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Traverser l'hiver
Un motel, quelque part sur la cote atlantique des Etats-Unis, la saison touristique touche a sa fin. Lorsque Mabel voit debarquer June a la reception de son etablissement, elle est saisie d'une immediate sympathie pour cette jeune fille au regard fuyant. Peut-etre parce que June lui parait trop jeune pour etre mere, ou parce que son compagnon semble distant, voire agressif. Ce dernier disparait apres quelques jours, laissant June et son bebe Luke sans ressource. Il parait naturel a Mabel de les heberger mais rapidement, elle doit demander de l'aide a son amie Iris.
Cette derniere a refait sa vie a l'ecart du monde - et loin de sa fille Claire - depuis la mort violente de son mari. Elle accepte de loger June et Luke dans un pavillon au fond de sa propriete, a condition que leur presence ne rompe pas son isolement. Duncan, l'avocat et homme de confiance d'Iris qui connait la verite sur son passe, est charge de veiller sur eux. Mais c'est au retour de Claire dans sa ville natale que la vie de June va prendre une nouvelle tournure...
Des destins de personnages cabosses, en deuil ou en colere, s'entrecroisent sous la plume delicate de Melanie Wallace. Rares sont les ecrivains capables de dire avec autant de justesse la solitude des etres humains malmenes par la vie.
Cette derniere a refait sa vie a l'ecart du monde - et loin de sa fille Claire - depuis la mort violente de son mari. Elle accepte de loger June et Luke dans un pavillon au fond de sa propriete, a condition que leur presence ne rompe pas son isolement. Duncan, l'avocat et homme de confiance d'Iris qui connait la verite sur son passe, est charge de veiller sur eux. Mais c'est au retour de Claire dans sa ville natale que la vie de June va prendre une nouvelle tournure...
Des destins de personnages cabosses, en deuil ou en colere, s'entrecroisent sous la plume delicate de Melanie Wallace. Rares sont les ecrivains capables de dire avec autant de justesse la solitude des etres humains malmenes par la vie.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 31, 2017
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1996 people want to read
About the author
Melanie Wallace
11 books41 followersMelanie Wallace was born and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire, and now lives with her husband in Myloi, an agrarian village below the Ohi mountain range in Greece, and in Paris.
Wallace's novel "The Housekeeper" was longlisted for the 2007 Orange Prize.
Wallace's novel "The Housekeeper" was longlisted for the 2007 Orange Prize.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 228 reviews
January 5, 2017
The year is 1974, you have a sad, but beautiful story that begins with sixteen year old June and her infant son being left stranded by her baby's father, an older man, at a cottage near the ocean, far away from the desolate trailer park where she had lived with a really awful mother.
So many characters in this novel that you will come to care for, in this new place where June ended up, some who are very sad, some just lonely, some who have about given up on life, characters of all ages, who become a part of June's story and her future. I really enjoyed this book.
Thank you to Netgalley, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Melanie Wallace for the ARC.
So many characters in this novel that you will come to care for, in this new place where June ended up, some who are very sad, some just lonely, some who have about given up on life, characters of all ages, who become a part of June's story and her future. I really enjoyed this book.
Thank you to Netgalley, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Melanie Wallace for the ARC.
December 31, 2016
Sad and beautifully written. It was the writing that drew me in from the beginning. While at first I thought the major focus of the story was sixteen year old June and her baby boy who are abandoned at a motel in New England, it became not just about June, but about a cast of heartbroken characters, each carrying burdens of their own. The story unfolds with alternating narratives in addition to June's. Mabel, Duncan, Iris, Oldman, Sam and while there is not a separate narrative for Claire, Iris's daughter, we come to know her through the others. Their haunting histories are revealed with the losses they bear - loved ones and not necessarily because of death, loss of one's sense of self and an emotional burden of loss of herself in June's case with her gritty, dismal upbringing and the story of how she got to where she was.
Couldn't help but wonder if any hope would appear. Yet it does in the way that these characters rise to the moment in spite of or because of their own losses. Maybe a little predictable in the way things turn out in the end but I definitely recommend it and will look into other books by Melanie Wallace as I was quite taken by the lovely writing.
I received an advance copy of this book from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley.
Couldn't help but wonder if any hope would appear. Yet it does in the way that these characters rise to the moment in spite of or because of their own losses. Maybe a little predictable in the way things turn out in the end but I definitely recommend it and will look into other books by Melanie Wallace as I was quite taken by the lovely writing.
I received an advance copy of this book from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley.
November 1, 2016
"The Lower East Side, the East Village, Alphabet City, we're crawling with broken people lounging on broken stoops, unabashedly humping in the alleyways and parks,
sleeping like the dead where they chose to or where they fell, everyone
seemingly victimized by circumstances of their own creation as well as by one another or by strangers. The volume of trash was breathtaking, garbage cans overflowed or were kicked over, newspapers and takeout containers, oily paper bags and castaway fries and bones, beer cans and soda bottles littered the gutters. Every one of the night's denizens, to whom the streets belong, hated the cops. Man, you should've been here a few years back for good times, Freddie told him, Age of Aquarius was something."
There's sure a lot going on in this novel. I found myself reading parts slowly - and re-reading lovely paragraphs --be it describing the gardens --or the countryside--or surviving the grief of memory. The writing is beautiful with some parts absolutely exquisite.
"He drives close to the center line to avoid stretches of eaten-away shoulders, slows over frost heaves and cracks and around potholes, follows meandering climbs
and dips that curve and spoon into the shape of the coast, drives towards the horizon he will never reach. A silver script illuminates earth's end below the unbroken graphite sky. To his left, beyond the empty opposite lane, expanses of marsh and bog bordered by forests, and beyond the forests, he knows, clearings of pastureland, the occasional horse or dairy farm, here and there plowed fields still down in late spring for corn and potatoes, old farmsteads lived on by those who'd inherited them and kept to the ways of raising horses and cows and crops.
"To his right, the ocean, spilling into rockstrewn coves, the occasional sandy beach,
glowering beyond the dunes and beneath cliffsides topped by massive homes in which three generations, Moore, used to live, homes with columns and why porches, gables and windows' walks and cornices carved to reveal spandrels of leaping fish or shamrocks or anchors, their trim always painted a gleaming alabaster and their shingled walls invariably that blue-gray shade most often seen during winter's dusk, their zigzag access to the beaches below provided by weathered wooden staircases. The marshes, bogs, miniature estuaries, cliffs, coves, beaches, promontories and dunes go by in errant rotation; no one place is exactly like another but, then again, they all bear great resemblance to one another, with everything always ending or beginning at the edge of the ocean, beyond whose farthest rim, it occurs to him, lies England or France. It strikes Duncan, for no reason and suddenly, as queer that he has no idea of which latitude he is on".
The other day I mentioned in another book review that I was tired of seeing a new common style of writing where different characters take turns narrating the story. Well, it 'works' in this novel... REALLY WORKS.
The author, Melanie Wallace, used this style in such a way where the changing characters were sometimes surprises. One of those surprises- a character name Sam, who we do not meet until late into the story, brought my first set of sobbing tears! Plus -- the chapters were each long enough to get a deep perspective from the leading narrators, but not at the cost of limiting dialogue and social connection with others. It never felt "hyper-individualist".
The characters are so beautiful. I've fallen in love with this entire cast - this community -I don't want to say goodbye to them. I'm actually sad -- this book is over. Everything about it feels just so RIGHT!!!
I cried real tears three times.....but none of the tears came until 70% into the story. (Yep: ebook jargon: percentages versus pages is part of our reading language today)
The first time I read the blurb about this novel, all that really stood out was: "YOUNG WOMAN AND INFANT SON ABANDONED"....
I read the 'entire' blurb twice since having finished the novel trying to figure out if I would have known anything about this book from the blurb.
Here is what is BRILLIANT in my opinion: YES & NO...."It's PERFECT".....because the blurb describes everything without describing anything: BOTH!!!! And...isn't this what we want?
A couple of little tidbits ...( but not saying enough about ANYONE in this novel- just tasters): NO SPOILERS:
.....June...is a very Young mom. Ward the sperm guy is gone soon. We don't like this guy. Her infant son is named Luke.
.....We DO LIKE ALL OTHER CHARACTERS.....each with stories of their own!!!
.....Roland - is a solid man-- a "steadfast presence". A great guy- an anchor!
