Ode estatica alla casa editrice Jo March per averci regalato la traduzione di un altro romanzo della Montgomery, la cui maggior parte della produzione letteraria è rimasta finora ingiustamente poco nota in Italia.

Pat come la più celebre Anne, ma anche Emily, Jane o Marigold è una ragazzina speciale che conquista subito il cuore del lettore qualsiasi sia la sua età (aspetto che in un romanzo di Montgomery viene relegato a dato puramente anagrafico). È l’esempio di come l’amore sia indispensabile nella crescita dei bambini per renderli umani migliori, di come i sentimenti agevolino le buone azioni e quanto una buona immaginazione lasciata a briglia sciolta tra campi assolati e giochi senza tempo, colonizzando con la fantasia la sfera luminescente della quotidianità, sia rilevante nella crescita.

At book club the other day, someone asked me if I ever read books without an analytical eye to structure and tone and that sort of thing, and I said, yes of course, but did enjoy reading critically, especially for book club.

Well, Mae, here's one that I didn't read closely, and I really wish I had!

I'm on a slow, multi-year project to read all the LM Montgomery books. I loved the Anne books as a kid, and still regularly thank CBC for providing me with the Anne miniseries, and Road to Avonlea. I came to The Blue Castle as an adult and LOVED it, so I thought I should read through the canon as a personal and patriotic project. Pat of Silver Bush was next in the queue.

And... I thought it sucked. Montgomery's heroines are usually plucky and determined. If they have a fault it's that they're impulsive, and too quick to act. Pat is just the opposite. She hates change, and goes through life with her heels dug in. She loves her home and family, and is appalled at any change or transformation. When her father shaves off his mustache, only a sincere promise to regrow it will stop her tears.

When I read this, I figured Montgomery's publisher had been pushing her for another book (as was the case with Anne of Windy Poplars) and she'd returned to PEI and a novel about growing up as a fail safe. The whole thing seemed rote, since a defining characteristic of a fear of change is kind of a bummer to read and not exactly the kind of thing that advances a plot.

But how wrong I was! I wish I had read this novel with more care, because this is a novel about anxiety that creeps towards a gothic sensibility. Pat's behavior IS unhealthy, and her attachment to a house that's slowly falling apart is her identity being subsumed within something that can never be stable. But because I was expecting another Anne or Emily, I totally missed it, and was just fed up with Pat and Montgomery. I know this is a bit of a cheat, but please go read this wonderful article at The Toast. Kate Slater gives you everything you need to know about the book and Pat, including an analysis of the way seemingly unstoppable string of tragedies in Montgomery's life led to a deep depression and her eventual (maybe) suicide and how that may have influenced the writing of this book.

This is an exploration of what it feels like to live in a world where nothing is certain, the very foundations of your life can't be trusted, and a new event on the horizon can only spell disaster. I'm going to leave my two star rating because I didn't enjoy reading this very much, but I'm so glad I understand what this book is and where it comes from, and I'm much more eager to read Mistress Pat to see how an adult Pat grapples with life.

Pat leads a happy life at Silver Bush, her home which she utterly adores. But change is inevitable, and Pat can't stand it.

This is a peculiarly plotless book, following the rhythms of Pat's life as she grows from a child to adulthood. But being a LM Montgomery book, it is utterly charming. I loved how Pat 'loved very hard,' and the beauty of her daily life. However, I wish she had developed more characters, as Pat, Judy, and Jingle are the only ones who we learn much about.

The first 115 pages can be summed up in 3 sentences - Pat hates change. Pat loves Silver Bush. Both of these are portrayed to the extreme. After that the story gets moving better as Pat gets older and her world expands a little. Pat is Anne at her worst with all talk of poetry and wonder and feeling everything deeply without Anne's humor and intelligence. The story also lacks a wide breadth of characters to take some of the focus off Pat's more annoying traits. Her siblings and parents are names on the page with very little filling out. Even her friends Jingle/Hillary and Bets play very secondary roles. The only character who equals Pat in development is Judy Plum. While the character of Judy is likable her words are written in such a heavy Irish accent it makes it difficult to read. I will read Mistress Pat but if I didn't love Montgomery's other books I doubt I'd want to spend any more time with Pat.

Confession: while I've read almost every other L.M. Montgomery book or short story, (with the exception of The Tangled Web, Magic for Marigold, and The Blythes are Quoted, though not excluding every single short story she ever published; I was an avid reader as a 10-year-old but had an unfortunate lack of good material), I've never completely read Pat of Silver Bush. I've started it multiple times and even attempted to skim it and its sequel but never successfully did (how does one successfully skim a book, anyway?). So it's about time I try again, yes?

Un libro "confortante" Pat di Silver Bush, una casa viva, che respira insieme ai suoi abitanti in un susseguirsi di gioie, emozioni, distacchi, dolori e un forte senso di appartenenza che anima in particolar modo la piccola Pat, così refrattaria ai cambiamenti che sono insiti nella vita come nella natura rigogliosa che muta col mutare delle stagioni non perdendo mai la sua bellezza. Judy Plum, personaggio pittoresco, una mamma chioccia che tutti i Gardiner ma nn solo, adorano. E Jingle un personaggio di grande sensibilità che mi è entrato nel cuore...le sue lettere mai spedite ad una madre che aveva fin troppo idealizzato, un'anima candida, dolce, provata dalla vita ma che non perde mai la sua dignità...un libro di grandi sentimenti che sono quelli della quotidianità, della famiglia, dell'amicizia e dell'amore...

