characters and their lives. Ah well!