.....Mabel -is alone in renting out the cabins from the motel she owns by the ocean in New England. Her husband died...she feels his loss - numb, and distraught, at times. Roland has been a terrific help in the office- and quietly watches over her.
.....Duncan- Lawyer: entrusted guardian to Claire- ( Claire's father is no longer in the picture- more to learn about that)
Duncan is a man with integrity. More to learn about all the characters.
....Iris - owns a huge estate in town. She is good friends with Mabel. She is the mother of Claire.
Claire: self-sufficient, strong-willed, bright - moves into a cottage behind the main house at age 13. Moves away as a young adult- comes back 17 years later. She's photographer.
....Oldman- He's everyone's lifeline! He knows about capuchins-WWII-split-rail fencing-ponies- critters -photography-and anything to do with the town gossip. He's considered the towns ombudsman- unofficially the community psychologist-local historian-and the one person that everyone consults if they can't figure something out.
.....Dan Evans-community towns person who survives an accident
....Sam...Leonard - George - Freddie - Gloria -Rita: 1977: soup kitchen community - the Vietnam war after affects.
SAM- wounded in the war. Works in soup kitchen - drives Claire back home...
.......and the character who made me cry!!!
This novel leaves an impact! I've so much fondness for the community of people --
The universal themes get unleashed-- loss, loneliness, grief, desire, loyalty, ambition,
love....touching our shared and enduring humanity.
WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!
Thank You Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Netgalley, and *Melanie Wallace*!!!!!!
sleeping like the dead where they chose to or where they fell, everyone
seemingly victimized by circumstances of their own creation as well as by one another or by strangers. The volume of trash was breathtaking, garbage cans overflowed or were kicked over, newspapers and takeout containers, oily paper bags and castaway fries and bones, beer cans and soda bottles littered the gutters. Every one of the night's denizens, to whom the streets belong, hated the cops. Man, you should've been here a few years back for good times, Freddie told him, Age of Aquarius was something."
There's sure a lot going on in this novel. I found myself reading parts slowly - and re-reading lovely paragraphs --be it describing the gardens --or the countryside--or surviving the grief of memory. The writing is beautiful with some parts absolutely exquisite.
"He drives close to the center line to avoid stretches of eaten-away shoulders, slows over frost heaves and cracks and around potholes, follows meandering climbs
and dips that curve and spoon into the shape of the coast, drives towards the horizon he will never reach. A silver script illuminates earth's end below the unbroken graphite sky. To his left, beyond the empty opposite lane, expanses of marsh and bog bordered by forests, and beyond the forests, he knows, clearings of pastureland, the occasional horse or dairy farm, here and there plowed fields still down in late spring for corn and potatoes, old farmsteads lived on by those who'd inherited them and kept to the ways of raising horses and cows and crops.
"To his right, the ocean, spilling into rockstrewn coves, the occasional sandy beach,
glowering beyond the dunes and beneath cliffsides topped by massive homes in which three generations, Moore, used to live, homes with columns and why porches, gables and windows' walks and cornices carved to reveal spandrels of leaping fish or shamrocks or anchors, their trim always painted a gleaming alabaster and their shingled walls invariably that blue-gray shade most often seen during winter's dusk, their zigzag access to the beaches below provided by weathered wooden staircases. The marshes, bogs, miniature estuaries, cliffs, coves, beaches, promontories and dunes go by in errant rotation; no one place is exactly like another but, then again, they all bear great resemblance to one another, with everything always ending or beginning at the edge of the ocean, beyond whose farthest rim, it occurs to him, lies England or France. It strikes Duncan, for no reason and suddenly, as queer that he has no idea of which latitude he is on".
The other day I mentioned in another book review that I was tired of seeing a new common style of writing where different characters take turns narrating the story. Well, it 'works' in this novel... REALLY WORKS.
The author, Melanie Wallace, used this style in such a way where the changing characters were sometimes surprises. One of those surprises- a character name Sam, who we do not meet until late into the story, brought my first set of sobbing tears! Plus -- the chapters were each long enough to get a deep perspective from the leading narrators, but not at the cost of limiting dialogue and social connection with others. It never felt "hyper-individualist".
The characters are so beautiful. I've fallen in love with this entire cast - this community -I don't want to say goodbye to them. I'm actually sad -- this book is over. Everything about it feels just so RIGHT!!!
I cried real tears three times.....but none of the tears came until 70% into the story. (Yep: ebook jargon: percentages versus pages is part of our reading language today)
The first time I read the blurb about this novel, all that really stood out was: "YOUNG WOMAN AND INFANT SON ABANDONED"....
I read the 'entire' blurb twice since having finished the novel trying to figure out if I would have known anything about this book from the blurb.
Here is what is BRILLIANT in my opinion: YES & NO...."It's PERFECT".....because the blurb describes everything without describing anything: BOTH!!!! And...isn't this what we want?
A couple of little tidbits ...( but not saying enough about ANYONE in this novel- just tasters): NO SPOILERS:
.....June...is a very Young mom. Ward the sperm guy is gone soon. We don't like this guy. Her infant son is named Luke.
.....We DO LIKE ALL OTHER CHARACTERS.....each with stories of their own!!!
.....Roland - is a solid man-- a "steadfast presence". A great guy- an anchor!
.....Mabel -is alone in renting out the cabins from the motel she owns by the ocean in New England. Her husband died...she feels his loss - numb, and distraught, at times. Roland has been a terrific help in the office- and quietly watches over her.
.....Duncan- Lawyer: entrusted guardian to Claire- ( Claire's father is no longer in the picture- more to learn about that)
Duncan is a man with integrity. More to learn about all the characters.
....Iris - owns a huge estate in town. She is good friends with Mabel. She is the mother of Claire.
Claire: self-sufficient, strong-willed, bright - moves into a cottage behind the main house at age 13. Moves away as a young adult- comes back 17 years later. She's photographer.
....Oldman- He's everyone's lifeline! He knows about capuchins-WWII-split-rail fencing-ponies- critters -photography-and anything to do with the town gossip. He's considered the towns ombudsman- unofficially the community psychologist-local historian-and the one person that everyone consults if they can't figure something out.
.....Dan Evans-community towns person who survives an accident
....Sam...Leonard - George - Freddie - Gloria -Rita: 1977: soup kitchen community - the Vietnam war after affects.
SAM- wounded in the war. Works in soup kitchen - drives Claire back home...
.......and the character who made me cry!!!
This novel leaves an impact! I've so much fondness for the community of people --
The universal themes get unleashed-- loss, loneliness, grief, desire, loyalty, ambition,
love....touching our shared and enduring humanity.
WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!
Thank You Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Netgalley, and *Melanie Wallace*!!!!!!
April 15, 2017
I have to be quite honest. I was very excited to get approved to read this book. The story sounded good and I loved the cover of the book.
The writing style was not to my liking. The sentences were so long and descriptive and it took a lot to focus and read this book. I understand for many this is a beautifully written book. I don't want to take away from that. To be honest I found myself skimming the last 1/4 of the book as it just did not fit my reading taste. I don't usually like to do this. The story was ok and I'm positive many other people would enjoy the writing style. Unfortunately it was not for me.
Thank-you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this Advanced Reader's Edition.
The writing style was not to my liking. The sentences were so long and descriptive and it took a lot to focus and read this book. I understand for many this is a beautifully written book. I don't want to take away from that. To be honest I found myself skimming the last 1/4 of the book as it just did not fit my reading taste. I don't usually like to do this. The story was ok and I'm positive many other people would enjoy the writing style. Unfortunately it was not for me.
Thank-you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this Advanced Reader's Edition.
February 7, 2017
I have to give The Girl in the Garden 4 stars because of the writing, although there were some small things about the story that irked me. Despite the use of the word “girl” in the title, this is not a thriller or mystery, and it’s certainly not any kind of popular fiction wannabe. This is a book to be read slowly, less about plot and more about damaged reclusive characters and their inner thoughts and feelings. To the extent there is a plot, The Girl in The Garden is about a teenage girl who arrives in a small town with a baby, and how a small group of people in the town find a way to make room for her. The story is told from a few points of view. We learn about the girl’s backstory and about the complex stories and inner lives of the people who take her in. The narration moves back and forth in time, the sentences go on and on, the paragraphs are sometimes longer than a page, and there is very little dialogue and what little there is has no quotation marks. Because of this, there is no reading this book in fits and starts. It requires attention, patience and calm. But I felt rewarded for slowing down -- I felt like I really got into the heads of these quiet, complex and reserved characters. I can’t say what irked me about the story without giving away spoilers. Suffice it to say that the explanation offered for one of the character’s reclusiveness and the fallout from that explanation was jarring and didn’t ring true. Otherwise, I really liked the way in which the author created a harsh world balanced by significant acts of kindness and decency. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.
