38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Better Left Alone, July 7, 2008
This review is from: Before Green Gables (Hardcover)
Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson
I have to admit, this is a book I secretly half-longed for and publicly dreaded (in book club, that is). Let's face it, L.M. Montgomery and Anne Shirley are icons. As much as I wanted to know what happened to Anne before she showed up at the Bright River station, if Montgomery couldn't do it, I was content just to let my imagination do the work. Unfortunately, not everyone felt that way, hence the new book, a prequel to Anne of Green Gables. Don't get me wrong, the book's not all bad, but to accurately assess it, we'll have to take it in two parts.
First of all, the story itself. We first meet Walter and Bertha Shirley, newly weds- poor but happy. They ooze contentment. Soon Anne arrives and the contentment deepens. Her mother adores and pets her, but never regains her strength from the birth. Fever sweeps through the village and it isn't long before Anne is an orphan. She moves to the Thomas household where we hope she'll at least feel some love for the sake of her dead mother, whom Mrs. Thomas worked for and adored. We soon learn that this is too much to hope for and before her fifth birthday, Anne is pressed into service. This is the single longest sojourn of Anne's life and it quickly becomes tedious. There are those who provide Anne with little rays of sunshine, but for the most part, her life is one of drudgery and exhaustion. And it goes on for 200 pages.
After Mr. Thomas' untimely demise, Anne is sent to live with the Hammond family. Anne's hopes are again dashed when she learns that she is not to be anything more than a hired hand. We also see Mrs. Hammond's postnatal depression and how her whole family is sucked into it. Again, there are those who provide Anne with some solace, but the drudgery and misery seem to be black holes that absorb it all.
At Mr. Hammond's death, Anne's greatest fears come true and she arrives at the Hopetown Orphanage. This is the most miserable of all her 'homes' and Anne is stripped several of her pitifully few possessions. Think shades of A Series of Unfortunate Events. Hope glimmers when Anne is chosen to go to Prince Edward Island and live with the Cuthberts and we leave her on the station platform waiting for the future.
In and of itself, the story is mostly consistent with what we know about Anne from Montgomery's telling. However, the story falls flat from Montgomery's hints of a neglected childhood. Certainly Anne is neglected, but it is not the total abandon that Montgomery hints is her background. Anne tells Marilla that no one ever did want her, but Wilson tells us that she was wanted- a few times. There are also inconsistencies in Anne's character and Wilson expects us to believe that Anne was using words like "exquisite" at the age of six. While I know Anne was an extraordinary child, even I cannot stretch my imagination that far.
Second, there is the writing style. Wilson's writing style is to the point. It falls far short from Montgomery's lilting style and the poetry of Anne is totally lost in Wilson's bluntness. There are also topics discussed that Montgomery wouldn't have touched with a ten foot pole. Anne doesn't sound like Anne and the descriptions fall so far short of Montgomery's that it's almost laughable.
Of course, Wilson is not a Montgomery scholar. That much is apparent in her acknowledgments when she thanks a scholar for providing her with references for Montgomery's hints of Anne's history. So she should not be blamed for not knowing Montgomery's style. But if Anne's history required a prequel, would it not have been better to choose a scholar who could put this together for us? Someone who could adopt Montgomery's style or at least some semblance of it?
While the story is a good story and would have been brilliant if it were written for another character, as Anne's story, it doesn't fit. It truly is unfortunate for those of us who love Anne and Montgomery.
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38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A nice visit with Anne, February 23, 2008
This review is from: Before Green Gables (Hardcover)
When I first heard about the upcoming prequel to Anne of Green Gables I was nervous about it. It wasn't too far off the mark for me to worry that the new book would not compare to Anne of Green Gables - which is a very beloved novel of mine. However, I was mightily surprised when I read Before Green Gables as it was miraculously able to capture a lot (not all mind you) of Anne's essence that I was originally certain would be missing from this tale. For the die-hards this may still fall a little flat for them as it is missing a lot of LMM's descriptions and humor but it is still a lovely read. I think most fans of the series will enjoy having a new story to take them back to a simpler time with Anne - even if for Anne it was some of her hardest years. I really liked having some answers to where Anne came from, how she was brought up and what her parents were really like.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very interesting story, March 3, 2008
This review is from: Before Green Gables (Hardcover)
Since I am an octogenarian and male, every one wonders how in the world I ever got myself mixed up with this Anne business anyway. I got myself into this Anne business purely by accident. I have considered myself fairly well read in the male type authors such as Michael Crichen, Tom Clancy, Mark Twain, Jack London, etc.,etc.,
I just happened to see a movie of Anne of Green Gables. That set me off into an entirely different direction. After going through all of the eight books of the Anne series in just a few weeks (Including a couple of other L.M. Montgomery books,) I just happened on the preguel, 'Before Green Gables' by Budge Wilson.
Since no one but the original author can ever write a book exactually how it's supposed to be written, I think that Budge Wilson did a most outstanding and wonderful job with all of the research that she had done to write the book that comes very close on how Montgomery might just have written it.
Of course, she put in great detail on how Anne's parents died when she was just months old. Then taken in by the neighbors to be first raised and then be used as a virtual slave by the mother of the very disfunctional family where no love just discord is shown - all of her trials and tribulations - a lost childhood in a very disfunctional family where Anne was treated with no love - where she had to creat her own little world using all of her imagination in order to just keep herself sane. Then she is transfered over to another family almost as bad.
Finally her trip to the orphanage where Mrs. Spencer finally finds her and her whole world finally opens up to love and being a little girl again.
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