Over the years sixty members of the Dark family and sixty Penhallows have married one another—but not without their share of fighting and feuding. Now Aunt Becky, the eccentric old matriarch of the clan, has bequeathed her prized possession: a legendary heirloom jug. But the name of the jug's new owner will not be revealed for one year.
In the next twelve months beautiful Gay Penhallow's handsome fiancé Noel Gibson leaves her for sly and seductive Nan Penhallow; reckless Peter Penhallow and lovely Donna Dark, who have hated each other since childhood, are inexplicably brought together by the jug; Hugh and Joscelyn Dark, separated on their wedding night ten years ago for reasons never revealed, find a second chance—all watched over by the mysterious Moon Man, who has the gift of second sight. Then comes the night when Aunt Becky's wishes will be revealed...and the family is in for the biggest surprise of all.
MY THOUGHTS:
Plain-spoken Aunt Becky Dark, aged 85, knows she's soon to die, and that all her relatives long to inherit her valuable antique jug - a Georgian monstrosity covered with mawkish pictures and poetry. She holds a clan gathering, ostensibly to reveal who will inherit it, but in reality to taunt her extended family and rouse their spite and envy against each other.
Several subplots are brewing among the guests in her parlour, which somehow manage to sort themselves out in the aftermath of the party. To mention just a few, Hugh and Joscelyn Dark were married years ago, but she ran out on him on their wedding night and nobody knows why. Peter Penhallow and Donna Dark, who always hated the idea of each other, experience an odd attraction when they're finally face to face. Young Gaye Penhallow is brimming over with passion for her playboy boyfriend Noel, oblivious that trusty family doctor Roger is also quietly in love with her. And Big and Little Sam, who have lived amicably together for decades, have a major falling-out over a prize statue that gets delivered to their door.
Montgomery is one of my favourite authors, yet sometimes she misses the mark for me. I get the feeling we're meant to admire Aunt Becky as a canny straight-shooter, but I just find her a spiteful old trouble-maker. Putting pompous people in their place with a few well aimed home truths is one thing, yet she kept having vicious digs at hapless relatives for no other reason than total public humiliation. Nobody deserves the sort of demeaning treatment she puts them through. Perhaps it serves them right, in a way, for not staying home and indirectly telling her, 'You know what you can do with your tacky jug!'
At this stage, 1931, Maud had been writing long enough to recycle several of her favourite conventions and passages. She really had a thing about large eyes being beautiful. In her world, nobody with small or puffy eyes could ever be regarded as desirable or romantic. Little Brian Dark's plight has strong echoes of Hilary Gordon's, Nan Penhallow is a similar style smug cousin to Valancy's cousin Olive and Jane's cousin Phyllis. And Penny Dark's cats have the same names as Andrew and Jane Stuart's; First and Second Peter. Talking about cats, they tend to come to sad ends in Montgomery's fiction, and poor little Cricket is no exception. Finally, Gaye thinks, 'If I were dead and Noel came and looked at me, I would live again,' which is the exact same line Ilse Burnley uses about Perry Miller at the end of Emily's Quest.
The back cover blurb of my edition says, 'What happened at the party, and what happened because of it is described by L.M. Montgomery at her humourous best.' Nope, I beg to differ. So many of the scenarios were pathetic rather than funny. Joscelyn wasted such a slab of her life over reactive silliness! Aunt Becky's wit erred on the side of cruelty. Peter and Donna were a tad melodramatic. Gaye's situation was predictable from the get-go. The antics of the two Sams were slapstick in a crass way. And the final paragraph, delivered as a remark by Big Sam, is surely a contender for most tasteless ending of a classic novel. I liked Aunt Becky's obituary which she wrote for herself, that shocked her clan, but that's about it.
I tend to wonder if Montgomery really had her heart in this project. It feels as if she was just going through the motions, stitching together a patchwork story by recycling work she'd written before.
🌟🌟½
No comments:
Post a Comment