February 6, 2017
5 stars
I found this to be a beautiful book. It begins with a teenage single mother being abandoned at a roadside motel in a small tourist village on the East Coast. She has $47 and a small bag of possessions - a very sad beginning. The young mother is June and she is at the heart of this book. While June has many secrets, she is taken in by the community and helped to find a place for herself and her baby. What continues is learning the secrets not only of June but also of the villagers. It turns out that June receives a great deal of help but what she does not quite realize is the amount of help she is returning to others.
The novel unfolds at a wonderful pace – enough to keep me reading and wanting to know what else was going to happen to all the characters in the village. I also liked that the author gave all the answers to the many questions surrounding what was going on in each person’s life. My one criticism is the sentence structure. Author Melanie Wallace writes this in long, flowing, almost run-on sentences and at first I had a hard time getting used to this style. But, I began to wonder why she would write this way and my answer was to slow the reader down. This is not a book to be skimmed and read quickly, this is a book to savor all that is revealed and to think about how that affects the characters and their behavior. Highly recommend for anyone wanting to read a thought-provoking novel.
My thanks to Netgalley and Houghton, Mifflin and Harcourt for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
I found this to be a beautiful book. It begins with a teenage single mother being abandoned at a roadside motel in a small tourist village on the East Coast. She has $47 and a small bag of possessions - a very sad beginning. The young mother is June and she is at the heart of this book. While June has many secrets, she is taken in by the community and helped to find a place for herself and her baby. What continues is learning the secrets not only of June but also of the villagers. It turns out that June receives a great deal of help but what she does not quite realize is the amount of help she is returning to others.
The novel unfolds at a wonderful pace – enough to keep me reading and wanting to know what else was going to happen to all the characters in the village. I also liked that the author gave all the answers to the many questions surrounding what was going on in each person’s life. My one criticism is the sentence structure. Author Melanie Wallace writes this in long, flowing, almost run-on sentences and at first I had a hard time getting used to this style. But, I began to wonder why she would write this way and my answer was to slow the reader down. This is not a book to be skimmed and read quickly, this is a book to savor all that is revealed and to think about how that affects the characters and their behavior. Highly recommend for anyone wanting to read a thought-provoking novel.
My thanks to Netgalley and Houghton, Mifflin and Harcourt for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
February 7, 2017
The first thing you'll notice once you've read the first few pages is the writing. Wallace writes beautifully and it does require focus to really appreciate this novel. This book doesn't necessarily have a strong plot, it's one of those novels you read because the writing is so great that you can't get enough of it. Her style is her own and for that I'm a fan!
I can highly recommend this one for lovers of smart, beautiful, even poetic writing.
Thank you Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the ARC
I can highly recommend this one for lovers of smart, beautiful, even poetic writing.
Thank you Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the ARC
March 27, 2017
This book took a while to read and was difficult for me to rate. I enjoyed the story, but the format was terrible. There is no dialogue in this book, at least none with quotation marks. This means there aren’t any breaks to speak of and it makes the book pages look like one long paragraph. I found this to be very tiring on my eyes and needed to take breaks. I eventually got used to it, but can’t say that I enjoyed it and it definitely detracted from the book in my opinion.
Otherwise, The story was good. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and looked forward to seeing how the relationships would develop. Aside from the format, the writing was very good. I felt that there was exactly the right amount of descriptive detail, enough for you to form a picture in your head, but not so much that it was overdone. I was able to get a sense of who the characters were and the a feel for the area in which they lived.
I think I would try another story by Melanie Wallace, but only if the formatting was different. I honestly don’t think I could tolerate going through another whole book without parenthesis. I feel like that’s unfortunate as I believe I might miss out on a really good story.
I think this book would be 3.5 stars for me. The story might have been 4 stars, but it’s really hard for me to say that I really liked the book because I found the format so distracting. There were a few times that I even had to reread parts because I would lose track of where I was or what I was reading. So, for now, at least, I’ll go with a 3 star, I liked it, rating.
Thank you to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Otherwise, The story was good. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and looked forward to seeing how the relationships would develop. Aside from the format, the writing was very good. I felt that there was exactly the right amount of descriptive detail, enough for you to form a picture in your head, but not so much that it was overdone. I was able to get a sense of who the characters were and the a feel for the area in which they lived.
I think I would try another story by Melanie Wallace, but only if the formatting was different. I honestly don’t think I could tolerate going through another whole book without parenthesis. I feel like that’s unfortunate as I believe I might miss out on a really good story.
I think this book would be 3.5 stars for me. The story might have been 4 stars, but it’s really hard for me to say that I really liked the book because I found the format so distracting. There were a few times that I even had to reread parts because I would lose track of where I was or what I was reading. So, for now, at least, I’ll go with a 3 star, I liked it, rating.
Thank you to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
April 28, 2017
Mabel has new guests, a man and a young girl with a baby, in one of her cabins and she doesn't particularly trust them. Her suspicions appear to be right, the man leaves the girl, June, together with her baby and doesn't return. Because June can't stay with Mabel she's being offered a cottage in Iris's garden. Iris is a recluse, but she does love kids and she wants to spend time with June's little boy. Iris's daughter lived in the cottage before June, but has moved out several years ago and never came back. Will June be happy in such a remote place and does her arrival make things better or worse for Iris?
June meets only kindness in her new surroundings, many of the locals are helping her in their own way. The cottage has a strange history. Before June moved in it was occupied by another teenager. Iris and her daughter couldn't live in the same space and her daughter moved out of the main house when she was still a young teenager. Iris hasn't seen her daughter ever since she left town when she was grown up enough to leave. Is there still a chance for them to make amends and what will happen to June, does she have a future with the people who have so generously taken her in?
The Girl in the Garden is a beautiful story. I was immediately impressed by Melanie Wallace's gorgeous prose. Her story enchanted me straight away and I loved the unusual circumstances of every main character. Melanie Wallace regularly changes her points of view and every character has a distinct voice and an interesting story to tell. It felt like I was allowed to take a peek in all of their lives, which is a great way to tell a story. Each person in The Girl in the Garden has wonderful characteristics and flaws, told in a way I found pretty factual. I enjoyed that aspect of the story especially, all of the characters have a strange history and they have their secrets, reasons for peculiar behavior and faults. They are human, but not perfect, which I absolutely loved.
The Girl in the Garden is a special story. June is really young. She's quite naïve and not world-wise at all and that has landed her in a tricky situation. Her arrival sets a series of events in motion and what was once broken has a chance to be mended, which is a wonderful thought. Every character had an easily definable worst moment with lasting consequences. However, not all of the aftereffects are bad. It is possible to heal and it's never too late to try and make something as right as possible. It's the gestures that count in this story and they always have some kind of result. I loved the thoughtfulness of it and was completely mesmerized by this fantastic book.
June meets only kindness in her new surroundings, many of the locals are helping her in their own way. The cottage has a strange history. Before June moved in it was occupied by another teenager. Iris and her daughter couldn't live in the same space and her daughter moved out of the main house when she was still a young teenager. Iris hasn't seen her daughter ever since she left town when she was grown up enough to leave. Is there still a chance for them to make amends and what will happen to June, does she have a future with the people who have so generously taken her in?
The Girl in the Garden is a beautiful story. I was immediately impressed by Melanie Wallace's gorgeous prose. Her story enchanted me straight away and I loved the unusual circumstances of every main character. Melanie Wallace regularly changes her points of view and every character has a distinct voice and an interesting story to tell. It felt like I was allowed to take a peek in all of their lives, which is a great way to tell a story. Each person in The Girl in the Garden has wonderful characteristics and flaws, told in a way I found pretty factual. I enjoyed that aspect of the story especially, all of the characters have a strange history and they have their secrets, reasons for peculiar behavior and faults. They are human, but not perfect, which I absolutely loved.
