How do you modernize a story from a hundred years ago?
In 1908, Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery published Anne of Green Gables. The novel would later become a beloved classic, garnering sequels, film and TV adaptations, and tourist attractions. Eventually, HarperCollins editor Tessa Woodward put a call out on Twitter for a modern adaptation of Montgomery’s novel, which would be answered in 2021 with romance author Brina Starler’s Anne of Manhattan.
It’s not a bad idea to take characters from one setting and place them in another, particularly when the context is historical fiction. There’s a lot that can be done by taking two different time periods and exploring their similarities and differences. But while the premise holds a lot of potential, Anne of Manhattan falls flat in execution.
The story follows Anne Shirley attending grad school in New York, where she unwittingly reunites with her childhood rival, Gilbert Blythe. They are paired together for a thesis project, and are surprised to find they work well as friends, and eventually more. But both Anne and Gil are afraid of pushing their luck with the other, and this comes to a head when a misunderstanding drives them apart.
What works about Anne of Manhattan is how it pays homage to the original source material. Anne’s relationship with the Cuthberts is as supportive and loving as ever, and my favorite chapter is a flashback of their first Christmas together. The work Anne puts into her thesis project harkens to her work as a teacher in Anne of Avonlea.
Additionally, the bit of originality that does work is how lack of communication and trust drives a wedge between Anne and Gil in the second half of the book. It’s an old trope, but one that persists for a reason: it’s one of the most common problems in relationships, and one that every couple must overcome to give their romance a chance to thrive.
Unfortunately, the number one problem with Anne of Manhattan is that the modernization of the classic novel is incredibly shallow. And this problem reveals itself in two major aspects.
One of the most egregious sins of the book is how locations that were originally in Canada—Avonlea, Redmond College—were moved to New York. There is no narrative justification for this, except to match the title of the story Anne of Manhattan. I’m not even Canadian, and I’m offended.
The second problem is that the focus of the novel is almost entirely on Anne’s romance with Gil, and the prose hyperfixates on their sexual chemistry. Their relationship was an important arc in Montgomery’s series too, but it was balanced out with other aspects of Anne’s life: her relationships with the Cuthberts and the people she meets as she grows up; her passion for storytelling and how it informs choices she makes in her adult life; and how she turns her imagination into her superpower. And what makes Anne’s and Gilbert’s romance so compelling is how well they understand each other on an emotional and spiritual level, how they balance each other out and make each other better. While these aspects do appear in Anne of Manhattan, they are shunted to the shadows for the sake of making the story sexier (literally and figuratively).
Now, I’m not opposed to sex in fiction as long as it’s done well. There are many ways writers can and have used sex scenes to tell compelling stories. I reviewed a fantastic example of this back in June, You Make a Fool of Death With Your Beauty. And I get that Starler is a romance author first and probably didn’t intend to revisit Anne of Green Gables through a historic or multicultural lens. But even with that caveat, Anne of Manhattan is a massive disappointment. Not only does it misrepresent the original source material, but it also uses sex as a tool for marketing, not as a means of exploring character dynamics.
There are stories out there that modernize old stories in ways that enrich them and make them more palatable for contemporary audiences. Think West Side Story and Clueless. Unfortunately, Anne of Manhattan falls short with shallow narrative choices and prioritizing marketability over storytelling. If you’re looking to enjoy Anne and Gilbert hitting the bedsheets, you’ll like Anne of Manhattan just fine. But if you want to relive an old favorite about a girl’s struggles and triumphs in growing up, you’re better off reading Montgomery’s works.
Final rating: 2.7/5
Many thanks for reading.
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