DNFing for now... I'm struggling to connect to the story but I know pushing through is worth it with LM Montgomery, I'll definitely be coming back to this story at some other time!

I returned to this book over and over when I was younger. This one is witty and paints vastly different characters quite vividly. I laughed throughout the story at their loves and follies and loved each of their crazy adventures tremendously.

One of my absolute favorite L.M. Montgomery books. This story about two quarreling fictional families in Prince Edward Island was just amazing. I think it is probably why I loved family drama stories so much!

This book holds many different storylines from two different families. Some I loved and others I didn’t really like to read about. But by the end of the book, I had thoroughly enjoyed the story. It all starts over a big ugly jug and then tells of the consequent year after those first few chapters. The lives of so many of the characters change over that year and it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it all. Highly recommend and I will definitely read this again.

Never dreamed I could rate a Montgomery book one star, but I couldn't stand the Aunt and the whole clan. Skipped to the last chapter, just to find out what does happen to the old brown jug and the nicer of the cousins.

I wasn't sure I would enjoy this, but once I'd made it through the first couple of chapters it became hugely entertaining. I never did get a grip on who all the cousins were or how everybody was related but it didn't matter - just enjoy the ride. Because the ride is the thing with LMM. It's fairly obvious from the start what the endings of all the subplots will be but it's far from clear how we are going to get there, and her ingenuity often is quite brilliant.

So I think this is one I may come back to again. I loved the central idea, of a fairly rubbish jug assuming massive importance as a prized heirloom within a sizeable family, both as a setpiece and as a mechanism for bringing together the various characters' stories. And I liked the characters and the ebb and flow of the action. Excellent.

واقعا هم کتاب یک کلاف سردرگم بود، داستان درباره یک کوزه خانوادگی هست که برای مشخص کردن وارث بعدی، اعضای دو خاندان دور هم جمع میشن و این حضور و ملاقات دوباره افراد و قضیه وارث تقریبا روی زندگی همه افراد خاندان تاثیر می ذاره، بعضی ها کمتر بعضی ها بیشتر(جز سم ها،اون ها اون وسط به طرز بامزه ای با خودشون درگیر بودن)
این کتاب با بقیه کتاب های مونتگمری فرق داشت، خبری از یک دختر نوجوان با عشق و عاشقی های پاک و قشنگ نبود.
ما چندین بزرگسال رو داشتیم و دردسر ها و مشکلاتشون رو و عشق هایی که قبلا مونتگمری ازشون صحبت نمی‌کرد که خوب بود.
توصیفات به طرز قابل توجهی کمتر بود، با اینکه توصیفات مونتگمری خیلی قشنگن و راحت میتونی اون منظره رو تصور کنی ولی با کم بودنش اصلا مشکلی نداشتم.
میشه گفت کتاب درباره تاثیر اطرافیان روی زندگیت و غرورشون و عشق بود، حتی تو کسایی که خیلی نقش کمی تو کتاب داشتن میشد این نکته ها رو دید.
کتاب دلنشینی بود، تقریبا همه کرکتر ها دوست داشتم ولی بعضی ها طور دیگه ای تو ذهنم خواهند موند.

Although in L.M. Montgomery's 1931 (adult themed) novel A Tangled Web most of the various and diverse both living and yes also long and recently deceased depicted and featured members of the Penhallow and Dark clans (and with recently deceased I also mean family matriarch Aunt Becky Dark, née Penhallow) have made me want to generally giggle (and often quite derisively) and sometimes also scream more than a bit impatiently at the Penhallows and Darks and their behaviours, their antics (via the unseen but definitely not ever silent narrator with his/her sarcastic asides and delightfully humorous descriptions of a large, well-known but obviously also eccentric and woefully dysfunctional Prince Edward Island family), I also did end up (and surprisingly for me) rather emotionally invested in especially some of the love stories presented in A Tangled Web. For even though I am usually not that much of a fan of L.M. Montgomery's romances (and was at first kind of aghast that in A Tangled Web there are actually something like four different episodes of love and courting), I did find myself actively cheering especially when Gay Penhallow not only finally and totally rejects her fickle fiancé Noel Gibson but also realises that she indeed is truly in love with Roger Penhallow (and I also do very much appreciate that L.M. Montgomery does not cast all of the blame for what happened between Gay and Noel at Gay's selfish and malicious cousin Nan Penhallow stealing Noel's affections but that she clearly points out that Noel Gibson is a spineless, self important and shallow fool of a "man" who basically in the end deserves being dropped like a proverbially hot potato by both Nan and then Gay, who finally sees the light and refuses to take Noel back when he comes calling after Nan has finally had enough of him).