The Girl in the Garden is a special story. June is really young. She's quite naïve and not world-wise at all and that has landed her in a tricky situation. Her arrival sets a series of events in motion and what was once broken has a chance to be mended, which is a wonderful thought. Every character had an easily definable worst moment with lasting consequences. However, not all of the aftereffects are bad. It is possible to heal and it's never too late to try and make something as right as possible. It's the gestures that count in this story and they always have some kind of result. I loved the thoughtfulness of it and was completely mesmerized by this fantastic book.
June 19, 2017
3.5 stars. The characters and setting will stay with me for awhile, but it was a little too predictable for me. The writing was ok, but nothing stellar and the audio, for the most part, was just ok. I'm glad I read it, but wouldn't go shouting about it from the rooftops.
Looking for more small-town fiction, though, if anyone has any recommendations.
Looking for more small-town fiction, though, if anyone has any recommendations.
January 17, 2020
4.5 stars
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a digital ARC of this book, so that I could read it and write an unbiased review.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a digital ARC of this book, so that I could read it and write an unbiased review.
January 31, 2017
Even though it took me a couple of chapters to really get into this book, I continued reading and did end up liking this story. The prose is so different from other books I have read but Melanie Wallace does it beautifully. I liked the characters in the story, young June, Mabel, Iris and Sam, but especially liked the character of Oldman, a WWII veteran who is kind and decent and takes it upon himself to helping June and her baby son get settled in the town in which they were abandoned by the baby's father. This is not a fast-paced read and it is a sad at times but once finished, the story and characters will stay with you for awhile. At least, it did with me.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
June 2, 2022
June arrives on the coast of New England, the trip to see the ocean brought her there with her new born son Luke and Wade. She and Wade were not married.
Mable the cabin owner sensed there is trouble between Wade and June ..within a few days Wade leaves in his car for good.
June and Luke are destitute with only $47.00 to their name.
Mable's friend Iris has a winterized cottage that would be suitable for June and Luke in exchange for bringing in wood for the fireplace and shoveling snow.
June finds her way taking care of Iris and her home. A number of locals become her friends. There is healing for all concerned.
Mable the cabin owner sensed there is trouble between Wade and June ..within a few days Wade leaves in his car for good.
June and Luke are destitute with only $47.00 to their name.
Mable's friend Iris has a winterized cottage that would be suitable for June and Luke in exchange for bringing in wood for the fireplace and shoveling snow.
June finds her way taking care of Iris and her home. A number of locals become her friends. There is healing for all concerned.
February 1, 2017
This was a lovely piece of literary fiction. The story was good, the characters all different. I liked the ending a lot.
November 28, 2016
More important, Roland quietly observed one evening, is that June has Luke to anchor her. Mabel disagreed. Anchors weigh, she reminded him.
And Moor, came his reply.”
When June and her baby Luke are abandoned by Ward- an older guy, the child’s father at a seaside motel in New England, the story is just beginning. Mabel, the widow who owns the place knew from the start that Ward wasn’t on the up and up. It is obvious this won’t end well… for the girl and her poor baby. June, of course, is naive and hungry for love and security. She has faith and hope in Ward, but it’s misplaced and when he leaves her there is no other choice but to turn to the mercy of Mabel. June doesn’t have enough money to remain, nor any other options. She comes from a ‘nowhere place’. “A nowhere place, Roland later mused, doesn’t strike me as somewhere she can return.” Fortunately for her, through some twist of fate she has been dumped in a place where the people will come to the rescue in helping her build a life for herself and her son. I kept thinking ‘it really does take a village’, which is fantastic if you are without family and support. If only every abandoned person were so lucky.
The village I speak of is a cast of characters that are all intertwined. I was more enthralled by the story between Claire and her mother Iris. Why did Claire, at such a young age, no longer live with her mother but lived in a cottage behind the house? Claire who feels she is only the ‘spawn’ of her mother and father. Why did her father’s death cause an ocean of distance between Claire and her mother? If not for her passion for photography, Claire would sink in confusion and pain, but she is bright, talented, and independent. Duncan’s role in her life is so much more than just the trusted (lawyer) guardian. Claire is the character I preferred, with her purposeful manner, her strength and righteous anger. Iris has turned her back on everyone, society- but more importantly her daughter. She has retreated into herself, deeply and has her reasons. Mabel knows Iris has a perfect place for June and Luke with Claire gone.
Luke brings Iris out of herself over time, in fact Luke seems to be a link for more than just Claire and Iris. Sam is a wounded vet and yet Luke becomes dear to him, their interactions are the sweetest moments in the novel. Luke is a precious lovable child as he grows up, one that reclusive Iris even enjoys spending time with, demands it even! When Claire returns things still never become clear, and the story disturbed me as a mother. Here Iris is bonding with Luke and making sure both his and June’s future is secure yet the one person who needed her was neglected, regardless of her future successes. It made it impossible for me, regardless of the ‘reasoning’ to relate to a mother freezing her child out. As Claire struggles with how her mother once was (before her father died) and is now in her frailty doesn’t change the fact that the middle is an abyss of absence, of nothing.
This novel has damaged people who still reach out and uplift, but I was left wondering what could have been different between Claire and Iris, and why Duncan got in his own way to both he and Claire’s detriment. That is people though, isn’t it? Getting in their own way, letting terrible situations cloud the present, freezing their hearts, turning their backs but these same people can also be a stranger’s salvation. What a strange story.
I liked it, certainly reading from each characters perspective enriches any story. I just couldn’t feel for Iris, and I wonder what other readers will think of her. Claire may have been brusque but I think life did that to her, she had to have crocodile skin and strength. June may have been the one the reader is supposed to ache and hope for, but Claire captured me. This is quietly sad and lovely both.
Publication Date: January 31, 2017
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
via my blog https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
And Moor, came his reply.”
When June and her baby Luke are abandoned by Ward- an older guy, the child’s father at a seaside motel in New England, the story is just beginning. Mabel, the widow who owns the place knew from the start that Ward wasn’t on the up and up. It is obvious this won’t end well… for the girl and her poor baby. June, of course, is naive and hungry for love and security. She has faith and hope in Ward, but it’s misplaced and when he leaves her there is no other choice but to turn to the mercy of Mabel. June doesn’t have enough money to remain, nor any other options. She comes from a ‘nowhere place’. “A nowhere place, Roland later mused, doesn’t strike me as somewhere she can return.” Fortunately for her, through some twist of fate she has been dumped in a place where the people will come to the rescue in helping her build a life for herself and her son. I kept thinking ‘it really does take a village’, which is fantastic if you are without family and support. If only every abandoned person were so lucky.
The village I speak of is a cast of characters that are all intertwined. I was more enthralled by the story between Claire and her mother Iris. Why did Claire, at such a young age, no longer live with her mother but lived in a cottage behind the house? Claire who feels she is only the ‘spawn’ of her mother and father. Why did her father’s death cause an ocean of distance between Claire and her mother? If not for her passion for photography, Claire would sink in confusion and pain, but she is bright, talented, and independent. Duncan’s role in her life is so much more than just the trusted (lawyer) guardian. Claire is the character I preferred, with her purposeful manner, her strength and righteous anger. Iris has turned her back on everyone, society- but more importantly her daughter. She has retreated into herself, deeply and has her reasons. Mabel knows Iris has a perfect place for June and Luke with Claire gone.
Luke brings Iris out of herself over time, in fact Luke seems to be a link for more than just Claire and Iris. Sam is a wounded vet and yet Luke becomes dear to him, their interactions are the sweetest moments in the novel. Luke is a precious lovable child as he grows up, one that reclusive Iris even enjoys spending time with, demands it even! When Claire returns things still never become clear, and the story disturbed me as a mother. Here Iris is bonding with Luke and making sure both his and June’s future is secure yet the one person who needed her was neglected, regardless of her future successes. It made it impossible for me, regardless of the ‘reasoning’ to relate to a mother freezing her child out. As Claire struggles with how her mother once was (before her father died) and is now in her frailty doesn’t change the fact that the middle is an abyss of absence, of nothing.
This novel has damaged people who still reach out and uplift, but I was left wondering what could have been different between Claire and Iris, and why Duncan got in his own way to both he and Claire’s detriment. That is people though, isn’t it? Getting in their own way, letting terrible situations cloud the present, freezing their hearts, turning their backs but these same people can also be a stranger’s salvation. What a strange story.
