later BetsyTacy books meet the Emily of New Moon trilogy L, M. Montgomery in this delightful middlegradeish comingofage story,
I still really, really love this book, It's exquisite. It hits me in that same place as In This House of Brede, The richness of Julie's interior life, the crystalline glimpses into the human psyche, I love everything about it, more and more each time I read it,
As to the Montgomery references below, I get the feeling the Anne books were ones that had seeped into Hunt's soul.
Unlike the references to Austen, these are veiled, In one scene, Julie refers to being "where the brook and river meet, " That settles it for meHunt was a Montgomery reader, Whether the references are Easter eggs or unintentional revelations of her reading habits, it doesn't matter, As I'm rereading the Emily books, I notice more of a feeling akin to New Moon than Green Gables, but the comparisons are only superficial.
Hunt writes very differently from Montgomery at the core she writes in first person, for one,
Goodness, I need to read/reread more by Hunt, I don't care if none of her other books have the freshwater quality of Up a Road Slowly.
I just love her writing very much,
Middle school was when I first encountered Up a Road Slowly, and I remember thinking, “She really does mean slowly.
” Julie stood out to me as a character, but I recall being underwhelmed by the story as a whole, though certain parts have stayed with me.
For whatever reason, this novel has been on my mind recently, As an adult reader, I love slow stories and deeply interior novels, so I hoped Up a Road Slowly would work better for me now.
In the first chapters, Hunt makes a few connections intentionally or not with L, M. Montgomerys Avonlea world: a character named Cordelia, another named Carlotta Berry, Two single adult siblings living together, yet apart, on a farm, A oneroom schoolhouse. A Cathedral of the Four Birches and prayer in the woods, Some characters who absolutely seem like Montgomerys, Hmm. Perhaps I make too much of this, for there are more divergences than connections, butCarlotta/Charlotta the fourth Cordelia Berry/Barry Come on.
There is something of Montgomery in here, too, The delight in beauty and the natural world, for one, However, theres nothing of the whimsy that characterizes Montgomerys work, or the natural good nature of her characters,
Hunt doesnt dwell on Julies joy as much as she does her sorrows, Julie narrates the book as an older woman, and shell refer to times of happiness, but spends longer on the sadness.
This makes Up a Road Slowly deep and wise, but also somber, perhaps a little sour, because Julies feelings are strong and catching.
Up a Road Slowly received the Newbery Medal, but today it would be published as YA rather than childrens.
The subject matter is heavier, and the novel is really a bildungsroman, One aspect I especially appreciated this time around was Hunts adult characters, who all grew in their own ways, No static grownups here.
I loved Julie much more this time around, Her experiences and responses come across realistically, The narrative style lends an enviable selfawareness to Julie, which felt preachy to me the first few times I read it.
Now, its very much in the narrative style I enjoy most, and didnt feel preachy at all, The sly humor was sharper than I remembered, and the progression of events more natural, Toward the end, Julie begins to take her writing aspirations seriously, and her progression is piercingly lovely, That chapter could stand on its own, nearly, and is a good study of writing about writing in fiction,
A successful reread of Up a Road Slowly gives me hope for rereading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn at some point.
There was so much to love about it Francie, the bookishness, the extraordinarily welldrawn world, but one character Katie Nolan spoiled the whole book for me, as Cordelia spoiled Up a Road Slowly for me at first.
Coming back to Up a Road Slowly at a different time in my life allowed me to empathize more with Cordelia, even like and admire her.
Hopefully the same can happen with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,
When I started rereading it, I was hoping for a more positive experience, but I didnt dare hope that I would actually come to love Up a Road Slowly.
Itll have to settle in my soul a bit before I consider it a favorite, but I heartily enjoyed it this time around, and look forward to visiting with Julie again someday.
Without a doubt, beyond compare, my favorite book ever, Up a Road Slowly is the book sent to me by my closest aunt the fall after my father died.
It came with a note telling me how much she treasured the book and hoped that it would find a place in my heart too.
Whether it was because the book came from such an influence in my life or because I was still emotionally raw when I read it, or maybe because it's a Newberry Award winning novel, Up a Road Slowly struck a chord within me that has never ceased to play on my heart.
I try to read it once a year or so, and nearly twenty years later, it still speaks to me.
Up a Road Slowly is the comingofage story of Julie Trelling, a girl of seven who's sent to live with a spinster aunt in the country after her mother's death.
The story follows her elementary school experiences of friendships forged and lost, classmates who are both mercilessly teased and teasers, and the painfully real outcasting of a mentally handicapped girl.
The story of Julie's first love and its loss is poignant and completely relatable, Who among us hasn't out of loneliness fancied a rather shoddy love into something beautiful My favorite passages in the book are the one in which Julie learns life's lessons.
Irene Hunt, the author, has a way of injecting the truths I wish someone had told me in a way that is neither preachy or unbelievable.
This book was first published in, and it shows, Like, you can definitely tell from the get go that not only does the story take place a while ago, but its definitely written in that youngadult style of the past.
Do you know what I mean To me, the stories and characters in most YAs fromyears ago feel more removedlike, the emotions feel more sugarcoated and distant or something.
Anyway, while theres nothing wrong with that style, it did take me a while to get into the book because of it.
Everything just felt like I was seeing it through the haze of
the years rather than living it with Julie.
And really, that couldve been entirely deliberate on the authors part, since the story is written as Julie looking back on her childhood and teenage years, which she spent living with her older, unmarried aunt.
To me this story felt a bit like the “Anne of Green Gables” series, Nothing too crazy happensrather its a yearbyyear account of her growing up and the normal adolescent things, good and bad, that she goes through as she matures.
The story generally felt quaint and sweet, and I thought it would stay that way throughout, And it does, but towards the end, you get a few glimpses of Aunt Cordelia and Uncle Haskell that give them surprising but much needed depth.
And I think that depth catches Julie herself offguard a bit, as shes used to seeing them through the eyes of her childhood rather than the eyes of a nearadult.
And that depth towards the end made it all more satisfying than I think I would have found it otherwise.
Overall, a book thats short and charming, if a little slow, If I had aoryearold daughter, I think this is the kind of book Id want to read out loud with her.
Rating:/
Originally posted at sitelinkBook Light Graveyard Spoilers ahead! This Newbery Medal book came out inbut I never read it until now.
When sevenyearold Julie loses her mother, she also loses her home and her sense of security, She goes to live with her mother's sister at the family homestead, Aunt Cordelia has never married, but her brother a narcissistic, essentially harmless alcoholic lives in a separate house on the property.
Aunt Cordelia teaches in a oneroom schoolhouse, where as a young woman she coached her beau into higher education, But all that aside, this is essentially a comingofage novel about Julie, who has to negotiate her identity, Is she more like Aunt Cordelia or Uncle Haskell And what roles do her father and older sister now play in her life When Julie is in high school, she falls in love with a cad who eventually dumps her.
She then takes up with a chum from the old days at Aunt Cordelia's school the boy she has really loved all along.
Julie wants to be a writer and makes several attempts at dramatic short stories, She must learn to write what she knows, She is finally published when someone else submits one of her stories without her knowledge, The End.
So, this turns out to be one of many comingofage stories, written by female authors, about a girl who wants to be a writer.
See Little Women, Harriet the Spy, etc, Somehow it reminds me of one such story in particular, . . but the difference between Anne Shirley and Julie Trelling is their motivation, Anne just wants scope for the imagination, some kindred spirits, and a bosom friend, Julie, whose orphan story is a bit more seriousminded than Anne's, wants to be the apple of someone's eye, Anne must learn not to make so many mistakes Julie must learn to love and be loved, .