I really enjoyed this! But I liked the second half as she got older much better than in the beginning when she was a child.

Ciepła i urocza opowieść o mieszkańcach Srebrnego Gaju. Dużo tu o szczerym przywiązaniu do rodziny, domu, przyjaciół, zwierząt i przyrody, taka jest bowiem natura głównej bohaterki, Pat, która całym sercem kocha swoje otoczenie.

Czasem naiwnie, czasem kpiarsko i z dystansem, zawsze otulająco. Mam wrażenie, że L. Maud Montgomery wciąż pisze o tym samym, a mi wciąż sprawia przyjemność o tym czytać.

This is such a sweet innocent book about growing up and friendship! <3

I have to admit that I am rather glad to NOT have read Pat of Silver Bush as my first L.M. Montgomery novel. For honestly, if I had encountered Pat of Silver Bush before the author's Anne of Green Gables or Emily of New Moon series, I might well have been tempted to stop reading L.M. Montgomery altogether, I might have (and indeed very much wrongly) assumed ALL of her heroines, her main characters to be as annoyingly passive and often repetitively monotonous as Pat Gardiner has felt to me with her almost obsessive love for her home, for Silver Bush and her consistent and constant resistance to any and all changes (both externally and internally), and that indeed oh so much of Pat of Silver Bush (and yes almost the entire first part of the novel it seems) therefore deals almost exclusively with the latter, has Pat's often unreasonable reactions to changes no matter how small as its main theme.

Now albeit that first reading Pat of Silver Bush as an older adult (and as an older adult who has read and enjoyed much of L.M. Montgomery's oeuvre) has definitely made me appreciative of Montgomery's verbally rich descriptiveness, of her love of home with her glowing and at times almost passionate depictions of Prince Edward Island (and that Pat of Silver Bush is likely also somewhat of an homage to the Island and probably as such even a way to assuage the author's own homesickness, as L.M. Montgomery never really did adjust all that well to having to live in Ontario after her marriage) I have indeed found especially Pat as a main character and yes even housekeeper Judy Plum, while both are loveable and endearing to a point, also rather frustratingly one-sided and sometimes so draggingly and tediously depicted (at least in the beginning of Pat of Silver Bush) that I was often rather tempted to skim over especially Judy Plum's constant gossiping and stories and Pat over and over again being categorically against this and that, against this change and that change (and I also have to say that I have indeed found Pat both rejecting Hilary's affection and that she cannot even really be all that happy for him being able to take an architecture degree in Toronto painful and sad, and yes rather selfish, and that this really does negatively present just how centred on her home and everything staying the same Pat always is).

But while in particular my issues with Pat Gardiner not wanting change and not even really desiring to grow up are actually kind of surprising and ironic to a point (at least coming from me) as I myself have often (in my own life and especially in childhood) acted and thought somewhat like Pat with regard to being resistant to changes, perhaps the mirror image staring back at me from the pages of Pat of Silver Bush is for one too similar and thus a trifle personally uncomfortable, and for two, I guess I kind of have also found it a bit problematic how everyone at Silver Bush often seems to so one hundred percent cater to Pat's (in my opinion) almost pathological at times issues with change, how her family continually seems to approach her with kid gloves so to speak instead of also and repeatedly pointing out that change is part of life and that in order to grow up and live successfully, change will have to be if not embraced, then at the very least somewhat and gracefully accepted.

And I guess I am definitely also rather frustrated that at the end of Pat of Silver Bush, L.M. Montgomery basically just lets Pat stay on at Silver Bush, lets her stay home on a permanent basis, that basically, Pat Gardiner's resistance to change and to leaving Silver Bush, to leaving home is not only condoned but actually even totally enabled, since instead of her family forcing Pat to also at least experience life as a teacher for a while and live away from home, she becomes the chatelaine of Silver Bush after her mother's illness and heart operation. And indeed, I am also rather leery of reading the sequel now, as I do wonder whether Mistress Pat will simply be very much of the same with regard to Patricia Gardiner and her rather overly possessive and obsessive attachment to her home, to her family, to her sacred and seemingly unassailable Gardiner traditions (because I kind of suspect if not know that another instalment of Pat of Silver Bush constantly fighting against any and all change will not be all that personally an enjoyable reading experience for me).

Heartfelt. Whimsical. Thoughtful. Honest. Memorable. This was a book that created an escape which was not unrelatable in its content but still sparkling with magical loveliness at its core. Montgomery’s attention to detail, her humorous spirit, and her heart were on full display. Pat’s story is an unforgettable one, and it delicately illustrates the beauty of life.

3 1/2 stars. This was pleasant read, and mostly very sweet, though I have to say it's not my favorite by L. M. Montgomery. Maybe at a different stage of life I would have been able to connect more with the love of staying in one place and the horror of change. Jingle was probably my favorite part of this book, and it's too bad he wasn't in even more of it.

As you'd expect from the author, there's no kind of explicit content, but I probably wouldn't recommend this to very young readers because of the many references to ghosts, witches, occasionally murderers, and the like. There's also some processing of death and grief in this book and a smattering of flirting, kissing and the such like.