I liked it, certainly reading from each characters perspective enriches any story. I just couldn’t feel for Iris, and I wonder what other readers will think of her. Claire may have been brusque but I think life did that to her, she had to have crocodile skin and strength. June may have been the one the reader is supposed to ache and hope for, but Claire captured me. This is quietly sad and lovely both.
Publication Date: January 31, 2017
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
via my blog https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
November 2, 2016
I loved The Girl in the Garden.
The characters whose stories weave themselves together in this lovely book are given up gradually. Each character is isolated, by choice and/or circumstance. Each one excepts or rejects the isolation in unique ways--and yet there are connections that exist, unyielding, even if not forcing themselves.
June, the girl abandoned with her infant at Mabel's seaside hotel, is the lynch-pin, not necessarily more important, but definitely the new arrival who has an effect on other characters both directly and indirectly.
The long, meandering Faulknerian sentences pull the reader on--long prose sentences that have the sensation of poetry. Wallace captures so many lives in her prose (click, click, click--one image after another), like Claire's photographs, snapshots, but signifying more than the single slice of a photographic imprint.
Wallace's writing contains a rare intimacy and immediacy, but the past is always present and slowly revealed.
I loved all of the characters, those that figured largely in the narrative, and those whose appearances are secondary. Like stream-of-consciousness, the reader flows with the events and with the thoughts, present and past, not sure where things are going or how things will work out, not expecting perfect endings, but hopeful.
In spite of the circumstances--June abandoned; Mabel grieving for her husband; Claire independent, but yearning; Duncan afraid of betraying his duty; Oldman, an archetype of kindness and wisdom; Sam, disfigured in the Iraqi war; and Iris humiliated, remote and detached in her self-made fortress and sanctuary--in spite of all this, there is kindness and redemption.
Highly Recommended.
Read in Oct.; blog review scheduled for Jan. 15, 2017. A Garden in the Pocket
NetGalley/Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt
Literary Fiction. Jan. 31, 2017. Print length: 240 pages.
The characters whose stories weave themselves together in this lovely book are given up gradually. Each character is isolated, by choice and/or circumstance. Each one excepts or rejects the isolation in unique ways--and yet there are connections that exist, unyielding, even if not forcing themselves.
June, the girl abandoned with her infant at Mabel's seaside hotel, is the lynch-pin, not necessarily more important, but definitely the new arrival who has an effect on other characters both directly and indirectly.
The long, meandering Faulknerian sentences pull the reader on--long prose sentences that have the sensation of poetry. Wallace captures so many lives in her prose (click, click, click--one image after another), like Claire's photographs, snapshots, but signifying more than the single slice of a photographic imprint.
Wallace's writing contains a rare intimacy and immediacy, but the past is always present and slowly revealed.
I loved all of the characters, those that figured largely in the narrative, and those whose appearances are secondary. Like stream-of-consciousness, the reader flows with the events and with the thoughts, present and past, not sure where things are going or how things will work out, not expecting perfect endings, but hopeful.
In spite of the circumstances--June abandoned; Mabel grieving for her husband; Claire independent, but yearning; Duncan afraid of betraying his duty; Oldman, an archetype of kindness and wisdom; Sam, disfigured in the Iraqi war; and Iris humiliated, remote and detached in her self-made fortress and sanctuary--in spite of all this, there is kindness and redemption.
Highly Recommended.
Read in Oct.; blog review scheduled for Jan. 15, 2017. A Garden in the Pocket
NetGalley/Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt
Literary Fiction. Jan. 31, 2017. Print length: 240 pages.
January 8, 2017
THE GIRL IN THE GARDEN BY MELANIE WALLACE
This beautiful story is crafted with long descriptive, poetic prose. There are wonderful characters who shine bright with their humanity. There are also characters who are not likable. I was struck by the devastated emptiness June feels as she is walking to her death with her baby Luke in her arms. It is a heartbreaking scene very vividly described. I can see the cobalt blue Atlantic ocean and feel the freezing cold temperature of the ocean as it almost swallowed June and baby Luke. The black dog that appears barking on the beach and swims out to snap June back to her senses as a spiritual being. As if that dog was an angelic creature to intervene and stop June from drowning herself and her beautiful baby. I can see and feel the warmth of the sunshine as June and baby Luke are back on the sandy beach. I could feel June's desolation.
I am also thinking about how June's old Aunt advised her on how to be a mother by telling June to remember how her mother would handle a situation and do the opposite. June is only sixteen and is utterly abandoned by her baby's father Ward. There is hope for June and her baby. This book is filled with so much more. It is filled with poetic prose and lush descriptions of both setting and characterization.
Thank you to Net Galley, Melanie Wallace and the publisher for my digital copy in exchange for an honest and fair review.
This beautiful story is crafted with long descriptive, poetic prose. There are wonderful characters who shine bright with their humanity. There are also characters who are not likable. I was struck by the devastated emptiness June feels as she is walking to her death with her baby Luke in her arms. It is a heartbreaking scene very vividly described. I can see the cobalt blue Atlantic ocean and feel the freezing cold temperature of the ocean as it almost swallowed June and baby Luke. The black dog that appears barking on the beach and swims out to snap June back to her senses as a spiritual being. As if that dog was an angelic creature to intervene and stop June from drowning herself and her beautiful baby. I can see and feel the warmth of the sunshine as June and baby Luke are back on the sandy beach. I could feel June's desolation.
I am also thinking about how June's old Aunt advised her on how to be a mother by telling June to remember how her mother would handle a situation and do the opposite. June is only sixteen and is utterly abandoned by her baby's father Ward. There is hope for June and her baby. This book is filled with so much more. It is filled with poetic prose and lush descriptions of both setting and characterization.
Thank you to Net Galley, Melanie Wallace and the publisher for my digital copy in exchange for an honest and fair review.
March 10, 2017
Had to quit, I am officially lost, the sentences and paragraphs go on and on. No conversations are quoted more like thoughts relayed to the reader. Hard to get a feeling for any of the characters when written in this method. At least for me it was.
November 13, 2016
I wanted to like this more than I did. It's a very descriptive book but sometimes the sentences are so long and go off on a tangent that I found it difficult to read.
January 28, 2017
I requested this book not just because the cover looked so appealing (although that was a large factor!) but because it sounded like it would be a complete contrast from the other novels with "girl" in the title that are out at the moment. And it is.
This is a novel to be read slowly. This is a novel which is about characters and relationships. This is a novel about the universal themes that affect everyone as they make their journey through life. I felt elements of Anne Tyler, Anita Shreve and Maggie O'Farrell seeping onto some of the pages as Wallace focusses a small community, gradually revealing what lies behind them and how their stories are interwoven with each other.
This is a perfect novel for those of us who like to people watch. In fact, some of the characters love to people watch too and it is Mabel who is uses her "sixth sense" to interpret the unhappy situation that June finds herself in at the beginning of the novel.
"She said her name was June. As though, it struck Mabel, she'd never had or no longer had a last name or a need for one........[Mabel] wasn't about to send her on her way with that, not that she and anywhere to go. Nor was Mabel about to discuss the girl's future, as her present was disastrous enough, the thought of it almost intolerable."
All the characters are likeable and in a way the novel is almost like a collection of short stories or character studies as you follow from one to the other, tugged gently along by the swell of the tide and aware of the undercurrent that links them altogether. The setting of the coast line is used very effectively to illustrate emotional turmoil, the sense of insignificance or failure and the isolation or sense of being lost that some of the characters feel.
".....the ocean- like life - simply beyond comprehension because of its magnitude, it's meaninglessness."
I do like a long sentence and I do like a lot of beautiful imagery so Wallace satisfied me with this on nearly every page. Although it is a relatively short novel, the writing is quite dense. Not only are there long sentences, but also long paragraphs. There is very little dialogue but this is a book about exploring the inner thoughts, feelings, fears and sadness of these carefully crafted characters; characters who appear reserved and understated yet are full of complexities.
Wallace's use of long sentences does mean that finding appropriate quotes and pulling out succinct examples for this review is tricky but I am going to share a few! The following quote is about June herself when she arrives at the coastal town.
"She gazed at the water dumbly, unable to make sense of it, too tired to be overwhelmed, not even fully realising that they'd reached an edge of the continent, unable to process the enormity of having come to the destination she'd chosen, because every cell in her body was crying out for sleep."
