L.M. Montgomery

That I have avoided reading this book until now, given its influence on Canadian culture is kind of remarkable. I had read Emily of New Moon for a class on early Canadian literature, but Anne herself had eluded me. Perhaps it was because of the television series. I’ve only seen a few episodes, and those few don’t exactly hold pride of place in my memory, but the show has always seemed emblematic to me of the kind of milquetoast media culture that Canada fostered for most of my youth. Anne is a Good Girl™ and today her story reads like little more than nostalgia for a kind, gentle, primly white and Calvinist Canada that never existed, and is longed for by people whose grandparents likely wouldn’t have been old enough to see it, even if it had. Most of the Canadian media I grew up with, from Air Farce and… Continue Reading →