Echoing other reviews a little, but that ending...so unnecessary. I just sat and reread the line several times to figure out how it connected with the story. It is racist but I think there's already proof the character wasn't a nice person, so one can either be mad at the whole book or just ignore that last chapter.

Anyhow, the rest of this book is delightful and funny and entertaining as many of her books are and all the relationship drama was delightful. I was cracking up so much about the ending with the jug and how the reader is led on to keep reading in order to find out what happens.

"I am ready to die. I've felt almost everything in life there is to feel - ay, I've drained my cup. But I mean to die decently and in order. I'm going to have one last grand rally. The date will be announced in the paper. But if you want anything to eat you'll have to bring it with you. I'm not going to bother with that sort of thing on my death-bed."

Not much can stir up old squabbles, grudges and festering resentments like the reading of a will, and I'm pretty sure Aunt Becky has that in mind when she orders all her relatives to gather before her. First, she insults each and every one by mocking their physical defects or penchants for writing bad poetry. For some, she brings up old missteps and embarrassments. One woman's crime? She once made jam from blueberries gathered in a graveyard. Horrors! Old Becky then proceeds to read off her will, leaving her furniture and other household items to those who want them least.

Why is everyone putting up with this crap? They ALL hope to be the one who inherits a rather ugly jug that has been in the family for ages. Who gets it? Well, the answer is in a sealed envelope to be opened and read...in about a year and a half.

What follows is a delightful comedy of manners and errors as each family member jostles to be the lucky owner of the jug. Men attempt to stop swearing. Couples come together and split apart. Confirmed bachelors decide that perhaps they should take wives. Secrets are revealed and old mysteries are solved.

Montgomery is best known as the creator of the beloved Anne of Green Gables, but she really proves her mettle as a writer with this sly comic masterpiece. The only reason I did not assign five stars is that I was a bit taken aback that the book ends with a racist joke. It was so out of the blue and so out of character for Ms. Montgomery, it was a like a slap in the face.

For shame, Anne Shirley's mommy. For shame!

Lots of family drama and one terrible guy kills the Kittie that the orphan boy loves. Three stars is being generous.

Aunt Becky Dark is eighty five and expects to die soon. For generations two families,the Penhallows and the Darks, have intermarried, so that Aunt Becky is related to most of them. She gathers them all together and bequeaths her belongings to various family members, but the most coveted possession, a hideous antique jug which has been in the family for a long time, is to be kept for a year until the name of the inheritor is announced. During the year of waiting, various relationships are worked out, most that happens is not likely to surprise the reader much, you can see most things coming. The only person I really cared about was the little boy, Brian, I thought he was sweet and was genuinely relieved when things turned out all right for him in the end. As for the adults, I can’t say I cared that much about their various matrimonial entanglements, possibly there were just too many of them to hold,my interest. And their rather odd obsession with only marrying relations is a bit disconcerting. It is all entertaining enough though. There is one really distressing incident, the killing of a cat, which occurs towards the end. And the book ends with a rather jarring note - I feel the rather crude and racist joke is a strange way to end the book. I would have expected better taste from the author.

Not my favorite by LMM, but it was a fun read. The plot itself was pretty basic, but the interconnected story threads were numerous and difficult to track. But some of those supernumerary storylines were quite enjoyable and engrossing. Maud seems to have been examining the contrast between what we wish for, what we get, and which is the most desirable. It's definitely worth considering and pondering!

I finished this book feeling as though I'd just finished several books, as the storylines of several Darks and Penhallows developed and resolved nicely. Oh, so much of the novel is hilarious, with over-ridiculous characters to show us how ridiculous we humans are sometimes, and as always, Montgomery is in fine form with beautiful descriptions of nature that place the reader right there on Prince Edward Island.

The characters use more "language" here than in Montgomery's children's literature--tsk, tsk, tsk--but my real censure of the book concerns its sampling of racist undertones, and in the case of the book's disappointing and utterly tasteless parting shot, its racist overtone. Regardless of the day and age the author wrote in, that kind of thing is never okay or excusable. Not at all.

