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A Joyful Noise
First published in 1971, this engaging personal narrative remains a book “for anyone who likes to get up early on summer mornings or sail a boat on a blue day or watch birds and babies, pick flowers, dig clams, or maybe just laugh.”
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 11, 2018
A wonderful ROMP of a read, one that hearkens back to the days when families that could would escape to summer homes for entire summers. This takes place in the years between the two world wars, when travel by car generally included more than one flat tire, and the trip from Holyoke to Buzzards Bay in Massachusetts took at least eight hours. The family in this memoir was raucous, with five children, two parents, and two dogs all cramming into one rickety roadster, their luggage lashed to the running boards and onto the car roof. Surely the author must have exaggerated this annual ordeal, but it was so funny to read that I just sat back and went for the ride (pun intended).
I laughed out and a lot. The parts about sailing were hysterical, as their inlet was full of eel grass and looked more like a wheat field than a body of water. Mostly, they pushed their boats across the muddy grass and, many times, had to climb overboard again to push when they went aground. It was probably a good thing that they had such shallow waters because they were always bailing like crazy. In actual fact, they could have simply jumped out and carried their leaky vessel home on foot.
The whole book is like that. Just a hoot! The author is a jaunty, mischievous writer, describing (for instance) the time one of their dogs got into a pig pen “whose occupants screamed like train whistles.” Another dog they owned was “slightly insane, as she ate buttons and caught nonexistent flies.”
I liked this book so much that I sent it to a friend who, like me, considers laughter an instant vacation. It reminded me of "The Big House" by George Howe Colt but funnier.
Bravo, Janet Gillespie!
I laughed out and a lot. The parts about sailing were hysterical, as their inlet was full of eel grass and looked more like a wheat field than a body of water. Mostly, they pushed their boats across the muddy grass and, many times, had to climb overboard again to push when they went aground. It was probably a good thing that they had such shallow waters because they were always bailing like crazy. In actual fact, they could have simply jumped out and carried their leaky vessel home on foot.
The whole book is like that. Just a hoot! The author is a jaunty, mischievous writer, describing (for instance) the time one of their dogs got into a pig pen “whose occupants screamed like train whistles.” Another dog they owned was “slightly insane, as she ate buttons and caught nonexistent flies.”
I liked this book so much that I sent it to a friend who, like me, considers laughter an instant vacation. It reminded me of "The Big House" by George Howe Colt but funnier.
Bravo, Janet Gillespie!
September 27, 2020
My sister, Jae, gave me this book. I believe she had read it more than once. Now I have also. This time when I read it, I noticed so much more. Amazing what gifts come with age!
September 6, 2014
This book was given to me as a gift, which for this story I think is very fitting. The author, Janet Gillespie, writes about her childhood summers as the gift they were. She spent those few months with her sometimes serious, mostly funny and endearing family in their summer home in Westport, MA. Gillespie writes about the inevitability of growing up, and rediscovering things that you used to cherish as a child. She writes about relationships with family, the importance and the idiocy of tradition, and balancing out how things stay the same, and how things always change. Change, what a dreadful word in many cases. At the end of every summer, leaving your special place where you can be who you want, and knowing that next year when you come back you will be that much older, that much more removed from experiencing things as children do, with amazed wonderment. There is sadness in that idea, and I believe that sadness comes out a little in her writing, although she soldiers on, exclaiming the newness of expanding her social circle at Westport, and then finally bringing her family there and teaching her grandchildren the same things she learned as a child of the summer, but it never is really the same as growing up somewhere.
That sadness also appeared when she had to reenter the world in Princeton, in an all girls schools, where she was not allowed to be interested in the things she wanted to be and accepted by her peers at the same time. She wanted to discover new birds, go on beelines, sail and explore, and because of these experiences she was left as an outsider, struggling with leaving a place that you feel is entirely your own and moving to a place that is run by others' standards and expectations. Let it be a small reminder at least that at some point in time, even if it is not this one, we can all have somewhere to be who we want to be, and if we don't have that we can create it for ourselves.
