Kilmeny of the Orchard, by L. M. Montgomery

Rating: 6/10

Eric Marshall goes to be a substitute teacher for a friend at Lindsay, P.E.. Island. One day he stumbles upon a wonderful old deserted orchard. There he discovers a girl playing a violin. This beautiful, mute girl is Kilmeny Gordon,  and she steals Eric's heart.

I'll start off with the good:

* I liked reading about Eric coming out of his practical, matter-of-fact self

* The dialogue between Eric and David Baker in the beginning was absorbing and real-sounding-'fleshed out', as they say.

* Eric's thoughts after Kilmeny runs from him on their first meeting are very funny

* I liked Kilmeny's childlike candidness, and the fact that she was free from silly feminine coquetry; she was strange and interesting.

* The orchard was exquisitely described, making me want to be in it. Or plant an orchard in my backyard :)

Now for the bad:

* The beauty thing. Now, I don't mind beautiful characters as long as it isn't excessively emphasized. In this book, it's as if Eric only loved Kilmeny and wanted to marry her because of it. And his family and friends seemed to approve of her based on her looks! Whenever they were doubtful over the wisdom of the match, Eric said "Wait until you see her", not mentioning Kilmeny's personality. And they were won over at once when they saw her. Ugh.

* I can't say more, but lots of it was rather contrived and predictable. There was only one unexpected conflict. The end was a bit convenient and predictable. This doesn't interfere with my enjoyment of it too much, though

* Neil Gordon, who loved Kilmeny too, was treated as the 'untrustworthy foreigner' because he was Italian and often sulky

* I would have liked to know Kilmeny a weensy bit better. It would have been interesting if Montgomery had alternated between her and Eric's perspectives. But maybe that's because I"m so used to female protagonists in her books...

* There was a little humor, but not as much as in her other books

So, to sum up, this was a sweet, enjoyable story (every reviewer has said that, but there's really no other way to describe the book), with the usual interesting background characters. Love wins the day, and that is always good :). Now, whether it's true love, that's another matter...
This, after The Blue Castle, is the second of LMM's more 'adult' books I've read, and Blue Castle is definitely the better of the two.
All in all, Montgomery's orphan/young girl/ coming of age stories are my favorites. Thinking of them, at the moment, is like thinking of a cold glass of water on a hot day.
I'm definitely not paying $40 for it on Amazon-for the Bantam edition, anyway, which is the cover on this post. It's a beautiful cover, and I'm too stubborn to settle for anything other than that edition. I know, I'm silly, but I set a great deal of store by book covers!

And yes, that means that I do think this book is worth adding to my LMM collection. It's good to read for fans of Montgomery.

Her books always have a haunting effect that gives me a strange ache, especially because of her wonderful descriptions of nature and the effect it can have on us. Except for the part when I met the orchard, Kilmany of the Orchard didn't give me that ache, which both hurts me and enchants me, that I've come to expect from Montgomery.

Pat of Silver Bush next!