Some readers may say to themselves, "But I don't want to think of L.M. Montgomery that way! I just hate to think that the author of the beloved Anne of Green Gables would also write anything racist." But, she did, folks. And it's important for us to know that.

It's best to be aware of history, best to be aware that shades of ignorance are present in a little of a classic author's published work, to remind us how much we have and must continue to grow as a society and a world in our respect for all humanity.

A dated but wonderful book -- a friend and I attempted to adapt it as for the musical stage in college. The comedy and tragedy within a huge extended family comes to a head when the matriarchal figure, Aunt Becky, decides that she's lived long enough and plans to leave one of them a valuable heirloom (but who will it be?). As they all wrangle for her notice, their individual stories play out. There is love, betrayal, absurdity, offense, scandal, style, sweetness, craziness... everything you can think of is packed into this one. Some of the language has become offensive to the modern ear (the n-word is used with great emphasis as the punchline to one story), and reader's have to keep the author's context (white Scottish-Canadian society at the turn of the century) in mind. But overall the book succeeds because of Montgomery's trademark strength: subversive wit and excellently crafted characters.

This book was the unfortunate beginning to my eventual disenchantment with L.M. Montgomery. As someone who has read, and loved the Anne books, Story Girl, and Emily of New Moon, I was honestly surprised by the degree to which I detest this pathetic novel, and how the book led me to like all of her books less. For starters, there is nothing new in this story. I felt like I'd met all the characters before, and had heard all the subplots. It's rather a compilation of all of Montgomery's sappy and predictable romances neatly compiled into one easy to swallow volume. Maybe that wouldn't bother someone who hadn't already read a lot of Montgomery's work, but it's enough that I wouldn't recommend it to someone who had read her before. But this wasn't the real reason I dislike this book. The story (SPOILER ALERT, but honestly, this spoiler doesn't really give away the story, and is a helpful warning) ends with one of the most profoundly sexist and racist paragraphs that I've found in this genre of literature. It was a vivid reminder that white imperialism is thing. And the character who delivers the profoundly offensive statement is one the heroes. The reader is meant to laugh and close the book with satisfaction after this closing statement, but I can assure that this wasn't my reaction, nor would I hope it would be yours. With the removal of the final two paragraphs, this book honestly would of been fine. Not a favorite, or one I'll read again, but tolerable. In fact, I improved my copy by tearing out the last two paragraphs, and burning them. If after all this anyone still feels as if reading this book would be a good use of their limited time on this earth, be my guest. But you can't that you weren't warned.

One of my favorites of LM Montgomery's books. It's a little purposefully murky, and there are numerous errors--I'm sure it was hard to keep track of all those people with the same name--but the human emotions are right on, particularly of Gay and Donna. It's also a really great way to get some insight into dating/courtship/marriage mores of the time (the 1920s, though most of the people are more old-fashioned than, say, New Yorkers in the 1920s).

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.

Compared to a lot of L. M. Montgomery’s books (normally pretty lighthearted and tender and predictable) this was a TRIP. All the jumping around between different characters left me wanting more every time there was a cliffhanger. And I was really rooting for all the characters to get happy endings because at the beginning I was afraid they wouldn’t. Mostly because that catty Aunt Becky was so eager to turn everyone’s lives upside down.
Such a good commentary on the complexity of life, family dynamics, and love. The title says it all!

When I was rereading and reviewing The Blue Castle I came across mentions of L.M. Montgomery's other novel targeted toward adults - A Tangled Web. I knew I had read it because if it was by L.M. Montgomery and the Robinson Public Library owned it I read it. I really couldn't remember much. This definitely lacked much of the charm of The Blue Castle and as it focused on so many characters it was hard to get attached to any. It is also hard to review a book that ends with such controversy. No spoilers - book ends with a racist joke using the same language that gets Huck Finn on Banned Books lists. Even in the context of 1931 it is a terrible way to finish a book. I wonder what my eleven year old self thought of it? That said there are still some beautiful passages about PEI making me once again go online to find out how much it costs to fly there.