As a Watered Garden
Marian Keith [Mary Esther Miller MacGregor]
Toronto; McClelland & Stewart, 1946
297 pages
My Marian Keith collection began with The Bells of St Stephens, purchased seventeen years ago in London, Ontario, not long after our move to nearby St Marys. I ask you, what self-respecting bibliophile could pass up a jacket like this?
I'd barely heard of Marian Keith and had no idea how popular she'd once been in that area of the country. Eight more Marian Keith titles were added during our decade in St Marys. They were thick on the ground. The Bells of St Stephen's set me back four dollars, twice as much as any other. A few were rescued after having failed to sell at library book sales. Before last week, I'd never read one.
I've now read one.
Academics position Duncan Polite as Keith at her best, but as I'd never come across a copy my foray into the author's work ended up being the late career As a Watered Garden. Why this novel? Well, I'd read that the plot involved a great mystery.
Academics position Duncan Polite as Keith at her best, but as I'd never come across a copy my foray into the author's work ended up being the late career As a Watered Garden. Why this novel? Well, I'd read that the plot involved a great mystery.
The first chapter is the best. Thirty-five-year-old Islay Drummond is taking stock of the large family farmhouse off Georgian Bay, recently inherited from Great-Aunt Christena. No one knows just what to make of the bequeathal, least of all sisters Kate and Jeanette:
"More sensible if she left it to me." Jeannette had been wanting to see this since the will was read. "What a wonderful place to leave the children summers!"Kate replies:
"Wonder she didn't saddle us with it, she knew how I hated the old farm. She was quite capable of it!"The answer seems to be that Islay happened by not long before the old woman died. It was the first visit in a very long time. Islay had meant to drop by again, but you know how busy things can get.
Islay plans on spending the summer at the old farmhouse, having been granted a four month leave from her employer, "the irritable and exacting Mr. Francis," but neither sister believes she'll last. Both point to the mod cons of Islay's life in the city. "She has an electric range in her apartment!" Kate exclaims. "And frigidaire," adds Jeanette.
These exchanges take place shortly before Kate and Jeanette gather their respective broods and drive away. Stoic elder brother Robert follows. He'd arrived without wife Mary and their children. Pete, who is closest to Islay in both age and affection, is the baby of the family. He lives the life playboy and so speeds off in a small little coupe, honking all the way.
If, like me, you enjoy novels dealing with family dynamics, As a Watered Garden may not be for you. Islay's siblings never return. That said, distant relatives abound. The closest is cousin Steve Laird whose farm borders hers. He's planted a vegetable garden for Islay, but doesn't appear to be interested in doing much more.
This poses a bit of a problem as Islay is intent on dedicating her four months away from Mr Francis to writing a novel:
It was her secret. Even Pete didn't know it. That winter when she broke her ankle... she'd been laid up for weeks. And somehow she'd started scribbling – little sketches of the office staff – 'profiles' the editor called them, whisking through them competently. Ought to be a story, must have a plot. Make a real yarn of it. That's what people asked for... Well, this summer she was going to see what she could do.What Islay wants more than anything is silence and solitude.
She won't get it.
We know from the first that there is an ex-fiancé around and about – he threw her over years ago for a New York City party girl – but the first intrusion comes in the form of anemic waif Artie.
How could Islay turn the boy away? Artie's memories are dominated by a draught that caused the loss of his family's farm and contributed to the deaths of his two siblings. The surviving family is newly arrived in the area, having driven over three thousand kilometers from dusty Saskatchewan.
Young Artie first appears during a downpour. As a Watered Garden being the title, I'm certain this is intentional. Later on, the house in which the boy and his parents live will be flooded during a summer storm.
There's irony for you.
Young Artie first appears during a downpour. As a Watered Garden being the title, I'm certain this is intentional. Later on, the house in which the boy and his parents live will be flooded during a summer storm.
There's irony for you.
Things happen, not nearly so dire, and are interesting if inconsequential. Other characters intrude on Islay's solitude and her literary effort stalls. The mystery, such as it is, concerns Great-Uncle Peter's daughter Bessie:
Great-Aunt Christena had burned Bessie’s picture up. You never talked about Bessie. Never even said her name. Even when you were very small you knew not to do that.But why?
The answer has nothing to do with murder, adultery or anything even remotely unpleasant. Quite the opposite. It's really of a type that is common in family histories; Bessie married a man Christena disapproved of.
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| The Windsor Star, 30 November 1946 |
As a Watered Garden has been described as the first book in Keith's Georgian Bay Trilogy. Yonder Shining Light and Lilacs in the Dooryard followed, which take the reader through the Second World War into the post-war, though I don't expect I'll be bothering with either.
As a Watered Garden was a perfectly pleasant read, if you like that sort of thing.
The critics rave:
As a Watered Garden was a perfectly pleasant read, if you like that sort of thing.
The critics rave:
The men and women with whom she peoples her books are sympathetically real and easily recognizable as those one meets in everyday life. And she herself obviously believes that everything always comes out right in the end. While her books may never make any shattering imprint upon the larger stream of literature they leave a very peasant ripple in our Canadian brook.– Eileen Kerr, The Gazette, 7 December 1946
Object and Access: Lacking the dust jacket, bound in blue boards, my copy once belonged to E.L. MacDougall of 189 Blythwood Road, Toronto.
As I write, two copies are listed for sale online, both offered by London, Ontario booksellers. At US$20.00, the cheaper of the two has retained its dust jacket.
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