That sadness also appeared when she had to reenter the world in Princeton, in an all girls schools, where she was not allowed to be interested in the things she wanted to be and accepted by her peers at the same time. She wanted to discover new birds, go on beelines, sail and explore, and because of these experiences she was left as an outsider, struggling with leaving a place that you feel is entirely your own and moving to a place that is run by others' standards and expectations. Let it be a small reminder at least that at some point in time, even if it is not this one, we can all have somewhere to be who we want to be, and if we don't have that we can create it for ourselves.
February 26, 2011
Just finished this book, loaned to me by my sister who probably found it in a used book store. It's a delight. A look back at a different time, and a lovely family full of close and funny relationships. It made me think of both Erma Bombeck and the book Cheaper by the Dozen. By the way, Synton House, where Baba lived, still exists and is available as a summer rental. You can find it online. The book can be ordered online from Amazon as a used book, as can some of Janet Gillespie's other books. http://www.amazon.com/Joyful-Noise-Ja... I've ordered her Bedlam in the Back Seat and can't wait to read it. BTW, A Joyful Noise would make a great summer read, especially if your idea of a great vacation is a quiet cottage.
August 31, 2008
A first person account of life in the 1920’s as Janet is about 11-14 years old. The family lives in Holyoke MA, but take every summer vacation at their summer home compound on the shores of Massachusetts. Three months long every summer. This book is a gentle account of the experiences seen through the eyes of an 11 year old girl. Gillespie is the same age as Winnie Young so I enjoyed looking at life from her eyes concerning the customs and hardships of the times. There are some delightful accounts of the relationships in the family and the fun of a child to just be able to explore the fields, woods, and beach.
February 28, 2010
How beautiful! It was super sugar sweet, but in the best way. Not cloying, the families & authors sense of humor gave it the right feel & kept if from feeling too over sentimental.. but right away I loved Mum & Pop & Baba & of course dear Jan & just everyone! This book truly brightened my dreary cold February bus rides with so many thoughts of warm summer & being outside taking it all in. It makes me so sad it's out of print, so if you ever come across a copy definitely pick it up!
December 27, 2007
An amazing book, but hard to find since it's out of print. It made me think a lot about family life and childraising...also a beautiful story about discovery.
February 10, 2011
I love the way Mrs. Gillespie writes, her family is wonderful, funny, weird and truly joyful as are her stories about them!
May 20, 2016
Loved this book! Made me laugh right out loud and wish I'd grown up in a little less busy time of life.
January 20, 2020
A wonderful story of growing up in a family that went to Westpoint Port in Massachussetts every summer and spent a glorious time exploring the dunes, the bird's nests, the water, the seagrass, everything! An idyllic time between childhood and teenage years where a blue day was perfect for sailing and a picnic. It was a time when families stayed together and the oldsters taught the youngsters. What a thrill to read of something so similar to my childhood, only mine was on a farm.
February 1, 2023
I first discovered this book when I was in high school, and have read it a couple of times over the years. I finally bought myself a copy, along with two other books by this author (Bedlam in the Back Seat and With a Merry Heart). This memoir of summers on the Massachusetts shore always makes me laugh.
October 28, 2025
Not an exciting read, or even much of an interesting one, but A Joyful Noise was most certainly an enjoyable one. Truly a gift to read someone’s take on their own ordinary, simple, and magical childhood. Inspires me to write about my own. Worth the read, if you’re looking for a mindless book to read before bed!
September 3, 2018
I have enjoyed all Janet Gillespie's other books and I expected to be enchanted by this. Instead, I was bored, I'm sorry to say. I don't know why. I thought I would be enthralled to learn about her grandmother's garden.
xx-dnf-skim-reference
February 2, 2022I just couldn't get into it. I feel all cranky and curmudgeonly to admit that, but dnf p.56 February 2022. No idea who to recommend it to, maybe just about anybody, but I just don't know... I guess only make a special effort to find it if you are from the same era or geography?
