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epitome of incomprehensibility
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Reading_now. It's the last book in the Anne of Green Gables series, but it was only published in 2009.
Montgomery died in 1942, shortly after she'd sent the manuscript to be published. The publisher didn't accept it at the time, maybe because it was written as a series of interconnected short stories and the other books in the series were straightforward novels. Oh yes, and between the stories are poems written by the fictional Anne Shirley Blythe and her son Walter, with dialogue showing the family discussing them.
I can imagine the publisher being all, "Why are you going experimental on us? We pigeonholed you as a quaint, traditional children's author, dammit! Describe the beauties of Maritime Canada! Write cute anecdotes! Do your thing! But make it a normal novel! Don't have people randomly talking about poetry - that will never sell!!"
(Montgomery, peering over the edge of Cloud Nine, drops a pinecone on the publisher's head.)
But yes, it's quite good. Some of the stories are nostalgic and sentimental, others more cynical, but they've all got her characteristic humour.
Another thing I noticed: Montgomery's good at expressing interiority, especially kids' imagination, and here she deftly balances thoughts and dialogue. There can be several things going on at once but I didn't lose sight of the different threads. That's something I can learn from.
The book's divided into two sections, one before World War 1 and one after. Originally, Montgomery had written "Great War" on the manuscript but then changed it to "First World War," acknowledging.
I remember reading her death was probably suicide by drug overdose. She'd suffered ill health; she was only in her 60s, but maybe she just didn't want to deal with stuff anymore. I don't know how much the war affected her, but WW1 had caused her a lot of anxiety, so I'm sure she didn't like the idea of WW2. In the books, Anne's son Walter died in WW1, so that's alluded to a few times here.
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200826
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