'Pollyanna's Western Adventure' by Harriet Lummis Smith

MY THOUGHTS:

This sixth Glad Book is one that my mum retained from her youth, so I'd read and loved it years ago. Great fun to revisit it again now. 

Jimmy is pressured at work to accept a two year assignment building a dam out in the wilderness. He sadly refuses because he doesn't consider it'll suit a family man... until Pollyanna convinces him that they'll make it work because they'll all go with him for the duration. 'He'd lived with her for twelve years without knowing she was ready to follow him to the world's end.' Aww, I love that. So they rent a house near a primitive town called Deer Creek, hire an adventurous young woman named Dorothy Blythe to help teach the kids, and set off. 

I've always enjoyed stories where characters turn their backs on civilisation. It appeals to some minimalist, solitude-loving part of my nature without actually having to do it myself. The cosmopolitan Aunt Ruth expects to see Pollyanna return home as a bone-weary, broken-down drudge, old before her time, while Jimmy suggests the seclusion and fresh air may prove a fountain of youth. Their house has no plumbing, but a water pump in the yard, and presumably a long-drop toilet. To quote the Gilligan's Island theme song, it's 'primitive as can be.'  

Yet there are enough people out in the Deer Creek community to make for a good story, including three young fellows making moves on Dorothy, who turns out to be a consummate flirt, although that passed Pollyanna's notice during the interview process. Dorothy is a man magnet in the middle of nowhere, while lots of urban girls can't attract one, even in a big city. 

One of my favourite characters is Luke Geist, a 24-year-old invalid who suffered an accident that leaves him flat on his back in bed. His friendship with Pollyanna shows her at her best. It's very cool that a mid-thirties wife and mother will take initiative to reach out to a single guy ten or twelve years younger who is known for being a bit caustic. But she swoops in where many women in her position might fear to tread, (I doubt I would dare), and we get one of the best platonic friendships of the series. 

Smith's writing is quite spare. She never divulges the nature of Luke's accident; only drops hints that it happened when he was about 19 years old, cutting him down at an active and impressionable age. I might've assumed a writer is obliged to provide backstory for something so pivotal, but it turns out leaving the possibilities open to our imaginations is even more powerful. 'Less' is 'more'. Luke's story ends on a positive note with hints that it may contain romance.    

The other interesting thread is Pollyanna's mobile library, which she sets up to help the hardworking folk in the valley 'forget the monotony of their daily toil in vicarious flights of imagination.' I love the broad attraction of books, which we don't necessarily see in our own culture where they are widely available. Many people I know claim to rarely read books, so perhaps scarcity creates an appeal. 

However, Pollyanna exerts iron control over her selection. Whenever she receives donations of books in the post from friends and family, she chooses to burn those which don't tick her boxes. Smith refers to 'a number of private little bonfires.' Hmm, this makes Pollyanna a book banner, on her own small scale. 

I haven't quite figured out where I stand on the debate. On one hand, she's entitled to quality control since the library is her own brainchild, yet on the other, banning books artificially restricts other people's reading lives and denies them an opportunity for deep, honest reflection to work things out their own way. Having come across extra-vigilant school librarians banning books for the most nitpicky reasons, I tend to consider Pollyanna's behaviour crosses a line into literary despotism. That's not to say I've never 'screened' books with others in mind, especially for homeschooling. It's an interesting debate.

Sadly, Harriet Lummis Smith's contribution to the series ends here. This book was first published in 1929 and she lived until 1947, so perhaps she decided four was a big enough contribution from her. I enjoyed her style and conception of the characters; a warm-hearted, if somewhat nosy Pollyanna, a steady, witty, undeniably dishy Jimmy, and three lively kids. What's more, she brings to life 1920s mindsets and shows what never changes. (In this book, Pollyanna rolls her eyes at Dorothy and wonders, 'was the younger generation always like this, so sure of itself and patronisingly superior when experience protested?') 

The slack will be picked up by the next author, Elizabeth Borton, so we'll see how that goes. Next up will be Pollyanna in Hollywood. 

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