Not of the race that knows Joseph

As I mentioned in a footnote to the last post Bruce Handy, author of “Wild Things” finds Anne Shirley “detestable”. He says he tried to read “Anne of Green Gables” but the deal breaker was when Anne named a geranium. As evidence for his inability to continue he quotes Anne in a paragraph that begins, “How do you know but that it hurts a geranium’s feelings just to be called geranium and nothing else?” Little does he know that this paragraph could be a litmus test for determining if a reader is of the “race that knows Joseph” – one of Anne’s kindred spirits. (1)

I have read and reread the five Anne books that belonged to my mother and was truly baffled at his dislike until my friend Susan explained that there are some books you have to read for the first time at a certain (young) age to appreciate them.

This made me remember my “Pride and Prejudice” experience. I have read so many books I’ve enjoyed that are inspired by, based on, or include characters who positively worship Jane Austen. Since I had never read her I thought I should and while I did finish “Pride and Prejudice” I really didn’t enjoy it and thought Mr. Darcy who others apparently find the ideal mate as detestable as Bruce Handy found Anne.

And in Bruce Handy’s defense I must add another thought. My mother also had a copy of “Rilla of Ingleside” which I had read once and decided to reread recently rather than rereading the Anne books. When I was perplexed by something in the book, I googled it and found to my surprise that “Rilla of Ingleside” is sometimes referred to as the eighth Anne book and that there are two more: “Anne of Ingleside” (the sixth) and “Rainbow Valley” (the seventh). So I found a used copy of one and downloaded the other onto my Kindle and I must admit I never would have been able to finish them if I wasn’t already a “member of the Anne cult”.

(1) As long as I’m writing about Bruce Handy, I’ll include another footnote. During my latest foray into Anne world I wondered about the derivation of the phrase “the race that knows Joseph”. Googling it only gives results related to the Anne books and no definitive answer to the source of the phrase.