MY THOUGHTS:
The setting for this domestic action is Elsinore Terrace, a friendly street in 1920s suburban Boston where neighbours mingle. Jimmy and Pollyanna settle down in a house there with their growing family. They have Junior, who was born at the end of Pollyanna of the Orange Blossoms; Judy, a beautiful child with the black curls her mother always dreamed of; and the sunny baby whose name is never divulged in this book. (It's Ruth, as we find out in later books.) And Nancy lives with them as their only household servant. She considers them her closest thing to family, now that her husband, Timothy, has passed away. I figure he can't have been very old. I guess he died of fatal plot device, same as Dr Chilton.
There is a small outsider named Philip who lives with his parents in an unvisited house. They each left their former spouses and since he is the offspring of adultery, nobody is allowed to play with him. Pollyanna and Jimmy pity Philip but never encourage him lest they alienate their own kids in the eyes of the neighbourhood. This attitude strikes me as pretty harsh coming from Jimmy, considering his own personal history of being an outcast at Philip's age. I would've liked to see him urge his children to champion the underdog, but I guess this just proves the power of social pressure. This thread works itself out in a fairly brutal, dare I say convenient fashion.
Another neighbour is Mildred Richards, the young mother who chooses to work outside of the home for 'self expression' even though her husband can easily support her. She's a joint proprietor of a gift shop, and she and Pollyanna often lock horns over the stay-at-home-mother debate. Pollyanna makes a fair point when she remarks that drudgery exists in every line of work, including retail, but so does Mrs Richards when she says that some women feel trapped and squandered by being forced to fit the one single mold society dictates for them. (Remember, this is the 1920s.)
I sense the author, Smith, is agenda driven, biased to Pollyanna's point of view even though the debate is still so un-clear-cut it's raging to this day. I would've preferred her to write more dispassionately rather than foisting her opinion upon readers, since there are valid points to be made for both sides. After all, since Pollyanna is quick to say she's done all the things she ever wanted to, I guess she should allow Mrs Richards the same freedom.
Another bugbear is the Aunt Polly factor, which drove me crazy. She sells the big Harrington house in Beldingsville, accepts an invitation to live with Pollyanna and Jimmy, then tries to run the place! The narrator remarks that Polly finds it hard to come to terms with the fact that 'she's no longer captain of the craft in Pollyanna's house, but merely a passenger.' I wanted somebody (other than poor Junior) to call her an overbearing control freak to her face, but Jimmy wasn't allowed to and Pollyanna snatched the perfect opportunity to wimp out. It's a pity so many Aunt Pollys of the world are free to juggernaut their way through life, oblivious of the havoc they cause, just because others are too spineless to tell them when they've overstepped. This case is no exception. Arrgghh!
But as always, Pollyanna and Jimmy's relationship gets a big thumbs up. They are best friends as well as spouses. Chapters often finish with Pollyanna chattering to Jimmy about what happened during the day, to which he responds with some witty wisecrack. Since he really is funny, I like it.
(Oh, and in other family news, the huge secret at the end of Pollyanna Grows Up is accidentally revealed to Jamie, and the you know what really hits the fan. But I guess this happens around the stage when Jimmy would have been free to open his envelope anyway, even if he hadn't done it about ten years prematurely. He and Pollyanna must be nudging thirty by now. Talk about awkward though. Especially between the two guys, who have had close relationship forced upon them in the weirdest way. I guess we'd have to call them stepbrothers by marriage.)
Skimming over this review, I feel I ought to knock off one star because of the gripes I've aired, but don't get me wrong. I still had great fun reading this book, and hope it shows.
Next up will be Pollyanna's Debt of Honour.
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