Although June appears to be our protagonist, for me I felt the book was actually equally about all the characters who feature. It almost like "The Girl in the Garden" is a story where the understudies take the stage and the lives of those who we usually overlook take their chance to speak; a chance for the lost, failing and reclusive shadows to win the affection, sympathy and care of the reader.
My favourite character was actually Iris. I thoroughly enjoyed the passages about her and found the ending of the novel very poignant and moving.
"I don't need to be nostalgic.....I'm not even capable of such a thing. And I'm not interested in seeing myself as someone I can no longer recognise."
It is hard to write a lengthy review on a book where the plot is secondary to the prose so all I will say is that this is a read that demands attention, time and appreciation. It will force you to slow down and allow you to consider, reflect and enjoy Wallace's insight, observations and description.
If you enjoy books like "Stoner" then this is the book for you. Similarly if you enjoy eloquent literary fiction then this is also the book for you!
I recommend this book. It was well written and with some memorable characters.
This is a novel to be read slowly. This is a novel which is about characters and relationships. This is a novel about the universal themes that affect everyone as they make their journey through life. I felt elements of Anne Tyler, Anita Shreve and Maggie O'Farrell seeping onto some of the pages as Wallace focusses a small community, gradually revealing what lies behind them and how their stories are interwoven with each other.
This is a perfect novel for those of us who like to people watch. In fact, some of the characters love to people watch too and it is Mabel who is uses her "sixth sense" to interpret the unhappy situation that June finds herself in at the beginning of the novel.
"She said her name was June. As though, it struck Mabel, she'd never had or no longer had a last name or a need for one........[Mabel] wasn't about to send her on her way with that, not that she and anywhere to go. Nor was Mabel about to discuss the girl's future, as her present was disastrous enough, the thought of it almost intolerable."
All the characters are likeable and in a way the novel is almost like a collection of short stories or character studies as you follow from one to the other, tugged gently along by the swell of the tide and aware of the undercurrent that links them altogether. The setting of the coast line is used very effectively to illustrate emotional turmoil, the sense of insignificance or failure and the isolation or sense of being lost that some of the characters feel.
".....the ocean- like life - simply beyond comprehension because of its magnitude, it's meaninglessness."
I do like a long sentence and I do like a lot of beautiful imagery so Wallace satisfied me with this on nearly every page. Although it is a relatively short novel, the writing is quite dense. Not only are there long sentences, but also long paragraphs. There is very little dialogue but this is a book about exploring the inner thoughts, feelings, fears and sadness of these carefully crafted characters; characters who appear reserved and understated yet are full of complexities.
Wallace's use of long sentences does mean that finding appropriate quotes and pulling out succinct examples for this review is tricky but I am going to share a few! The following quote is about June herself when she arrives at the coastal town.
"She gazed at the water dumbly, unable to make sense of it, too tired to be overwhelmed, not even fully realising that they'd reached an edge of the continent, unable to process the enormity of having come to the destination she'd chosen, because every cell in her body was crying out for sleep."
Although June appears to be our protagonist, for me I felt the book was actually equally about all the characters who feature. It almost like "The Girl in the Garden" is a story where the understudies take the stage and the lives of those who we usually overlook take their chance to speak; a chance for the lost, failing and reclusive shadows to win the affection, sympathy and care of the reader.
My favourite character was actually Iris. I thoroughly enjoyed the passages about her and found the ending of the novel very poignant and moving.
"I don't need to be nostalgic.....I'm not even capable of such a thing. And I'm not interested in seeing myself as someone I can no longer recognise."
It is hard to write a lengthy review on a book where the plot is secondary to the prose so all I will say is that this is a read that demands attention, time and appreciation. It will force you to slow down and allow you to consider, reflect and enjoy Wallace's insight, observations and description.
If you enjoy books like "Stoner" then this is the book for you. Similarly if you enjoy eloquent literary fiction then this is also the book for you!
I recommend this book. It was well written and with some memorable characters.
May 5, 2016
June and her tiny baby arrive in a small Atlantic Coast town in an old Buick driven by a man who says his name is Ward. At a mom-and-pop motel that's seen better days, Mabel doubts the man and his story, and is not surprised when, days later, June comes to the office with a small wad of cash and says he's left her.
So begins the story of a small town whose citizens close ranks around June and Luke. What one person can't provide, another does. What insight one carries, is shared with another. What love they all have, freely nurtures the mother and child.
And the end will leave you shedding tears of joy.
I read this DARC courtesy of Houghton-Mifflin and Edelweiss. Pub date 01/31/17
So begins the story of a small town whose citizens close ranks around June and Luke. What one person can't provide, another does. What insight one carries, is shared with another. What love they all have, freely nurtures the mother and child.
And the end will leave you shedding tears of joy.
I read this DARC courtesy of Houghton-Mifflin and Edelweiss. Pub date 01/31/17
March 20, 2017
Not many people can write in this style of run on sentences and odd punctuation but this author weaves a magnificent masterpiece. Every character's voice unique and personal. So much so I felt as if I was in the room with them
February 6, 2017
I suggest you read this as soon as it is released!
I received this book free from the publisher via netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.
Please see my full reviews available at www.coffeeandtrainspotting.com.
I received this book free from the publisher via netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.
Please see my full reviews available at www.coffeeandtrainspotting.com.
December 6, 2016
Meandering narrative and unlikable characters--I was very disappointed in this novel.
December 6, 2023
A widowed landlord. A young, abandoned mother. An elderly woman with a tragic past and her estranged daughter. A Vietnam veteran who bears the scars of war. A town patriarch and sage longing for a family. The lives of these damaged and vulnerable individuals converge in a small eastern town in the 1970s. Bleak, repentant, and tragic, their stories tell of unrequited love, repressed shame, and regret, but as their paths become intertwined, each begins to experience acceptance, forgiveness, and a second chance at happiness.
The Girl in the Garden is a first for me in that this novel—brimming with characters and dialogue—contains no quotation marks. Not a single one. Although Wallace’s writing technique is unique and immersive, this continuous stream-of-consciousness style of writing was both intensive and exhausting:
So, Claire said, the question of the day is: are you a good driver? And that caught Sam off-guard, for it meant she’d learned if not from Leonard then maybe from George—who rarely spoke in sentences that could be understood, his speech being as garbled as his mind, but then Claire had a way of making people intelligible, who knew how?—that Sam wasn’t blind in the eye over which he always wore a patch that also covered his eyebrow and some of his scarred, dented cheekbone.
This book feels more like a mind dump rather than a cohesive story and the constant ramblings often pushed my attention span to its breaking point; however, there are some endearing characters and relationships that keep the story interesting and smooths the rough patches a bit. And although this garden seems to be mercilessly overrun with tangles of ivy and carpetweed, the occasional rose manages to emerge for those readers patient and diligent enough to push through.
The Girl in the Garden is a first for me in that this novel—brimming with characters and dialogue—contains no quotation marks. Not a single one. Although Wallace’s writing technique is unique and immersive, this continuous stream-of-consciousness style of writing was both intensive and exhausting:
So, Claire said, the question of the day is: are you a good driver? And that caught Sam off-guard, for it meant she’d learned if not from Leonard then maybe from George—who rarely spoke in sentences that could be understood, his speech being as garbled as his mind, but then Claire had a way of making people intelligible, who knew how?—that Sam wasn’t blind in the eye over which he always wore a patch that also covered his eyebrow and some of his scarred, dented cheekbone.
This book feels more like a mind dump rather than a cohesive story and the constant ramblings often pushed my attention span to its breaking point; however, there are some endearing characters and relationships that keep the story interesting and smooths the rough patches a bit. And although this garden seems to be mercilessly overrun with tangles of ivy and carpetweed, the occasional rose manages to emerge for those readers patient and diligent enough to push through.
February 19, 2017
An amazing and powerful example of fine literary fiction.
June is a young mother, timid and painfully thin, with a small infant. She is abandoned by her partner at a seaside tourist cabin somewhere in New England. Penniless, she is taken in by Mabel, the widow who owns the cabins. This premise, and the beautiful book cover, are what led me to read "The girl in the garden".
June is the daughter of 'trailer-trash'. She has never known parental love. Now, age fifteen, she is a mother herself... When the baby's father abandons her penniless and alone - she is not surprised at her fate.