And even Peter Dark and Donna Penhallow's romance and indeed Jocelyn and Hugh Dark's story do tug at my emotions (and I am glad of the happy endings) although personally I have definitely found Jocelyn as a character at best a bit frustrating (that she simply left her husband Hugh almost at the altar so to speak when she took one look at Hugh's best man Frank and fell in love with him at first sight, as yes, this not only makes me rather personally angry and annoyed on Hugh's behalf but that L.M. Montgomery also focusses mostly on Jocelyn and only rather sparingly on Hugh when she has her narrator in A Tangled Web relate their story, it does kind of feel a bit uncomfortable and monotonous as in my humble opinion in the marriage fiasco between Jocelyn and Hugh, it is not really a case of that it takes two to tango since the fault really is to be or rather should be cast mostly at Jocelyn and at her stubbornness holding on to that silly dream of love at first sight, which yes in the end is thankfully destroyed, but it does take almost the entire course of A Tangled Web for Jocelyn to finally come to her senses and return to Hugh).

Now I have read in both reviews and literary analyses of A Tangled Web that Pennyciuk Dark asking family dressmaker, old maid (and often the object of family derision and pointed nastiness) Margaret Penhallow to marry him (and mostly in order to increase his chances of obtaining that coveted jar of Aunt Harriet's) is to be approached as being rather comical. But in my opinion, while I do find Pennyciuk a rather clown-like figure in and of himself, I personally happen to consider Margaret Penhallow more tragic and sad (and not in any derisive and critical manner whatsoever, as I actually do consider her as one of the characters in A Tangled Web that L.M. Montgomery has constructed and described with the most love and personal understanding simply because her family has cast Margaret aside, that the Darks and Penhallows all seem to see her as a nothing and a nobody). And while it has certainly made me chuckle a bit when Penny Dark is strutting around like a peacock and thinking that by proposing marriage to Margaret Penhallow, he is conferring some great honour to her, that she (although it is clear from L.M. Montgomery's narrative that Margaret Penhallow really does not at all desire Penny and really does not desire marriage either) feels obligated to accept Penny's proposal, this actually kind of makes me really sad and actually more than a bit personally enraged.

Therefore, when Margaret finally gets her own home, adopts abused orphan Brian Dark and basically lets Pennyciuk Dark know that him breaking the engagement is actually totally wonderful and not at all something that will in any manner be even remotely traumatic for her, this makes the Penny and Margaret "romance" (quotes are mine) the most personally satisfying one in A Tangled Web (but not really all that comical in my opinion, just satisfying), for L.M. Montgomery allows Margaret Penhallow to find her true happiness without adult love and traditional marriage (as Margaret is able to obtain a coveted and aesthetically lovely home, with an evocatively beautiful name, she adopts dreamy and by the entire clan nastily ignored and despised orphan Brian Dark, and she obviously does NOT need either a husband or even an adult male love interest to obtain ultimate contentment and joy).

And finally, of course, L.M. Montgomery's A Tangled Web has at its main core that coveted (and described by the narrator as being pretty distinctly ugly) jug of Aunt Harriet Dark's and who will (about a year and a half after Aunt Rebecca Dark's death) finally receive it as an heirloom. And personally, I have to admit that even though the by all (or most) Darks and Penhallows desired and wanted jug is I guess the thread that holds all of the different strands and episodes of A Tangled Web together, I have found the family's almost religious obsession with said intimate object rather annoyingly strange (but I guess it kind of does underline just how into their various and almost sacred family traditions the Penhallows and the Darks are and how a family heirloom can be considered an absolute treasure even if it is aesthetically horrid and visually off-putting).

But for me, with the ending of A Tangled Web, when Oswald Dark (who is obsessed with the moon and is considered not all there so to speak even by his eccentric clan) takes Aunt Harriet's jug and smashes it, I not only laughed (and continue to laugh) out loud, I actually consider this to have been what the clan should have done with that silly jug in the first place. And therefore, with regard to going against family tradition and taking an active role against this, I for one very much believe that Oswald Dark is indeed the only truly and completely sane member of the entire family and I even also sometimes wish that he had thrown that jug and destroyed it right at the beginning of A Tangled Web and perhaps even in Aunt Becky's hallowed presence (but of course, then there would not have been the need for a story, but indeed, seeing that jug in smithereens really does make me smile with both appreciation and going against family tradition glee and makes A Tangled Web an entertainingly, satirically delightful four star reading experience).

I forgot about the abundant swearing for a LMM book and racist ending but the humor is still brilliant.

I didn't really have any expectations for this one. For unknown reasons the unread book never appealed to me and it is one of the last Montgomery novels I read.

Yet I really liked A Tangled Web. I was intrigued from the very beginning and found myself caring for many of the characters.

It was quite an unusual setting for a Montgomery novel to have that many storylines, but for me, it worked well. I enjoyed reading it and I was pleasantly surprised.

I loved this book. But hated the last line.

یک شاهکار دیگه از مونتگومری عزیزم:)
روحت شاد زن، روحمون رو شاد کردی!
انقدر فضای داستان جذاب و خفن و کلاسیک و قشنگ بود و انقدر داستان های عاشقانه ش جذاب بودن که دلم نمیومد بخونمش تا تموم شه. عزیز بود.