November 14, 2012
Two chapters in and I am laughing so hard and keep sharing exerts with my husband. The type of memoir I love~ October
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Well I did not technically finish this one...but most of it.
That is because the chapters read like little anecdotes of the author's life while at their Summer house in Maine,after WW1. So I skipped around.
I read most of it though.
I really, really enjoyed it. I found it interesting in that it was placed really only one generation after the Victorian age. The author's grandmother, born in the 1800's played a major part of her summer experiences and memories. I found it so interesting that they were a modest family, her father a Pastor, their Summer home built by their great-grand father back when a man could claim a plot of land for next to no money and simply start building. It had no running water, no toilet, no luxuries, and yet "it was unimaginable to not have a full time cook employed". They were forced, by their very proper grandmother, to walk to church in the sweltering heat "to give a day of rest to our nonexistent horses and groomsmen". I guess pretentiousness is common to every generation. Now a-days a summer home in New England and a full time cook is something only the extremely wealthy and privileged can boast of. And don't we middle-class-ers all hate them for it! Proving yet again I was born in the wrong century.
This book is so funny.
Her spot on sarcasm about the chaos and antics of family life, and her tender poking fun at her sentimental clergy father whom she clearly adores makes for great reading. Her love of nature, the sublime sensation of exploring the glories of the great outdoors on the rugged coast of Maine, and the love and laughter that presided over this family is warm and genuine without being obviously sentimental. The chapter towards the end of the book in which the author is college-aged and trying to explain to their very Protestant father, shortly after the end of prohibition, how "it is okay to drink like a gentleman" is particularity hilarious.
A great read for anyone who loves to get a peak into less complicated times, and honest portrayals of family life.
****************************************************************************************************
Well I did not technically finish this one...but most of it.
That is because the chapters read like little anecdotes of the author's life while at their Summer house in Maine,after WW1. So I skipped around.
I read most of it though.
I really, really enjoyed it. I found it interesting in that it was placed really only one generation after the Victorian age. The author's grandmother, born in the 1800's played a major part of her summer experiences and memories. I found it so interesting that they were a modest family, her father a Pastor, their Summer home built by their great-grand father back when a man could claim a plot of land for next to no money and simply start building. It had no running water, no toilet, no luxuries, and yet "it was unimaginable to not have a full time cook employed". They were forced, by their very proper grandmother, to walk to church in the sweltering heat "to give a day of rest to our nonexistent horses and groomsmen". I guess pretentiousness is common to every generation. Now a-days a summer home in New England and a full time cook is something only the extremely wealthy and privileged can boast of. And don't we middle-class-ers all hate them for it! Proving yet again I was born in the wrong century.
This book is so funny.
Her spot on sarcasm about the chaos and antics of family life, and her tender poking fun at her sentimental clergy father whom she clearly adores makes for great reading. Her love of nature, the sublime sensation of exploring the glories of the great outdoors on the rugged coast of Maine, and the love and laughter that presided over this family is warm and genuine without being obviously sentimental. The chapter towards the end of the book in which the author is college-aged and trying to explain to their very Protestant father, shortly after the end of prohibition, how "it is okay to drink like a gentleman" is particularity hilarious.
A great read for anyone who loves to get a peak into less complicated times, and honest portrayals of family life.
December 10, 2019
Superb book! Excellent writing, wonderful story telling and find natural history. Highly recommended if you are interested in period pieces
July 23, 2010
Ok, I am loving this so far! I have a smile on my face the whole time I'm reading.
So.. I never did finish this. It just got so slow... but some parts really cracked me up.
So.. I never did finish this. It just got so slow... but some parts really cracked me up.
March 17, 2010
A memoir about summers in 1920 on at a beach home in New England. Some parts were laugh out loud funny. Some were just so slow. I finally just returned it to the library without finishing it.
April 29, 2015
Very interesting new format
November 2, 2025
Really enjoyed this memoir about the author's family's adventures, mostly during the summer on the coast. Lots about nature.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews