Sara Stanley is only fourteen, but she can weave tales that are impossible to resist. In the charming town of Carlisle, children and grown-ups alike flock from miles around to hear her spellbinding tales. And when Bev King and his younger brother Felix arrive for the summer, they, too, are captivated by the Story Girl. Whether she's leading them on exciting misadventure or narrating timeless stories--from the scary "Tale of the Family Ghost" to the fanciful "How Kissing Was Discovered" to the bittersweet "The Blue Chest of Rachel Ward"--the Story Girl has her audience hanging on every word.
MY THOUGHTS:
Pure nostalgia can be beautifully compelling. This is a tale of eight youngsters between the ages of 11 and 14 who hang out together in a breathtaking part of Prince Edward Island. A grown man named Beverley King narrates the story of how he and his brother Felix were sent to stay for an indeterminate length of time with relatives at the family homestead where their dad was brought up many years earlier. It's clearly one of the best times of his life, and he describes their shenanigans, fun and occasional angst as if he were back on the spot, adding occasional comments from his older self about how naive, credulous but essentially merry they all were.
Bev and Felix already possess a great sense of home from the moment of their arrival, since their father has described the folklore and features of the ancestral stamping ground to them. I love their deep sense of rootedness, and the idea that a long, quirky lineage on the same patch of land has helped shape them into the boys they already are. Not everyone is so grounded, and it's a true blessing.
They live under the same roof with their cousins; pragmatic, irreverent Dan, beautiful and conventional Felicity and gentle Cecily. A stone's throw away lives another cousin, Sara Stanley (the Story Girl) who has a fascinating gift of the gab. Rounding off their little gang is the hired boy Peter Craig, who is inquisitive and hard-working, and Sara Ray, whose controlling mother makes her wistful and anxious. The adventures and personality clashes of such a disparate group are great fun to read about.
The Story Girl gains Beverley's fascination at the outset. She has a genius for sniffing out ripping yarns from modest raw material that comes to her from everywhere. These leads slide past others as ordinary and mundane until Sara gets hold of them and forms them into her own personal style of live theatre. She has excellent recall, a great appreciation of the power of words, and quick wits to come up with a perfect story for any occasion. We readers have to take Bev's word (and Montgomery's) about how spellbinding she is, since we only get to read Sara's words without hearing them. I tend to think Montgomery (and Bev) gilds the lily a bit about her magical voice, but it doesn't detract much from the overall enjoyment of the book.
I had my own memories about how refreshingly funny the collective incidents are, but it struck me this time how many of them zoom in on those curly aspects of theology that stump seasoned adults. Lots of this book is about the little gang genuinely trying to figure out how the Big Guy Upstairs works and hoping to second guess him. For example, they deal with intense fright following some fanatic's Doomsday announcement, purchase a supposed photo of God from a boy at school, hold a preaching competition between the boys, who aim to nail the 'best' delivery, try to figure out whether or not Peter has the 'right' to pray against Felix, and wonder how they can coerce God to heal poor Paddy, even though he's just a cat. The bottom line is they really want to know how they can be truly reverential when they feel they are just winging it.
Added to all this are the trials of poor Peter, who is one of my favourite characters. He's the working class son of a single mother. And he's a genuine spiritual seeker who puts up with plenty of snobbery and flak when he decides to join his friends and start attending the local Presbyterian church. In spite of all the strokes against him, including time constraints, Peter is the one member of their little group who aims to read the Bible from cover to cover and succeeds, although he admits lots of it baffles him.
I think the fact that they are able to pin down no concrete answers but find themselves having to rely on faith and general revelations of the bounty they see around them is evidence of their growing up. And of course we readers must acknowledge that we share the same limitations as the King kids. Learning to live content with the mystery is a point we all must reach. The ages of all the main characters make this book dynamic, since they're all moving into adolescence and have their feet in two different stages of being, so to speak.
Overall, it's a lovely reminder that existential questions are natural, but it's ultimately okay that we don't get clear answers. I might even go so far as to recommend this as a fun, highly entertaining text theology students might enjoying pondering, even though it is essentially a feel-good novel. I'm looking forward to continuing on with The Golden Road.
🌟🌟🌟🌟½
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