Le tumultuose vicende della vecchia brocca dei Dark: probabilmente solo L.M. Montgomery poteva tirar fuori del brio da tali premesse.

Un clan vecchio di generazioni si riunisce attorno a zia Becky, in procinto di morte, per la lettura del testamento. Quali saranno i destini e le ultime volontà? E quali quelle del cimelio più ambito della famiglia?

Gli eccentrici membri dell’utopica realtà montgomeriana vivranno le giornate tra colpi di scena, azioni audaci, ammonimenti e capricci: "l’intricata matassa" alla quale dovranno far capo.

Deliziosa come ogni nuova pubblicazione Jo March editore.

n  "She longed for freedom, as all women do, but had sense enough to understand that real freedom is impossible in this kind of a world, the lucky people being those who can choose their masters, so she never made the mistake of kicking uselessly over the traces."n

I love when L.M. Montgomery drops you into the middle of a family gathering and leaves you to get your bearings and try to keep up. She writes the clannishness of large families so well, and you can always be sure that her characters will cover the range of every possible personality. No matter how crazy the personality or the situation, it always feels plausible in Montgomery's capable hands.

n  A Tangled Webn is full of wonderful characters. Roger is consistent with his sweet presence, with absolutely no red flags of pressure or expectations. Gay is at times frustrating but always honest with her naive view on life and love. Margaret's acceptance of her dull life despite her desperate wish for a home and a baby. Moon Man appears at the exact right moment with his insightful commentary and wandering spirit. All thrown together with plenty of not-so-wonderful gossipy self-serving characters.

It's lovely to see that instalove was alive and well in the 1930s, though, showing up twice(!) in n  A Tangled Webn. As usual, Montgomery has to one-up everyone and show them how instalove is done - one look is all it takes in these situations. In the end, it just ends up causing heartbreak, lost time, and stupid, inflamed reactions. If Montgomery can't do it, no one will ever convince me this is a legitimate (or believable) plot device.

Oh, I thought I was going to make it - I was so optimistic, but I should have known better than to hope that we'd make it through a book from this time without some form of racism. I suppose it's good the only openly racist comment happened in the very last paragraph, but it's certainly not the ideal note to end on.

I love Montgomery's writing, and n  A Tangled Webn is prototypical of her best, especially as a standalone. I grew up loving her series (both Anne of Green Gables and Emily), so it's nice to read one of her standalones for the first time and be transported back into her beautifully written world for a short visit. While the families and the settings may be different, they all leave a similar feeling of nostalgia and satisfaction.

Review originally posted here on Britt's Book Blurbs.

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انقدر بهم چسبید که حد نداره:))
پیشنهاد می‌کنم بعد مدتی خوندن کتابای سنگین و ... یکم با قلم نویسنده‌هایی مثل مونتگمری به ذهنتون استراحت بدین..

One of the few L.M. Montgomery titles that I did not read in my childhood, A Tangled Web was a double treat, in that it contained so many well-loved Montgomery "types," but was also wholly new to me. The simultaneous feeling of friendly familiarity and excited discovery that I experienced while reading it made it the ideal book in which to lose myself for a few wonderful hours.

Chronicling one year in the life of the interrelated Dark and Penhallow clans, whose many scandals, quarrels, and love affairs are brought to the fore when family matriarch Aunt Becky refuses to disclose who is to inherit the old Dark jug (a much-coveted heirloom), A Tangled Web offers a rich tapestry of stories, each entertaining in its own right, and all woven together in a moving portrait of extended family life on Canada's Prince Edward Island.

Here the reader will encounter the beautiful Gay Penhallow, merry and young, who is convinced that her love for her fiancé Noel Gibson will last forever - until he is stolen away by her femme-fatale cousin Nan. Here are Peter Penhallow and Donna Dark, who have hated each other all their lives because of their fathers' quarrel, until a chance meeting causes them to fall instantly and violently in love. Here too are Joscelyn and Hugh Dark, inexplicably separated on their wedding night; Little Sam Dark and Big Sam Dark, two bachelors who part ways over religious principle and a naked statue; lonely little Brian Dark, who longs for a mother; and wistful, poetic Margaret Penhallow, who longs for a child... All these quandaries, and more besides, are happily resolved by the end, as Montgomery brings her many story-lines together in a satisfying and very appropriate ending. Naturally, the Dark jug goes to the right person!

