MY THOUGHTS:
This is the seventh Glad Book. Jimmy has been commissioned to build another big dam in Inyo County, California. They've rented a house in nearby Hollywood, where Pollyanna and the kids can enjoy the good life while he comes and goes. The Pendleton family strike up a friendship on the beach with Happy Bangs, a melancholic silent comedy star who introduces them to the glittery world behind the scenes where movies get made. Meanwhile the kids make some interesting friends. Junior develops a passion for cameras and filming, and Judy for dancing and choreography.
Elizabeth Borton takes the baton from Harriet Lummis Smith. She was born in 1904, lived until 2001 and one of her other books won the Newbery Medal in 1966. Judging by this Glad Book alone, Borton's excessively detailed style of writing is no longer what we're used to in the twenty-first century. Some readers may claim that it doesn't move the story forward but rather drags it down. For example, Pollyanna and Jimmy treat Jamie and Sadie to dinner at a Mexican restaurant, and descriptions of the decor and staff linger for pages.
Her prose could be likened to painstaking brushstrokes which allow no room for us to fill in details with our own imaginations. These slabs of excessive description bothered me a bit, but I think the key to enjoying this book is just to chill out with the slow moments and be content going nowhere for a while. Perhaps it's even the sort of meditative style that does us good, which is mostly found in older books now.
Yet having said her writing style tends to be slow, Borton's plots themselves can move insanely fast. Meetings, marriages and movies happen in a snap. Another new friend of theirs, Maude Cravath, turns from down-and-out saleswoman to movie star within a few short weeks, I kid you not. Were motion pictures ever really made so quickly in the 1930s? Even if they were that slapdash, how did she build her fan base so fast, considering the red carpet event at which she shone was the debut night? It's pretty unbelievable.
One thing I did appreciate is how yet another character, Myra Britton, decides she's content to have played lead role in one feature film to prove to herself that she can, and now she's done. She rejects further offers from producers. 'No, I have done one piece of almost perfect work. I could never do better. So I stop. I do not care for anti-climaxes. I have done well. It is enough.' Later, Pollyanna agrees with Myra's courage and conviction to retire before her ball really starts rolling. 'It would be a pity to follow that inspired piece with one less noble and less finished.' You rarely find such a refreshing attitude in our era, where celebrities struggle to maintain their platforms for as long as possible.
But we have to take positive dated attitudes with the negative. 'Junior was learning the lesson that boys must learn - to be strong in the face of grief. Girls may cry but boys must hold back the scalding tears as unmanly.' What a load of harmful nonsense.
In other family news, Uncle John is researching and writing a book about American folklore, which means plenty of travel for him and Aunt Ruth. Jamie has signed a contract with a motion picture studio to write scenarios for them, with a stupendous salary he couldn't possibly refuse, so he, Sadie and their little boy (who they nickname Jamsie) head to Hollywood too, to live close to Pollyanna's family. But alas, Jamie hits a slab of writer's block and becomes even more touchy and harder to live with than normal. As his loved-ones know full well, it's tough on a chap whose only source of self-worth comes from his ability to write. Perhaps he's secretly irritated that his stepfather is treading on his turf.
Borton's Nancy is a bit of a grumblebum, but in all fairness, Smith started it. Pollyanna is still an energetic sticky-beak who changes lives while others simply ponder good ideas they never implement. Jimmy is still dependable, humorous and dare I say sexy. The kids are growing up and developing distinct characters. My bottom line is that this book is fun for bringing us more stories about the Pendletons and Carews, but in all honesty, it's not as engrossing as the first six, by Porter and Smith. Any book that manages to be both speedy and snail-paced in the worst ways strikes a bad note, and I'd nod along with any reader who calls it a chore.
Anyway, next up will be Pollyanna's Castle in Mexico.
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