Behold, it's slice-of-life that I actually like.
Perhaps this is because it's not boring. As you may know, Bob, the main reason I don't tend to like slice-of-life is that it bores me to read about the everyday lives of these characters about whom I do not care; Anne of Green Gables manages to be interesting, and it also manages to have characters I care about. They have personalities.
I would like to live in Avonlea. It's full of people who seem like they'd be interesting to know.
During this readthrough, I realized that pretty much everyone in this book is happy. To greater or lesser degrees, sure, but they are.
Anne talks like a book, so she will occasionally say things like "I swept her a look of withering scorn." It's implied she got most of her vocabulary from reading. As the person who once used the word "oscillates" in a paper because it legitimately did not occur to me that something like "switches" would perhaps be a better choice, I see a bit of myself in that. Anne also occasionally manages to talk for several pages at a time without a paragraph break, which... I don't think I've ever done that?
Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E.
4 stars.
Favorite lines:
"Anne, are you killed?" shrieked Diana, throwing herself on her knees beside her friend. "Oh, Anne, dear Anne, speak just one word to me and tell me if you're killed."
To the immense relief of all the girls, and especially of Josie Pye, who, in spite of lack of imagination, had been seized with horrible visions of a future branded as the girl who was the cause of Anne Shirley's early and tragic death, Anne sat dizzily up and answered uncertainly: "No, Diana, I am not killed, but I think I am rendered unconscious."
"Where?" sobbed Carrie Sloane. "Oh, where, Anne?"
Page 301.
The first person we saw was Moody Spurgeon sitting on the steps and muttering away to himself. Jane asked him what on earth he was doing and he said he was repeating the multiplication table over and over to steady his nerves and for pity's sake not to interrupt him, because if he stopped for a moment he got frightened and forgot everything he ever knew, but the multiplication table kept all his facts firmly in his proper place!
Page 417.
My favorite part of this review is: "Anne talks like a book, so she will occasionally say things like "I swept her a look of withering scorn." It's implied she got most of her vocabulary from reading. As the person who once used the word "oscillates" in a paper because it legitimately did not occur to me that something like "switches" would perhaps be a better choice, I see a bit of myself in that." Yes, Sam, I see you in her writing style, too!!!
ReplyDelete-Grammy
Uh, thanks.
DeleteIf you're in the mood this summer, you might get a big kick out of the rest of the series now, too. Especially the first four books.
ReplyDeleteI might. They do seem interesting, although like you said, I'd have to be in the right mood for them.
Delete