Catchy Name Needed

This is a weird transitionary book between the Anne series and the Rainbow Valley and Rilla of Ingleside featuring Anne's kids, but was written later (1939), which may account for the awkwardness. The author can't really decide if this book is about Anne or her kids, and so ends up as a jumble of both, with even less plot than other books.

Instead of an overarching plot or theme that takes place around other unrelated episodes, this book is just a string of episodes, one after another. Most episodes follow the same formula: featured character learns something that isn't true, which escalates in mostly comic ways, only to be disillusioned in the climax. The only characters that aren't featured are Gilbert, who is perfect, and Shirley, because he has no distinguishing characteristics and I'm not sure Montgomery always remembers he exists.

The opening chapters are Anne visiting Green Gulch and reminiscing about her childhood with Diana as they return to the familiar landscapes, which plays on all the nostalgia, and then it's back to Ingleside for family shenanigans for the rest of the book. Anne has a lot of female friends over, but the only other woman we see on a regular basis and whose personality comes through the best is live-in housekeeper Susan. Otherwise, she's entirely subsumed by family without much outside it.

As usual, Gilbert is mostly absent; the one time he appears in any real capacity is the final segment, in which Anne worries that their relationship has lost its spark because he never pays any attention to her, and is jealous of his old flame Christine when they meet again. It all works out, of course, and turns out to be a misunderstanding, but it's kind of shame that the author isn't interested in interrogating all those questions she raises in favor of a quick fix (and Gilbert once again being the perfect husband). Also, Anne and Christine both disparage each other re: having kids vs. not having kids (one openly, one mentally), and I'm just like "please, can we not".

But I feel like this scene exists because Montgomery is acutely AWARE of the tensions between being a successful author/woman of the world and being a mother, and has to lay down firmly on the side of motherhood, both because of societal expectations and as justification/validation of her own choices (she did have a career, but she sacrificed a lot for family, too). Anne is supposedly a writer, but constantly disparages her work as family/domestic stuff rather than "serious" literature, and the few times we do see her work published, it is comically marred by unexpected edits from other people that change the meaning entirely.

Also Anne and Gilbert have SIX KIDS (seven if we include the stillbirth) and I know they love each other and would probably want to have a big family anyway even if birth control was available but... there are a lot of big families in the story and babies are constantly being born, but you'd think that Gilbert as a doctor would be aware of how dangerous pregnancy is and perhaps think twice about this since he cares for her??? IDK, I just think that would be an interesting conversation to have, and it never comes up; it's just assumed.

In some ways, this was the natural end point of the series, with the lonely orphan growing up to have a big and loving family, and on the other hand, I think Christine has a point when she reminds Anne that she had all these ambitions in college and could have made it in the larger world... Anne was always going to sacrifice career/self for family (cf. the ending of the first book where she stays with Marilla instead of going to college) partially because of her character and partially because of the author and society's expectations for women, but at the same time, it's hard not to feel wistful for what "could have been" if she'd stayed true to those ambitions. And there isn't a good way to "have them both," although Anne ends up coming reasonably close in that she does still write somewhat, and also gets to have the family/community/happy marriage, too. This is the best case scenario that Montgomery can envision.

The moral of the series appears to be "It's good to have dreams and imagination, but they have to be tempered and adjusted so that they don't cause problems (and sometimes circumstances demand it)" - Anne says something very similar to one of her children at one point - trying to have both in a world that makes it really hard to live your dreams. On the one hand, it's pretty good advice, as having an imagination can cause problems (cf. the Haunted Wood incident) but on the other hand, there's something so sad about having to let go of the romanticism for realism. What keeps Anne "young" is that she never truly lets go of hers and is able to enjoy it and pass it onto her kids even while being a responsible adult herself.

But it's also not surprising that Montgomery moves onto the next generation, who doesn't have to deal with even that much.