24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful read, October 22, 2008
This review is from: Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings (Hardcover)
I am a huge fan of Lucy Maud Montgomery and of her novels. I think I can safely say that I have read every biography or LMM related book available on the market (and then some). Mary Rubio is one of the most well-known LMM scholar and I actually had the opportunity of meeting her in PEI quite a few years ago.
LMM has always been an enigma and through the various biographies written about her (including her very own journals), you always get the feeling that you are still missing huge pieces of her life - that she is still, somehow, managing to remain a mystery.
All of this changed for me when I starting reading The Gift of Wings by Mary Rubio.
This is, withouth a doubt, the most comprehensive book every written on Maud and FINALLY answer so many of the "mystery" questions that have surrounded Maud's life and death for the last 60 years.
The Gift of Wings gives a wonderful glimpse of Maud's life as a youngster and how much she loved PEI. As I was reading, I could actually feel myself in PEI - in the 1800's. The book continues with the story of Ewan (Ewen) and Maud's meeting and subsequent wedding as well as their many moves and the birth of their children (including a third child that did not survive).
Throughout this book, you will find some little gems that had never previously been revealed. This is due in large part by the fact that Maud's son Stuart - met with Rubio on many occasions, before his death to talk about his mother and to give Rubio full access to all of Maud's journals and various writings etc. It is amazing to me to think what would have happened had all of these precious papers been left to Chester, Maud's other son.
There are some great black and whites shots of Maud, her friends and family.
What I also loved about this book is the fact that Rubio really dug deep into the family aspect. She honestly describes Chester (wow!) and Stuart as well as the problem Maud had with Ewan and medication.
FINALLY, this book also announces and clarifies that the "mystery" cause of LMM's death was potentially suicide - although there is some speculation that Maud may simply have accidentally overdosed on the drugs she has become addicted to (prescription).
NOWHERE in any other biography has this ever been mentioned in such a forthright manner. I always felt odd that this somehow was the worst kept secret and yet, never admitted to.
There is also a very interesting look at Maud's problem child - Chester.
Having said all of this, I always thought that although Maud would be the person I would most love to meet (which dead person would you love to talk with) I also always felt that while I would highly respect her as a writer, I probably would not like her as a person. She sounded incredibly vain and not particularly open to honestly discussing feelings, etc.
Although I understand that the time period was different, Maud got very despondent over war, Chester, money, etc. These are still issues that we face today and somehow I feel as though she tended to amplify in her own mind how horrible her life was. It seems to me, she was not living anything that other people were not living - and she had more money than most.
Still, this book is addictive and I could not put it down - which is a miracle since the book has over 600 pages.
This is "the" LMM biography. I suggest you buy it and savour it.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent biography, December 30, 2008
This review is from: Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings (Hardcover)
Mary Rubio's biography of Lucy Maud Montgomery is both an interesting read in and of itself, and a fascinating companion piece for readers of the journals. Whereas it is clear that Rubio has substantial affection for her subject, she does present some of the less- than-glorious aspects of the author unflinchingly. Mary Rubio clearly admires her subject, but does not do so blindly. She is forgiving of Montgomery's human failings, and doesn't address some aspects of the journals in that forgiveness.
One of the most interesting passages of the book considers the strange tale of Herman Leard, although perhaps not in as an in-depth as it might have been. Rubio does make an excellent attempt to state both the facts about Leard (his engagement to another woman at the same time) and the conflicts within Montgomery's account. At no point does she speculate as to the reasons Montgomery may have had in preserving the tale when certain elements of it were clearly tweaked for dramatic impact by Montgomery. Still, while never condemning Montgomery, Rubio seeks to be fair to all sides. A rare thing in a biography written by an individual who spent decades of her life compiling the research.
Rubio's book is exceptionally well balanced particularly considering her great fondness for the subject. She takes the time and effort to consider Ewan MacDonald (Montgomery's husband) as a full person also, and in doing so helps solve the mystery of what actually ailed the man. Since MacDonald seems to only exist in the journals as the millstone around Montgomery's neck, this information finally gives the man some dignity of his own.
The subject of Montgomery's very difficult son, Chester, is addressed honestly and with no attempt to conceal his faults. This is in sharp contrast to Montgomery's own description of him within the journals, where her devastation over his conduct was often mystifying because she did seek to spare her family by concealing details.
One of the best things about this biography is Mary Rubio's detailed descriptions of what was going on in Montgomery's life while she was writing each of her books. She examines the possible motivations behind some of the subject matter, and shines a new light on several of LMM's books in doing so.
An excellent, very fast-paced read and I believe it would be of interest to individuals not particularly familiar with Lucy Maud Montgomery. Mary Rubio resists sensationalizing any of the information she presents and presents a kind, but not sugar-coated look into the life of a woman who has often been termed an enigma.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Anne of Green Gables Author, December 14, 2008
This review is from: Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings (Hardcover)
This will probably be the definitive biography of L.M.Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables and many other books. It is extraordinarily well researched, a good read, compassionate, and fair-minded. To the readers of her books Montgomery seemed a happy and relatively carefree person, and to her friends and the congregations of her husband, a Presbyterian minister, they seemed a happy and well-balanced couple. It was when her Selected Journals were published in five volumes that it became evident that she suffered from depression through most of her life, and her husband was afflicted with severe mental illness. The sombre picture of the Journals shocked those who had known her, and they were not, in fact, the whole story. She used her Journals for therapeutic purposes, and this caused them to be an outlet for what she could never admit in public. As for her husband's illness, and her own increasing illness in her last years, that was mainly caused by the overuse of bromides and barbiturates, sometimes prescribed by doctors and sometimes not,which in those years were not understood to poison the body and unhinge the mind. This makes the story less than pleasant, as does the appalling behavior of her eldest son. But the book is sympathetic to Montgomery and to her husband, and is not all sadness.
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