That said, although I am a devoted fan of Montgomery's work, and enjoyed A Tangled Web, I think the contemporary reader will be quite uncomfortable, as I was, with two glaring instances of racism in the book. The first was Little Sam's "harmless hobby" of collecting skulls from the local Indian burial ground and posting them on his fence, and the second was the unfortunate use of the word "n*gger" at the very close of the story. It's possible that Montgomery was simply trying to convey the "courseness" of the characters involved, and I'm sure an argument could be made that this is how people "back then" thought and spoke. I wouldn't say that the inclusion of these two elements ruined the novel for me, but they certainly inserted a most unwelcome and ugly tone in an otherwise pleasant book.

L.M. Montgomery the OG soap Opera writer!!!

Seriously though, I wanted to love this book, but I struggled for days to finish it. There are too many people in this book, and it’s just not put together in a way that makes it easy to remember who is who.

That said, I enjoyed some of the storylines more than others. I was VERY confused about the Jug and completely thrown by Jocelyn’s storyline. She was probably the biggest idiot since Juliet (aka Romeo and Juliet).

I did enjoy Aunt Becky and her sassiness and prickliness as the matriarch I’d the family. I can’t even begin to go into all the family and their plot lines as there were at least 40 people talked about...

Overall I’m glad I read it, but I won’t be picking it up again anytime soon, actually probably never will.

This book is an absolute character soup with numerous banal subplots centered about the completely asinine question of who gets an old, ugly heirloom jug. Yet, it is brilliant. In appreciating art, I have always had a soft spot for those works that take things to such extremes that I am forced to love what I would normally hate. In A Tangled Web, L. M. Montgomery succeeds in layering so many different characters that they become part of the setting, and unlike in the similar character stews (like, say, in the works of Jane Austen) you are not only not expected to keep track of them all, but to do so would ruin the effect Montgomery wishes to achieve. The same is true with the jug; to question why the various Darks and Penhallows so covet it is to miss the point.

In short, A Tangled Web is well worth a read; the prose is exemplary and injected with just the proper amount of levity, so even after the book concludes with the telegraphed anticlimax, you are more than happy at having read it.

برای من که اصلا طرفدار جمع‌های بزرگ و شلوغ و خانوادگی نیستم، خوندن این کتاب یه تجربه جالب بود. می پرسین چرا؟ خیلی واضحه، چون انگار به یه مهمونی بزرگ دعوت شدین اما حواس هیچکس متوجه شما نیست. هرجایی که بخواین، هر گوشه و کناری می‌تونین سرک بکشین و همچنان توی اون مهمونی باشین. (کاش همه مهمونی ها همچین قابلیتی داشتن که هر وقت ازش خسته می‌شدی میتونستی مثل کتابت فقط ببندیش و بری سراغ کارهای دیگه

Історія клану, в якому споконвіків дві родини одружуються між собою і плетуть своє павутиння. Серед них всіх тітонька Беккі, яка на смертному одрі вирішує останній раз повеселитися і тримати клан в напрузі щодо того, хто ж отримає родинну реліквію.

Події розгортаються легко та весело, читаєш з передчуттям, що все у них всіх має бути добре. Однозначно, знайомство з членами клану і їхня гонитва за реліквією принесе вам хороший настрій. Останню фразу в книжці звинувачують у расизмі, проте, мабуть, це був такий час, коли ця фраза мала б здатися дотепною.

To była dzika jazda od początku do końca, humor Montgomery i jej zadziwiająco ostry język są tu wykorzystane w pełnej krasie i zabiłabym za ekranizację tej powieści. Mini-serial najlepiej. HBO contact me, please.

Darkowie i Penhallowowie żenią się między sobą, przekraczając granice chowu wsobnego i kazirodztwa. Stanowią prowincjonalną arystokrację pewnego rodzaju, a przynajmniej za to się uważają. Głową rodziny jest ciotka Becky, wiekowa dama, która ma dość życia, urządza ostatnie spotkanie rodu i mówi wszystkim bez ogródek, co o nich myśli. A klan słucha w pokorze, bo każdy chce dostać w spadku jeden przedmiot - wiekowy, bezwartościowy dzban, który łączy się z mitem założycielskim rodziny. Becky nie żałuje sobie ostatniej złośliwości - tajemnica spadku zostanie wyjawiona rok po jej śmierci, co oznacza, że jeszcze przez rok każdy ma rzekomo szansę go dostać. Albo sprawa jest rozstrzygnięta i nieważne, co zrobią. Daje im szereg wskazówek i wytycznych (albo nie, bo może nazwisko już jest w kopercie), co do których powinni (lub nie) się stosować, żeby mieć szansę w tym wyścigu.

