The Golden Road

Reading this one directly after The Story Girl is a bit of a different experience than reading this one alone, as I did four years ago. It is definitely more melancholy, what with the death of poor Paddy the cat and the ultimate breakup of the gang, thanks to errant fathers returning for their offspring.

There are a lot of laughs to be had, as well, stories that were mined for the Road to Avonlea TV series: Great Aunt Eliza's visit; caught overnight in a snowstorm at "the witch" Peg Bowen's; the self-same Miss Bowen attending the church in Carlisle and spilling everyone's dirty secrets for all and sundry to hear, right from the King family pew! Both Aunt Olivia and Jasper Dale marry in this volume, albeit not to each other as in the TV show more series.

I'm not sure what I would've thought of Blair Stanley if I'd read this book as a youngster, but as an adult, I was not very impressed with him. Anne Shirley managed to grow up without losing her spirit or imagination, but the same can't really be said for the reckless and irresponsible Blair Stanley. I can definitely understand why his character was reimagined for the TV series.

So, although definitely worth reading and enjoying (if only to see how events were re-imagined for the lovely TV series 90 years in the future), just be aware that the ending is sad, perhaps poignant for those of us who definitely have childhood in the rearview mirror. show less

"Once upon a time we all walked on the golden road", begins Montgomery in her foreword, and all those who retain some appreciation for the enchantment of childhood, who can still recall walking the "golden road" themselves, are sure to love this lyrical sequel to The Story Girl. Like its predecessor, it relates the adventures and misadventures of a group of young children on Prince Eward Island, and is by turns poignant and hilarious.

Narrated by Bev King, looking back from his adulthood, The Golden Road returns readers to the village of Carlisle, where Bev and his brother Felix are staying with their King cousins, Felicity, Dan and Cecily. Together with hired boy Peter Craig, neighbor girl Sara Ray, and Sara Stanley - another cousin, show more whose extraordinary gifts as a storyteller have earned her the moniker, "The Story Girl" - the children form a close-knit community of their own, sharing in the joy and sorrow of growing up.

Whether they're entertaining "Great Aunt Eliza" (who turns out to be the governor's wife), or sheltering with the old "witch," Peg Bowen, during a terrible winter storm, the children seem always to be together. Their earnest work on their home-produced Our Magazine reminded me of the March girls' "newspaper" in Little Women, just as the foreshadowing of Cecily's early death (never depicted in the book), seemed to recall Alcott's depiction of Beth March. I wasn't sure whether to lay this at the door of conscious imitation on Montgomery's part, or to simply attribute it to the conventions of a genre that both authors mastered.

However that may be, the similarity was not unwelcome, and I found that these echoes of another beloved classic, whether humorous or melancholy, only added to my appreciation. Montgomery's understanding of the magic of youth, her own gifts as a storyteller, and her beautiful prose, all combine to make The Golden Road (together with its predecessor), one of those classics that truly speak for childhood. show less

The ongoing adventures of the King cousins as they spend another year together, start a newspaper, get into various scrapes, and face the changes that come with growing up.

Charming as ever, I remained interested to see the differences between this book and The Road to Avonlea series, which took this and the previous book as its source material. Montgomery's ability to paint a landscape remains as beautiful as ever, although there were a few passages that felt a bit too much even for this fan. Nevertheless, there's plenty to delight here and it was just the reliably good read I needed.

L. M. Montgomery's The Golden Road is the sequel to The Story Girl, and my review for that pretty much covers both of them. The golden road refers to the children's youth as they travel on toward adulthood, and their future paths become clearer in this installment.

There were three things I didn't love about this novel: 1.) Jasper Dale's love story is just a little creepy once you come out from under the spell of Montgomery's poetic prose, 2.) the foreshadowing of Cecily's young death (which, thankfully, falls outside the time of the story) is a bit heavy handed, and 3.) Blair Stanley's speeches, while lovely in themselves, grated on me because I couldn't help but partake of some of the King family disapproval of him.

This will never be show more a favorite, but with all the wonderful novels Montgomery has given us, she's still one of my favorite authors. show less

I read the previous book in this two-book series (The Story Girl) two years ago for the books of 1911, but I had forgotten the characters and never really caught up to speed. It’s about a group of children who are friends, one of whom is the narrator. The narration was weirdly Jamesian (complicated, obfuscating) and actually kind of made me think of books with a group narrator like The Virgin Suicides—not what you expect for a children’s book. It didn’t help that two of the children are named Sara—I know there were fewer names a century ago, but still. My favorite parts were a case of mistaken identity in which the children thought a visitor was deaf but she wasn’t; when they were forced to stay overnight with a witch; and show more when their cat went missing. The children wrote a newspaper about their doings, which was a tiny bit boring. I felt there was an over-reliance on the children accidentally using the wrong product with disastrous results, in baking and so forth. This device was so effective in Anne of Green Gables when Anne dyed her hair green and got her best friend drunk but has now gotten a bit over-done. I think L.M. Montgomery was a bit bored by the book too, because at the end almost all the characters had moved away or were soon to die of consumption, so there’s no possibility of a sequel except in fan fiction. The nicest thing about this novel was its depiction of the last days of childhood and how precious it is when you can actually see it about to slip away from you. Overall I would recommend the Anne or Emily books before this one. show less

The setting was on Prince Edward Island, the same as in the Anne series, but this time in the town of Carlisle. One of the stories explains the reason it was named Carlisle.

The Story Girl is a lot like Anne Shirley, obsessed with words, drama, and poetry. However, for some reason, I don't connect with her like I do with Anne of Green Gables.

I guess I didn't like how the narrator was another character, a boy named Bev, who just didn't seem to have much of a depth of character. When “he” used the highly descriptive language L.M. Montgomery uses with such poetic imagery in other books, I felt it was inconsistent with Bev's voice, differing in tone from how he addresses the other children in their group.

I didn't really connect with show more any of the characters. Felicity was stuck-up and vain, Peter besotted and superstitious, Sara Rey unintelligent and annoyingly pessimistic, Dan rudely sarcastic, Felix uninteresting. I think the character of Peg Bowen, the supposed witch, was the most fascinating.

There is some saving humor hidden in each story, sometimes in the commentary sprinkled throughout the main story that's being told. The magazine they create is really just a rehashing from each characters' perspective, but they can be humorous.

I had read the Story Girl when I was a girl but had forgotten almost all of it. Now I think I know why. This was too much like Anne of Green Gables without the magic of it, and nothing stood out as unique or memorable to me. It's merely a collection of short stories put together as stories by the intrepid Story Girl, Sara Stanley. The overarching plot tying these threads together is very loose. And there was too much sadness at the end: a death, a foreshadowed death, and a goodbye.

This particular edition felt more modern and the type was much easier to read than my old editions of L.M. Montgomery's books. There was only one typo that I saw (on p.194, 3rd line from bottom: “One of the children too it when she wasn't looking...” ought to be, “One of the children took it...”

Favorite quotes:
“It was May before the weather began to satisfy the grown-ups. But we children were more easily pleased, and we thought April a splendid month...” (p.105).

(I received this book for free. The decision to write a review, as well as the opinions expressed in it, are all my own. I was not compensated for this review.) show less

'The Story Girl' entertained us with the shenanigans of Beverley King and his cousins and friends, including a contest to see who could give the best sermon (with hilarious results) This book is no less funny as the children band together to create their own newspaper, 'Our Magazine' with some pretty funny articles and Q&A's. The story ends on a bittersweet note as the children are growing up, but is nonetheless worth reading.