Reading Lately: The Blue Castle and A Tangled Web

I was at my parents' house a few weeks ago, which means I was surrounded by books. I'm sure that I love books because they do, and because I grew up in a home where everyone was always reading, all the time. It's one of the basic human needs, right? -- food, water, and books. And sure, maybe it's great to get some sleep every now and again, but sometimes reading is more important, and sometimes you might find that it has mysteriously become three in the morning while you were getting to the part where Nancy Drew cracks the case.

(That's my childhood in a nutshell: reading in bed when I should have been sleeping and copious amounts of Nancy Drew.)

I was named after Anne Shirley, the famous redhead who lived at Green Gables. (In truth there's more to the story, but what it boils down to is that although Anne of Green Gables had been beloved through several generations, I was the first girl in my family to share her first name.) Naturally I was introduced to my literary namesake early on (not long after I met Nancy Drew) and to the woman who created her: Lucy Maud Montgomery, who published under the name L. M. Montgomery.

I read all the Anne-books (there are eight, in case you're unenlightened, and Anne is only the impetuous youngster that most people remember in the first one; she grows up and marries Gilbert and has children, and as an adult I'm forever grateful that my fictional counterpart grew up and proved to me that doing so wasn't as scary as all that). But L. M. Montgomery wrote other novels, and eventually I was persuaded to read some of those as well.

While I was perusing my parent's familiar library, I borrowed two books: both written by Montgomery, and both of which I had read previously (rereading has been a persistent habit of mine -- and there, in case you were waiting for it, is the link between me and Belle). These are standalone stories that Montgomery wrote in between books about Anne: The Blue Castle and A Tangled Web. As with most of her work, these revolve around eccentric people in small Canadian communities, and both books focus on the weight of family expectations in the lives of young women in the early 20th century.

One of these is a far better (and better-written) read, and I'm here to tell you which it is, and why.

The Blue Castle centers around of Valancy, who is 29 and single -- thus, in the eyes of her family, basically a confirmed old maid. She lives with her mother and a middle-aged cousin, and for her entire life she has been told what to do, where to go and what to think. The family expects certain things of Valancy and Valancy has always done what she was supposed to do.

But this is the story of Valancy coming into her own.

The catalyst for change in Valancy's life is bad news delivered by a doctor -- a doctor who is not the family doctor, which is her first act of rebellion against a clan deeply set in their ways. After that she decides to do what she wants and feels is right despite the disapproval of her family: first she leaves home to take care of a dying young woman who has been ostracized by the community; next she marries a mysterious recluse suspected of harboring dark secrets. And, worst of all in the eyes of her extended family, she has the audacity not to be sorry about it.

Montgomery was a writer gifted at sketching out characters who are simultaneously caricatured and realistically eccentric. Valancy's prejudiced, unbending family is hilarious because they are so over-the-top, but also because they sound like people we know who are hopelessly set in their ways. Reading Valancy's liberation from them is cathartic, even as someone who never had such tight restrictions to rebel against.

The Blue Castle ends with both a twist and a reveal (I was surprised when I first read this book as a teenager; upon rereading I think that may have been a sign of my immaturity as a reader, because there are clues aplenty about the eventual outcome) but the plot machinations aren't what's of chief importance here. The themes of not judging by appearances and the danger of making assumptions are the real meat of the story; the bonuses are Montgomery's characteristic odes to the splendor of Canadian flora and fauna and a sweet love story (if you're into that sort of thing).

(If you're interested in a higher-quality analysis of this book, I highly recommend this essay.)

A Tangled Web is basically The Blue Castle times ten but stripped of much of the depth and insight. The family is larger: this time it's actually several generations of two families who have intermarried over the years to form a monolithic tribe. The story begins with dozens of Darks (mostly married to Penhallows) and Penhallows (mostly married to Darks) assembling at the bedside of a clan matriarch as feared and hated as she is revered. She has a bomb to drop on them: she is dying, and she is leaving a family heirloom to someone in the family -- but exactly who won't be revealed until a year after her death, and the decision just might be made on the basis of certain specified "good" behaviors in that twelve-month period. A certain man in the family (previously not a prominent clan member) is entrusted with the secret of who will get this coveted inheritance, and how they'll be chosen.

Then she dies, and the games begin.

The novel is spent spinning out the stories of various family feuds, rivalries and romances, and how they fare in the aftermath of this new development. The outcomes are mostly predictable: two middle-aged cousins, who have lived together for years, quarrel over something small but are eventually reconciled; the fractured relationships of several couples are restored; a lonely boy who is living with an aunt and uncle who don't love him is adopted by a lonely old maid. In addition to being (mostly, but not entirely) predictable, each of these threads is underdeveloped, since they all have to share space with one another.

Still, Montgomery plays true to form: pointing out the flaws in her characters and gently mocking them even as she leads them onward to their happy endings. I was glad to learn (I had forgotten certain key plot details) that the woman who spent ten years pining for a man she met on her wedding day, and because of whom she lived apart from her husband for ten years, meets him again (for only the second time) and finds that he has aged poorly, causing her to realize how rash it was to throw away her marriage on the basis of the physical attractiveness of a stranger. Her husband, of course, has been single all these years and is ready (with a few conditions) to welcome her back -- and, the narrator informs us, he is still as good-looking as ever. So is she, and it's strongly implied that this is a large part of why he takes her back.


Which brings me to my main issue with A Tangled Web. The concept is fun -- family drama following a death while everyone vies for possession of an old jug! -- and even if the twelve or so story-lines aren't juggled very well at times, it could still be an enjoyable read. But nearly every character is made unlikable by an underlying shallowness.

It seems at times that this shallowness is being made fun of, and that that might be the whole point -- but too many happy endings seem to hinge on attractiveness, and beauty is strongly correlated with goodness: the people who make the right choices are always the pretty ones. At one point a young woman recognizes for the first time that her former fiance is not as handsome as she had once thought -- and that he will probably not age well! -- and this, rather than his immaturity and selfishness, is ultimately what convinces her that she is better off marrying someone else.

Maybe I was particularly attuned to this after reading The Blue Castle, with its persistent message that appearances aren't everything.

Also, A Tangled Web ends -- literally, in the penultimate sentence -- with a racial slur that most vividly demonstrates the story's age. I won't fault it (or Montgomery) too much for being a product of its time, and for accurately reflecting the attitudes of the day, but it does leave a bad taste in the mouth at the end of a book that wasn't quite well-constructed enough to love.

So the clear winner, of these two, is The Blue Castle. But of all of Montgomery's oeuvre, my allegiance will always fall most strongly with the stories of Anne Shirley. Anne's world and life have a maturity and depth and overarching realism that make them worth visiting and revisiting.

But to be fair, mine is an extremely biased opinion. Anne Shirley and I share a name, and I'll always consider our lives linked. Some part of me will always be bound up with that most lovable Canadian redhead.

I'm hoping to (eventually) do a series of posts on the Anne-books. Stay tuned!

But first, if I can switch gears and genres (and everything, pretty much) I have some thoughts about Marvel movies that need to be shared.

The family picture above I pulled shamelessly from the internet -- via pinterest, located here.