I zaczynają się kłopoty. Zasadniczo mamy bohatera zbiorowego w postaci klanu, ale kilka postaci dostaje więcej miejsca w fabule niż inne. Są to:
Jocelyn, która z nieznanych przyczyn porzuciła swojego męża, Hugo, w noc poślubną i wróciła do domu matki tak jak z niego wyszła - w sukni ślubnej i welonie.
Donna Dark - młoda wdowa, zakochana od pierwszego wejrzenia (z wzajemnością) w Percym, rodzinnym podróżniku, pochodzącym z gałęzi rodu zwaśnionej z jej własną (Romeo i Julia tej opowieści).
Stara panna Margaret, która marzy o własnym domu, ale jest biedna, chociaż bogata duchowo.
Gay, młoda dziewczyna, obiekt westchnień Rogera, lekarza rodziny i groomera, zakochana w Noelu Gibsonie, bezwartościowym w oczach klanu.
Wujek Pippin, który definitywnie nie jest hetero (w rej roli Alan Cumming).
Penny Dark, który też nie jest hero (asexual icon) i o tym nie wie (myślę Fred Armisen).
Mój ulubiony bohater, czyli Oswald Dark, nazywany Moon Manem, bo jest zakochany w księżycu.
Mały i Duży Sam, zawodowi comic relief.

Zabiłabym za drzewo genealogiczne dodane do książki.

Zasadniczo to komedia, wiele romantycznych wątków, zadziwiająco głęboka proza i od dawna nie byłam tak pod wrażeniem warsztatu i talentu Montgomery - chyba od czasu, kiedy pierwszy raz czytałam "Emilkę ze Srebrnego Nowiu". Genialna powieść, którą polecam wszystkim fanom komedii romantycznych, powieści dla panien i zjadliwego humoru.

I finally finished this! Woohoo!

Ok, a really short review:

When I started this, I was so excited. And then let down. This book wasn't at all what I expected. The first half of the book was really hard to get through. The second half picked up and I was enjoying it when I was reading it, just not as much as I would've liked.

There were so many characters to keep track of, but I did it! I think I remembered who everyone was and which stories belonged to which characters.

My favorite stories were Gay's and Roger's and Hugh's and Jocelyn's.

I must admit, the next to last chapter was absolutely hilarious! I couldn't help laughing! I added a half-star just for this chapter!

I didn't care for the language, which there wasn't a LOT of, but it just didn't fit in with a Montgomery story, in my opinion. Also, that very last line...not my ideal ending to a book. I really didn't like it.

Overall, I'm giving this book 4.5 stars out of 5.

Ahoy there mateys! I adore this author and featured her in me Broadside No. 18. So image me surprise when I read Matey Briana’s review of this book:

"Before Aunt Becky dies, she tells her clan that she’s going to leave a cherished heirloom jug to one of them–but they won’t know the beneficiary until one year after her passing. Even worse: she’s not going to tell them how she’s deciding who gets it, so they’ll have to be on their best behavior just in case she’s instructed someone still living to decide who gets it in a year. Shenanigans ensue as everyone competes for chance at the jug. It’s a ridiculous-sounding premise when you say it’s a novel about people fighting over a jug, but the book is magic and one of Montgomery’s strongest works. It’ also the only one written with multiple points of view."

The problem – nothing other than I had never heard of this book! Embarrassing but true. So I got a copy and read it. The blurb does sound ridiculous but this is a fantastic book which really does highlight the talent of L.M. Montgomery. I absolutely loved all the quirky characters and story. It was endearing and fabulous. I am so glad to have gotten to read this one. Literally the only downside (a big one) was the very last paragraph which used an awful racial slur that was so unnecessary. So the last thought of the book was distaste. But the rest of the book is a gem. Makes me want to reread the Jane and Emily books. Arrrr!

a fali czytania powieści Montgomery sięgnęłam po tę, dotąd mi nieznaną, książkę. Przyznać muszę jednak, że była to lektura nad wyraz męcząca i długa. Montgomery nie udało się wyjść ponad sentymentalny schemat, a przyjemności z czytania nie przysłużyła się tytułowa plątanina charakterów, postaci i imion.

Ciotka Becky to seniorka dwóch rodów, które od wielu lat praktykują lżejszą wersję kazirodztwa. Na słynnych podwieczorkach u ciotki spotykają się wszyscy przedstawiciele powiązanych ze sobą ściśle rodów, co jest świetną okazją do wyśmiewania ich przywar, do plotkowania i obserwowania kto, z kim i co. Ciotka Becky szykuje się jednak do umierania i wzywa ród po raz ostatni, by zdecydować komu przekaże słynny dzban - rodzinną pamiątkę. Ciekawość, zawiść i chciwość pędzą wszystkich krewnych na to mało ciekawe i przyjemne spotkanie.

Ciąg dalszy: http://przeczytalamksiazke.blogspot.c...