"And as she'd lived so much of her life in abandonment, she found desertion a normal state of being."
Mabel married the love of her life. Now, still reeling from his recent death, she is sympathetic toward June. She understands loss. Her heart breaks for the plight of June and baby Luke.
"...she knew a great deal about loss and knew that the sorrow it spawns is impervious to consolation, allows no solace"
When Mabel was newly widowed she felt cast adrift - wondering how she could go on... A neighbor, Roland, stepped in and helped her with the night shift at the cabins and any chores that she was unable to do herself. Now, she doesn't know how she would manage without him. He is a constant and steadfast ally.
Mabel and Iris are long-time friends. In fact Mabel is Iris's ONLY friend. It is Iris's choice. After the death of her husband, Iris became a recluse. Her husband had been physically and emotionally abusive - a monster. Iris has a daughter Claire. Claire reminds Iris so much of her dead husband that she cannot abide the sight of her. She has arranged for her lawyer to act on Claire's behalf. She has a small cabin built in her garden where Claire is to live on her own - with NO contact from Iris. In fact, Iris's only contact with the world is Mabel and her lawyer, Duncan.
When the winter months come, Mabel knows that she cannot let June and baby Luke live in the cold, unheated cabins. She turns to her friend Iris and, in return for a favor bestowed many years previously, Iris feels obliged to acquiesce to Mabel's request. So it is that June and baby Luke move into the cabin in the garden formerly occupied by Iris's daughter, Claire.
Claire hasn't lived there for years. When she graduated from high school she took herself off to see the world through the lens of her camera. Always more comfortable behind the lens, than any other way.
On the surface a reader might think Iris cold and unfeeling. However people always have their own reasons for behavior which is sometimes shocking and hard to understand. Iris had a unique marriage that left her shamed and betrayed. She felt the only way forward was to retreat from the world and her young daughter.
These and other characters in this powerfully written novel are all damaged in some way. In fact, one of my favorite characters in the novel I haven't yet mentioned. His name is Oldman. A WWII veteran and a long confirmed bachelor, he is Duncan's friend, he was once a friend to Claire, and now he befriends June and baby Luke.
"it's never the scars which can be seen that matter"
Oh, and I'd be remiss not to mention Sam. A Vietnam war veteran he accompanies Claire back to where she grew up. He and Oldman form a deep, indescribable bond.
"before meeting Oldman his life hadn't had much rhyme or reason to it and that he'd felt for a long time that he was at its mercy, which hadn't been very merciful."
June, Mabel, Iris, Claire, Duncan, Oldman, and Sam. If "The girl in the garden" were a movie, it would be categorized as an 'ensemble cast'. The seven divergent protagonists were equally important in their own right, yet indelibly connected.
This novel was written in a very different style from what I am used to. There was very little dialogue. As I kept reading I realized that that was intentional. All of the characters in this book were essentially solitary people. So... it stands to reason that we get to hear their thoughts, not their conversation. For one reason or another they are attempting to navigate life alone. Despite the long sentences and rambling paragraphs, I found this very easy to read. The words painted such vivid pictures, and the characters were so engaging that I feel I will miss them all now that I've finished the book. They were all victims of circumstance - yet aren't we all?
Two scenes that I don't think I'll ever forget. Without giving too much away, I'll say only that one involves a heroic dog, and the other describes a photograph of two men and two horses. Truly a magical use of words!
Set during the 1970s, this is a novel about people helping people, "The girl in the garden" is a testament to the good in the world. Sometimes, with all that is going on, we need reminding. It is also a novel about loss - loss that damages souls - and the souls attempt to heal... A novel peopled with survivors.
I will confess that while reading the final pages of this novel I was completely verklempt. Literary fiction at its finest!
Many thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this novel in consideration of my review.
June is a young mother, timid and painfully thin, with a small infant. She is abandoned by her partner at a seaside tourist cabin somewhere in New England. Penniless, she is taken in by Mabel, the widow who owns the cabins. This premise, and the beautiful book cover, are what led me to read "The girl in the garden".
June is the daughter of 'trailer-trash'. She has never known parental love. Now, age fifteen, she is a mother herself... When the baby's father abandons her penniless and alone - she is not surprised at her fate.
"And as she'd lived so much of her life in abandonment, she found desertion a normal state of being."
Mabel married the love of her life. Now, still reeling from his recent death, she is sympathetic toward June. She understands loss. Her heart breaks for the plight of June and baby Luke.
"...she knew a great deal about loss and knew that the sorrow it spawns is impervious to consolation, allows no solace"
When Mabel was newly widowed she felt cast adrift - wondering how she could go on... A neighbor, Roland, stepped in and helped her with the night shift at the cabins and any chores that she was unable to do herself. Now, she doesn't know how she would manage without him. He is a constant and steadfast ally.
Mabel and Iris are long-time friends. In fact Mabel is Iris's ONLY friend. It is Iris's choice. After the death of her husband, Iris became a recluse. Her husband had been physically and emotionally abusive - a monster. Iris has a daughter Claire. Claire reminds Iris so much of her dead husband that she cannot abide the sight of her. She has arranged for her lawyer to act on Claire's behalf. She has a small cabin built in her garden where Claire is to live on her own - with NO contact from Iris. In fact, Iris's only contact with the world is Mabel and her lawyer, Duncan.
When the winter months come, Mabel knows that she cannot let June and baby Luke live in the cold, unheated cabins. She turns to her friend Iris and, in return for a favor bestowed many years previously, Iris feels obliged to acquiesce to Mabel's request. So it is that June and baby Luke move into the cabin in the garden formerly occupied by Iris's daughter, Claire.
Claire hasn't lived there for years. When she graduated from high school she took herself off to see the world through the lens of her camera. Always more comfortable behind the lens, than any other way.
On the surface a reader might think Iris cold and unfeeling. However people always have their own reasons for behavior which is sometimes shocking and hard to understand. Iris had a unique marriage that left her shamed and betrayed. She felt the only way forward was to retreat from the world and her young daughter.
These and other characters in this powerfully written novel are all damaged in some way. In fact, one of my favorite characters in the novel I haven't yet mentioned. His name is Oldman. A WWII veteran and a long confirmed bachelor, he is Duncan's friend, he was once a friend to Claire, and now he befriends June and baby Luke.
"it's never the scars which can be seen that matter"
Oh, and I'd be remiss not to mention Sam. A Vietnam war veteran he accompanies Claire back to where she grew up. He and Oldman form a deep, indescribable bond.
"before meeting Oldman his life hadn't had much rhyme or reason to it and that he'd felt for a long time that he was at its mercy, which hadn't been very merciful."
June, Mabel, Iris, Claire, Duncan, Oldman, and Sam. If "The girl in the garden" were a movie, it would be categorized as an 'ensemble cast'. The seven divergent protagonists were equally important in their own right, yet indelibly connected.
This novel was written in a very different style from what I am used to. There was very little dialogue. As I kept reading I realized that that was intentional. All of the characters in this book were essentially solitary people. So... it stands to reason that we get to hear their thoughts, not their conversation. For one reason or another they are attempting to navigate life alone. Despite the long sentences and rambling paragraphs, I found this very easy to read. The words painted such vivid pictures, and the characters were so engaging that I feel I will miss them all now that I've finished the book. They were all victims of circumstance - yet aren't we all?
Two scenes that I don't think I'll ever forget. Without giving too much away, I'll say only that one involves a heroic dog, and the other describes a photograph of two men and two horses. Truly a magical use of words!
Set during the 1970s, this is a novel about people helping people, "The girl in the garden" is a testament to the good in the world. Sometimes, with all that is going on, we need reminding. It is also a novel about loss - loss that damages souls - and the souls attempt to heal... A novel peopled with survivors.
I will confess that while reading the final pages of this novel I was completely verklempt. Literary fiction at its finest!
Many thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this novel in consideration of my review.
dnf
December 19, 2022Had to DNF this one. As interesting as the premise sounds, it's taken me weeks to get through the first two chapters when normally I'm a 2-book per week reader. I'll try it again at another point in time.
January 6, 2017
It’s the end of summer, and Mabel is about to shutter her guest cabins when a car drives up. Out come a teen aged girl with a tiny baby, and an angry, tired man who completely ignores them. Mabel rents them a cabin for a few days; she isn’t surprised when one day the man drives off and doesn’t come back. She allows the girl to stay on, then finds them a place to stay for the winter, in a cottage behind the house of a friend of hers, Iris. Iris wants no rent- in fact, she’ll give the girl money- she just wants a few chores done and she gets to spend a couple of hours a day with the baby.
