Where Anne Goes to College

Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There's a good reason these books have quietly survived in the culture, on a slow boil for the last 100+ years. This one, like the other books in the series, is a real pleasure to read, and I enjoyed it.

It's not for everyone. It wasn't for a younger version of me. There's a rosy tinge of optimism that can be too much, I think, for some readers, maybe a little too much sentimentality, and I wouldn't argue the point (even though I don't agree). I like that the story is cozy, somewhat; I like that Anne is an optimist; I like that she is a catalyst for joy in other people's lives; I like that she accepts people who are difficult; I like that she doesn't settle for second-best. Those elements are balanced by the harsh realities of life--the early death of friends and loved ones; the heartbreak of love affairs; the disappointment of hopes. Nothing is easy, and not everyone gets a happy ending. It feels painfully real, but presented with joy just the same.

One of the most significant themes in this book and the series is that there is a cost for not taking a risk, for not starting your life, for not marrying that person you loved. Lonely old people are all through the series. The stories allow for people doing late in life what they should have done sooner--better late than never--but it shows over and over how crucial it is that people make connections and support one another and listen to their hearts from the start. Time is short; don't wait. Don't let life pass you by.

Most of the book is Anne's college years, and even though it's 70 earlier than my own college years, it gives me a real sense of nostalgia as if I were there. It's a mixed feeling. I can sense the exhilaration of being young at school even while I'm feeling the well-worn, sentimental yearning for a period of my life that is now well past. Those years are short, and even in the novel they fly by. As in the rest of the book, we're reminded not to wait. Get after it. Live well. Love well. Look around you today.

Anne isn't quite as sunny in this book as she is elsewhere, but she's still well ahead of the curve. Readers who can't take that kind of MC may never read this series with pleasure. There's also a touch of churchiness here (about as much as Jane Austen has) that I don't love, but it's reasonable for the time. Still, I find these books surprisingly modern in tone. A little subversive, even, especially regarding women's rights and freedoms. Just making a novel about women going to college back in the early 1900s, treating that experience as natural and commonplace, feels modern, and I suspect it had a positive effect on readers at that time.

I liked it. I think many readers could read this with pleasure (if they were to give it a chance), but even more than that, I think readers could find themselves motivated by the novel to adopt a new attitude toward some things, maybe even make some changes in their lives. In the same way that many of us, trying to be a better person, have asked ourselves more than half-seriously, "What would Ted Lasso do?" some of us unmotivated people might also ask ourselves, "What would Anne do?" She'd go have some fun, probably.

Ted would have liked Anne. She's curious.

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