Having read “Anne of Green Gables” for the first time at twenty-two, right after graduating from college, I can say with some certainty that it served as a balm for many open – and still painful – wounds: a traumatic final semester, a grueling and emotionally-trying workload, and all the fear and confusion that comes with being faced with Life After College. L.M. Montgomery, without condescension or infantilization, offered in “Anne of Green Gables” a gentler, lovelier world that made this sense of confusion – the “bend in the road” that takes us we know not where – manageable, even if it was not quite knowable. I love the Jo Marches and the Elizabeth Bennets of literature – but never shall I love them the way that I love Anne Shirley.
Prescribed by: Katherine Avery