Against the Odds: Tales of Achievement

Normally, I enjoy these collections of LM Montgomery's short stories, and I have read all of them but one that I know of (Across the Miles) and these books usually get good ratings from me. This one... well, i will explain that in a second.

Those familiar with the author's work will know that some of the attitudes presented in her stories are backwards or racist (use of the word squaw, among several other disparaging comments about Native Americans) but given the time these stories were written, that's not very surprising (1870's-1920's) Same goes for the view on women, especially with LM Montgomery's earlier stories, in the 1870's-1880's where women going to college was still a relative novelty and even then, the degrees available to show more women was quite limited. Boy I sure am glad I don't live in these times!

With a understanding of history and context, these stories can, and are, enjoyable so I don't hold these against the author. Many of the stories here are actually good and very enjoyable, particularly when the main character wins against the odds due to his or her own hard work and perseverance rather than luck. Some of the stories are like traveling back in time, such as the one where two cousins travel by themselves for two weeks across desolate areas of the country just to get to a wedding (a trip that would have taken only several hours by car today!)

So why two stars? Because of one absolutely shitty story - A Question of Acquaintance. In it, a doctor is held hostage by some asshole's bulldog.

The poor man was trying to help out his neighbor (where the asshole was staying because the neighbor was either his aunt or cousin?) because he chased some pigs out of his yard and saw them head into his neighbor's yard, so he went into the neighbor's yard to chase the pigs out of there as well. This results in him being held hostage in the neighbor's garage by a bulldog that belongs to said asshole.

The doctor had never met the asshole and he had no reason to - the asshole was playing music at three in the fucking morning. Of course the doctor is going to hate the asshole, sight unseen - what normal person wouldn't be pissed off at someone playing music at unholy hours?

The asshole just proves his assholeishness further by having his piece of shit dog chase the doctor up a ladder in the garage, so the poor old man is stuck up on a beam ALL GOD DAMN FUCKING DAY in his pajamas because the asshole wants to "teach him a lesson". The stupid piece of shit dog stays at the bottom of the ladder all day while the asshole sits outside, a smug piece of shit, knowing fully well who the doctor is but pretending he doesn't know who the doctor is, just to fuck around with him (while the asshole is fucking his daughter!) The doctor also has a very, very important appointment that evening and tells the asshole as such, but does the asshole care? Nope.

The doctor is reasonably frightened, and he recalls how some other man was killed by a dog who tore out his artery or something, and the bulldog growls at him every time he tried to come down the ladder. The poor dude is stuck on the beam for something like 8-9 hours, and only by the fact that he had a newspaper in his pocket was he able to extricate himself out of this precarious situation. If not for the newspaper, who knows how much longer the poor man would have been stuck up on the beam.

I don't know what the god damn fuck LM Montgomery was thinking when she wrote this or why she thought it was cute. Threatening someone with a dog, if they're not threatening you, is a complete dick move, and there is no excuse for this shitty story. I've been a fan of LM Montgomery for years, but this story actually made me lose a huge chunk of respect for her. Fuck bully breeds and the people who think they're cute or that it's cute to scare people with them. show less

I remember doing a speech when I was about eleven years old called "My Favourite Authoress" which was about L. M. Montgomery. At that point I had probably read a few of the Anne books and maybe some of the Emily books and maybe A Tangled Web because I remember it being in our bookshelf. I have since gone on to read all of L. M. Montgomery's novels and a few collections of short stories that were available but I thought that was it. I've even read Budge Wilson's prequel to Anne of Green Gables which tells what Anne experienced before she was adopted by Mathew and Marilla. I had not heard that more stories had been discovered and collected and it was pure accident that I found this book in a library book sale. Rea Wilmshurst found a cache show more of 300 stories at Montgomery's birthplace in PEI. She has compiled them into eight volumes of which this is one. I intend to keep my eyes open for the other seven because L. M. Montgomery's writing still captivates me.

I think my favourite from this volume is the story called "How we Went to the Wedding". It chronicles the adventures of two young women travelling 120 miles across the Saskatchewan prairie to attend a wedding. The weather, untypically, had been rainy for three weeks previously and the trail was boggy threatening to enclose their horses and buggy in gumbo. Habitations were few and far between so they camped out most evenings. Through bad weather, injured horses and broken equipment they persevered and certainly typify the type of stories included in this volume. Another great story is "The Strike at Putney" which I know has been made into a play. A group of church women are told by the church elders and minister that they cannot have a female missionary give a talk in the church because no woman should occupy the pulpit. The women decide to go on strike, no longer raising funds by holding bake sales and socials, not leading Sunday School classes, not singing in the choir, even the woman organist sat in the pews for church service. The elders and minister soon see the error of their ways and allow the missionary to speak from the pulpit. This and other stories show that, for her time, Montgomery was a women's rights advocate. Just shows I knew what I was doing when I chose her as my "favourite authoress". show less

Against The Odds is my third book for the Canadian Book Challenge (and probably my first of two or three LMM books for said challenge). I hate to say it, but this really was my least favourite of Montgomery’s short story books that I’ve read thus far. It wasn’t that it was bad – some of the stories I enjoyed, some of them gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling, but none of them really stood out. Thinking back on those which were in the book, I only remember what a few of them were about. Overall, this book did very little for me, sadly.

That said, of the few that I still actually remember, one of them made me give a little squeal. How We Went to the Wedding was the longest in the collection, I think, and it dragged. Not much happened show more in all honesty – two girls set out to go to a wedding in the wettest fall Saskatchewan had seen in a long time. They had to avoid lakes where lakes should not have been, their guide disappeared on them, and I thought the story would never end until Mrs. Matilda Pitman appeared. And oh, all was wonderful all of a sudden, because I realized that this was the first appearance of a much-loved character from Rilla of Ingleside. The chapter in Rilla is practically the same as the bit of How We Went to the Wedding where Mrs. Matilda Pitman appeared, but that made it more enjoyable and will make my next re-read of Rilla be more entertaining as I’ll have a bit more background to that part of the story (in that I knew where Montgomery got that part from).

Other than that brief moment of squeeage, however, this book didn’t do much more me. Alas. Hopefully I’ll enjoy the rest of the short story books better, and that this is just a fluke. show less

L.M. Montgomery is a long time and all time favorite author of mine. She writes the perfect girls story with just the right mix of adventure, drama and happiness. I find her books a comfort to read and have re-read most of her works many times over the years. They are classics for a reason and that reason is they are great. These are true comfort books for me and books I enjoy re-reading again and again.

These stories are primarily ones that never saw the light of day after being published in magazines in Montgomery's lifetime. There's a reason for that. I love reading more my L.M. Montgomery, but these are not my favorites. Maybe because they're grouped together by theme? The stories get very repetitive. And some of the stories showed up as scenes in her books. Fans of Montgomery should read these, but don't pick this up expecting to fall in love with it.

Against the Odds is a compilation of stories depicting some difficult roadblock for the character(s) in the short story. They're vaguely inspirational, but not in such a way as to be grating. These stories don't measure up to the quality level set by Montgomery's more popular works, but that didn't diminish my enjoyment of them.

5 Stars