The Annals of Ann
May 9, 2014Mel was reading this one, and it sounded interesting, but I don’t think it’s for me.
The Annals of Ann is by Kate Trimble Sharber, who a quick google search told me nothing about. But the book itself is pretty straightforward: Ann is a teenager who lives somewhere in the South with her parents and her mammy, and she uses her diary mostly to talk about her various acquaintances pairing off.
The book is one of those teenage girl diary ones where the author is relying heavily on the reader getting jokes that the narrator doesn’t. And that’s worked for me approximately once, in The Visits of Elizabeth. The rest of the time I find it a little irritating and uncomfortable. If you like that kind of thing, I think this is probably a pretty good version of it. I wasn’t tempted to put it down or anything. I just kind of resent it when authors are like, “hey let’s have a joke on the protagonist of my novel together.”
Redeeming Qualities 
At least Ann can spell, unlike Bab, a Sub-Deb! (I never did finish that one). Apparently I downloaded this two years ago but never read it. I may give it a try.
I think I read part of Bab, but never finished it, but I may take a shot at Ann– not too many diary stories out there, alas!
Have you tried Phyllis, by Maria Thompson Daviess?
Ugh, inventive spelling. My position on this is, as ever: it’a only okay if you are Russell Hoban or actually a child.
The follow on book to this one, ‘The Age of Eve,’ isn’t bad and the heroine’s still the narrator and much smarter (although that doesn’t prevent her from falling for the wrong man).