Review Part 1: Pat of Silver Bush by L.M. Montgomery

Typically, I wouldn’t write a review of a book before actually finishing it but a) I have no idea how much I have left in this one as my Kindle edition contains both books in the series and I’m loathe to accidentally jump ahead and spoil anything for myself, and b) I got up to a particular bit of this book last night and it hurt my very soul. Pregnancy hormones didn’t help there either.

Let me start this by saying I’ve had a really rough twin pregnancy week. I’ve been in and out of hospital with various aches and pains. All normal, I’m told, just twin pregnancy, I’m told, but when you’ve had two singleton pregnancies previously and aren’t used to this it’s pretty freaky. I’ll speak more about this in detail at some point (when I no longer feel like we’re in total survival mode – rightly or wrongly) but in the meantime, if you’re also pregnant, especially with multiples, you have equal parts of my excitement for you, my sympathy, and my respect.

Now onto Pat of Silver Bush. In all honesty, I first tried reading this book a good while ago, but put it aside for other L.M. Montgomery works because I found a few things off-putting: Judy’s accent is a little bit much until you’re used to reading it. Judy’s stories, similarly, are a bit grim at the start, until you ‘get’ her character and that her tall tales are just that, tall tales.

Once I got into it, it became such a charming book, and I’m sorry I originally rejected it. I really love Pat, to the point that I asked my husband yesterday whether Patricia wasn’t a good baby name to consider? (He said no. I liked how Judy calls Pat, ‘Patsy’ but never mind.) I love her pure, good heart, and how much she just thoroughly loves everyone and everything that matters to her.

Now bear in mind that, at the start of the book, I think Pat is about 9 years old, so she’s just a lovely young girl. But even as her character develops and she matures and faces certain challenges, she’s just an endearing character. Think Anne of Green Gables but with less feisty, sometimes borderline aggressive behaviours. Or Emily of New Moon but more gentle and child-like. She’s more like Marigold (Magic for Marigold), but minus the big fantasy world she likes to visit. She’s just Pat, with a huge heart and love for nature, her home, her family, and her friends. Silver Bush, her house, is hugely important to her, and it gives the book such warmth and character. But really, she’s not the most complex character, and just appears to be a fairly simple girl with a lot of love to give, which I just adore.

Here are some quotes I really love, that showcase her character well I think:

““Pat of Silver Bush,” said Pat happily. It was beautiful to have home and love and family ties. Bold-and-Bad, the kitten of the summer, came flying across the yard to her. Pat picked him up and squeezed some purrs out of him. No matter what dreadful things happened at least there were still cats in the world.”

“Pat felt herself a sister to all the loveliness of the world. If only everybody could feel this secret, satisfying rapture!”

“It was lovely to be old enough to remember childhood with a sigh. It was lovely to have before them a road filled with soft amethyst mist. It was lovely to see dark young fir trees edging harvest meadows. It was lovely to take a short cut through the little wood lane in Herbert Taylor’s woods. It was lovely to be together. For it all came back to that. Nothing would have had just the same flavour if it had not been shared with each other.”

““Oh, Judy, life is so beautiful … and spring is so beautiful. Judy, how can you help dancing?””

Of course then things go a little bit… badly. I won’t spoil things for you, but let me just say this: As much as a lot of Montgomery’s characters in her books and stories are joyful creatures with magical lives, there is the occasional devastation. I think if you’ve read the Anne books, you know exactly what I’m talking about (I just didn’t expect the first one at all and it absolutely broke me – I remember putting that particular book down and going to my husband sobbing.)

But all that to say that so far, Pat of Silver Bush is another firm favourite, and I’ll be sad when it’s done. You should definitely read it though, if you haven’t already.