Daily Book Excerpt: YA/Children’s books:
Emily Climbs
One of the reasons why I think Lucy Maud’s books are so special – so … long-lastingly good … is that they seem to have everything in them. It feels so much like a slice of life – that it is totally transportive. There is tragedy, there are comedic mishaps, there are deep converstaions about the meaning of life, there is leisure-time when nothing much happens … There isn’t a sense of urgency, or over-importance – as in: Here Is a Great Book. It’s a story. The story is told. And nothing is left out. So we hear about Anne’s dresses for the dances at Redmond … and we get to know about the knick-knacks in her little house of Dreams – the trees she loves, the things she cherishes … but at the same time, we have the larger story of her LIFE going on – her baby dying, her marriage with Gilbert, etc. And if you read all of the books in a series, you just can rest easy on this continuity – Lucy Maud just takes charge. And so … when Rachel Lynde dies … you get a real sense of loss. Because she has been a constant character throughout. She is REAL. To me, these books feel REAL. You can see the cupboards of damson preserves, you can see the doilies, you can see the fire in the stove on a wintry night, you can see the delicate wallpaper … and you can also see these fictional PEOPLE … come to life. I’m not sure if I’m saying this correctly … it’s just that I feel like I am looking at an entire WORLD when I read these books.
Emily Climbs – with all of the journal entries included – is especially special to me … because if you’re a diary person, you know that not every day contains some big event. Sometimes you write in your diary about how you have a headache, or how you’re pissed that you can’t find a recipe you want for Thanksgiving, or how you have so many errands to do that you’re kind of freaking out. Boring everyday life moments. But they aren’t boring, if you look at them in another way. If you look at them as helping to build up the illusion that you are looking at something that is REAL. So Emily’s diary entries – with all their trivia and miscellania – help to create the impression that we are looking at a LIFE, not reading a book.
I love those diary entries, man. There are some chapters which are made up entirely of the diary entries … and they are a hoot. Because we are not worried about the larger plot in those chapters – we are just listening to Emily talk and tell stories … We are getting quick snapshots of her life, her thought process … These chapters kind of function like a montage. They’re great – I love them.
Anyway, here’s one of my favorite little diary entries from the book. It makes me laugh out loud. It’s not a big enough story to warrant an entire chapter … it doesn’t illuminate anything special about Emily … it’s not an epiphany moment, or a growth moment … it’s just something hysterical that happened to her … and when you add up 20 of these moments, 30? You really feel like you are learning about a real living girl here.
Here’s the excerpt. It’s hilarious.
Excerpt from Emily Climbs
“May 29, 19–
“Tonight Aunt Ruth came home with a portentous face.
“‘Em’ly, what does this story mean that is all over Shrewsbury – that you were seen standing on Queen Street last night with a man’s arms around you, kissing him?‘
“I knew in a minute what had happened. I wanted to stamp – I wanted to laugh – I wanted to tear my hair. The whole thing was so absurd and ludicrous. But I had to keep a grave face and explain to Aunt Ruth.
“This is the dark, unholy tale.
“Ilse and I were ‘dandering’ along Queen Street last night at dusk. Just by the old Taylor house we met a man. I do not know the man – not likely I shall ever know him. I do not know if he was tall or short, old or young, handsome or ugly, black or white, Jew or Gentile, bond or free. But I do know he hadn’t shaved that day!
“He was walking at a brisk pace. Then something happened which passed in the wink of an eye, but takes several seconds to describe. I stepped aside to let him pass — he stepped in the same direction — I darted the other way — so did he — then I thought I saw a chance of getting past and I made a wild dash – he made a wild dash – with the result that I ran full tilt against him. He had thrown out his arms when he realized a collision was unavoidable – I went right between them – and in the shock of the encounter they involuntarily closed around me for a moment while my nose came into violent contact with his chin.
“‘I — I — beg your pardon,’ the poor creature gasped, dropped me as if I were a hot coal, and tore off around the corner.
“Ilse was in fits. She said she had never seen anything so funny in her life It had all passed so quickly that to a by-stander it looked exactly as if that man and I had stopped, gazed at each other for a moment, and then rushed madly into each other’s arms.
“My nose ached for clocks. Ilse said she saw Mrs. Taylor peering from the window just as it happened. Of course that old gossip has spread the story with her own interpretation of it.
“I explained all this to Aunt Ruth, who remained incredulous and seemed to consider it a very limping tale indeed.
“‘It’s a very stronge thing that on a sidewalk twelve feet wide you couldn’t get past a man without embracing him,’ she said.
“‘Come now, Aunt Ruth,’ I said, ‘I know you think me sly and deep and foolish and ungrateful. But you know I am half Murray, and do you think any one with any Murray in her would embrace a gentleman friend on the public street?’
“‘Oh, I did think you could hardly be so brazen,’ admitted Aunt Ruth. ‘But Miss Taylor said she saw it. I do not like to have one of my family talked about like that. It would not have occurred if you had not been out with Ilse Burnley in defiance of my advice. Don’t let anything like this happen again.’
“‘Things like that don’t happen,’ I said. ‘They are foreordained.’
