MY THOUGHTS:
This is the final novel in the chronicles of Pollyanna's married life. She and Jimmy are empty-nesters about to commence a second-honeymoon phase of their lives, for Junior and Judy are both married and Ruth is off to college. Pollyanna is about to accompany Jimmy to Mexico in his roving job as a freelance consulting engineer. He's been hired by the Mexican government for some water storage and reclamation projects. Meanwhile Pollyanna is glad to catch up with their old friends, the Morenos.
I expected the title would refer to some heartfelt, meddlesome project of Pollyanna's own devising, but I was wrong. Instead, we're thrown into top secret, espionage, FBI sort of business, and even the Pendletons don't realize what's going on. It reminds me of the old, 'Get Smart' sitcom, because the post-war era feels similar. The 'secret mission' doesn't come to light until way near the end of the book.
The 1951 publication date is evident all through, in recipes, household tips and outdated attitudes. Judy proudly serves her mother a jellied salad, a retro dish indeed. And when Judy's husband, Ron, starts washing the dishes, his wife and mother-in-law 'stop to giggle, as they realize what a pampered and superior feeling it gives women to hear a well-meaning man blunder around in the feminine world!' I think Borton considers herself forward thinking, but such lines indicates she's a product of her decade.
This time around, she hasn't done too bad a job of picking up threads other authors have left dangling for her. Pollyanna's son-in-law, Ronald Keith, was Margaret Piper Chalmers' brainchild, but Borton expands his character with some interesting developments. But sadly, the plot is a bit convoluted with characters that are difficult to feel empathy for.
Newcomers in this story include Anna Robesky, a graceful young blonde who claims to be writing a novel; Santiago Leal, a talented but abrasive scuptor; and Dr Silvia Godinez, a clever but dowdy academic. We also have Margie and Jessie, a pair of young cousins who work in beauty parlors and try hard to convince clients to consider nail extensions. And there is Jimmy's assistant, a young Irishman named Johnny Murphy, along with a grown-up Anita Moreno, who was a little girl like Ruth in Pollyanna's Castle in Mexico. If any of these characters spell danger, accidentally or otherwise, the Pendletons had best beware, for stakes are a lot higher than we find in other Glad Books.
Overall, it's been like a game of Chinese Whisper between these authors. A broad view may appear seamless to some readers, but taking a step back reveals that in some controversial matters, Pollyanna's attitude has taken a total U-turn. Like the frog in the boiling pot, the heat may have been increased slowly enough that over time, many readers may not have noticed.
For example, Borton's Pollyanna tells her daughter, Ruth, that she wants her to have a solid profession behind her before she ever thinks of marriage. This totally contradicts Harriet Lummis Smith's Pollyanna, who was a blinkered advocate for stay-at-home moms to the extent of locking horns with Mildred Richards, the gift-shop proprietor in Pollyanna's Jewels. Although Borton's Pollyanna gives lip service to changing times, I tend to think it's more to do with two separate authors having opposing viewpoints on a hot topic.
Borton puts this speech in the mouth of another character, Dr Urbina.
'Any life which applies rigid restrictions on a woman's natural interest in new things and processes dulls her mind. Women are sensitive enough to resist this. The first years of marriage usually do nothing but accustom a woman to living in a restricted field. Her general interest in people must now be confined to one man. Her life is circumscribed by four walls. She conforms to letting her husband put more and more chains on her and narrow her activities more and more to attentions to a few persons, with himself as hub and a few family members and friends as spokes of the wheel. The bride accepts all this because she is in love... but when the lustre wears off and she finds herself enclosed within a narrow sphere of repetitive duties, and of association almost entirely with young children, it is too late to strike out for any change from her routine.'
Although Borton's Pollyanna is first to cheer this sentiment, Smith's Pollyanna would have heatedly replied that the home canvas is broader and full of far more novelty than many people give it credit for, and that those precious years with kids are fleeting and deserve total focus. I can't help wondering if Borton knew she was undermining Smith and set out intending to do just that.
Sadly, extended family still don't get a mention. Anyone wondering whatever became of Aunt Polly, Uncle John and Aunt Ruth, Sadie and Jamie, will be disappointed. I can't help thinking the latter Glad Book authors have let down their fans by not at least giving a few lines of closure for these folk who played such huge roles in Pollyanna's and Jimmy's lives.
I do agree with Borton on one thing. She points out in her Foreword that the Pollyanna philosophy has wrongly been labelled 'false optimism' by people who haven't bothered to ponder its meaning. Hear hear! Nothing has changed, Borton. The 21st century is full of modern, self-proclaimed experts who use the very name of Pollyanna as an insult for desperate and deluded minds who practice what we now call 'toxic positivity.' They obviously haven't read the books, or they'd know Pollyanna does no such thing.
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Last up will be Pollyanna at Six Star Ranch, which is a flashback to Pollyanna's youth, a time period compressed by Eleanor H. Porter herself, in Pollyanna Grows Up.
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