Three years later, June and Luke are still living in the cottage. She’s made a couple of friends, and has created a life for herself, working for Iris as Iris gradually declines. She’s formed relationships with others in the small town. It’s a pretty decent life, if strictly circumscribed.
Then Iris’s daughter, Claire, returns. Not only has she been gone for years with no contact, but she moved out of the main house at 13 and lived in the cottage until she was 18 and could leave. During her teen years she was basically brought up by Duncan, a local lawyer, who signed her absence slips, took her to the doctor, and attended parent-teacher meetings- Iris was happy to turn over the raising of her child. She’s now a photojournalist- largely taught by Oldman, a photographer during WW 2- who has won awards and created a life that has nothing to do with the place she grew up in. Claire brings with her, as her driver, a badly battle scarred Viet Nam vet named Sam, a man who works at the soup kitchen that she also is associated with.
Everyone in this novel is mourning something; a spouse lost, a spouse better forgotten and the life they ruined, a childhood lost, their own looks lost. Everyone deals with loss differently, but they all have one thing in common: they have all withdrawn from the world to some degree. Who will be able to get over their loss and move on into life again?
I loved the writing; some reviewers have criticized the long sentences but I have no problem with them. I found it difficult to follow the dialog at times; the author doesn’t use quotation marks and frequently doesn’t identify who is speaking. But it’s not bad enough to be uncomfortable. I loved the descriptions of the area the story takes place in, and the mundane settings of everyday life. The narrative changes point of view with each chapter. It’s a rather lovely portrait of damaged people surviving as best they can, although some of the people seem almost too good to be true. Also, the cover is beautiful.
Three years later, June and Luke are still living in the cottage. She’s made a couple of friends, and has created a life for herself, working for Iris as Iris gradually declines. She’s formed relationships with others in the small town. It’s a pretty decent life, if strictly circumscribed.
Then Iris’s daughter, Claire, returns. Not only has she been gone for years with no contact, but she moved out of the main house at 13 and lived in the cottage until she was 18 and could leave. During her teen years she was basically brought up by Duncan, a local lawyer, who signed her absence slips, took her to the doctor, and attended parent-teacher meetings- Iris was happy to turn over the raising of her child. She’s now a photojournalist- largely taught by Oldman, a photographer during WW 2- who has won awards and created a life that has nothing to do with the place she grew up in. Claire brings with her, as her driver, a badly battle scarred Viet Nam vet named Sam, a man who works at the soup kitchen that she also is associated with.
Everyone in this novel is mourning something; a spouse lost, a spouse better forgotten and the life they ruined, a childhood lost, their own looks lost. Everyone deals with loss differently, but they all have one thing in common: they have all withdrawn from the world to some degree. Who will be able to get over their loss and move on into life again?
I loved the writing; some reviewers have criticized the long sentences but I have no problem with them. I found it difficult to follow the dialog at times; the author doesn’t use quotation marks and frequently doesn’t identify who is speaking. But it’s not bad enough to be uncomfortable. I loved the descriptions of the area the story takes place in, and the mundane settings of everyday life. The narrative changes point of view with each chapter. It’s a rather lovely portrait of damaged people surviving as best they can, although some of the people seem almost too good to be true. Also, the cover is beautiful.
February 2, 2017
Strangely, I can't quite remember how I heard about this book; I know I read something about it, somewhere, and thought it sounded interesting. This is not a debut novel, but Melanie Wallace is a new-to-me author; these selections do not always pan out well, but I'm so thankful that something prompted me to give this one a chance.
The novel begins with a young woman named June who, having recently given birth to a son named Luke, has, over the course of her life, learned not to expect much from anyone. She is dropped off at an oceanside inn in New England by the father of her child, with no money and very little of anything else.
"He didn’t have the impression that the girl even understood her luck; indeed, to the contrary, she seemed broken by never having had any luck whatsoever."
So much of what follows is character-driven; not by June, but by those she encounters in this community as she begins to create a life for herself and her child. These characters are beautifully broken and the author doles out their individual stories in bits and pieces, reminding me of the visits that I have with patients and families in my own line of work.
"Sam began laughing too, the room was no longer reeling but somehow expanding, contracting, as Oldman went on to ask: So, what happened to you? - and then Sam’s chest was heaving, a strangled sound came from him as he began sobbing into his hands, his tears salty and the taste of them bitter and Sam unabashed and anguished. For no one - not his parents or his brother, not Freddie, neither Rita nor Gloria, not Leonard, no one - had ever asked; they’d seen him, they’d seen what had become of him, Rita had often touched his scars, and maybe they’d all waited for Sam to recount what he’d been through, but their silence only reinforced his impression that they all, every last one of them, willed his story to remain untold, his past unspoken."
Throughout this novel, I would catch myself nodding empathetically and I thoroughly enjoyed the author's vivid descriptions, the writing that seemed, at times, almost like a stream of consciousness. I experienced these characters, and their stories, as highly relatable and I delighted in reading more about each of them.
While I haven't seen too much else about this novel, I certainly hope others will take a chance on it as I did; The Girl in the Garden has been an unexpected delight and I'll be recommending this one for months to come!
The novel begins with a young woman named June who, having recently given birth to a son named Luke, has, over the course of her life, learned not to expect much from anyone. She is dropped off at an oceanside inn in New England by the father of her child, with no money and very little of anything else.
"He didn’t have the impression that the girl even understood her luck; indeed, to the contrary, she seemed broken by never having had any luck whatsoever."
So much of what follows is character-driven; not by June, but by those she encounters in this community as she begins to create a life for herself and her child. These characters are beautifully broken and the author doles out their individual stories in bits and pieces, reminding me of the visits that I have with patients and families in my own line of work.
"Sam began laughing too, the room was no longer reeling but somehow expanding, contracting, as Oldman went on to ask: So, what happened to you? - and then Sam’s chest was heaving, a strangled sound came from him as he began sobbing into his hands, his tears salty and the taste of them bitter and Sam unabashed and anguished. For no one - not his parents or his brother, not Freddie, neither Rita nor Gloria, not Leonard, no one - had ever asked; they’d seen him, they’d seen what had become of him, Rita had often touched his scars, and maybe they’d all waited for Sam to recount what he’d been through, but their silence only reinforced his impression that they all, every last one of them, willed his story to remain untold, his past unspoken."
Throughout this novel, I would catch myself nodding empathetically and I thoroughly enjoyed the author's vivid descriptions, the writing that seemed, at times, almost like a stream of consciousness. I experienced these characters, and their stories, as highly relatable and I delighted in reading more about each of them.
While I haven't seen too much else about this novel, I certainly hope others will take a chance on it as I did; The Girl in the Garden has been an unexpected delight and I'll be recommending this one for months to come!
January 5, 2017
You can find a copy of this review at:
https://thequidnuncblog.wordpress.com...
What's better than a cosy nook, a good book and a cup of cocoa when outside the snowing is silently covering the world and changing the destiny of all of us? I am so lucky to have read this wonderful novel at the very beginning of 2017... And it is so close to its publishing date that I am enthralled for you guys to be able to read it.
It is for sure one of the best reads I have had recently, furthermore, it marks 2017 as one of the best years to come in my adult reading life! I barely can wait for the next jewel to appear magically in my hands.
Mrs Wallace has the skills of magic and the tongue of a storyteller! I am forever grateful for the joy she brought to my heart with her poetical writing. Every word, every phrase, every sentence is a block of spicy chocolate melting in your mouth... better yet: you know the effect of a good old glass of scotch after a hard day of work at the very end of the week... This is what this book is all about. It not only soothes your nerves, but also leaves your whole being lingering with nostalgia and a sense of beautiful sadness.
In short the novel tells a number of stories of heartbroken characters, each carrying burdens of their own. I love to read about damaged people, who find the strength in them to lift themselves up, because life is more-often-than-not a hard travel, and sometimes when I indulge in a novel like this one, I find it easier to continue the fight.
It was such a profound read... I closed it gently, put it on the ground, and stared at it for a couple of minutes... I am still struggling to find the words to best describe it. Unique is one of them... Poetic - another... Strong is the third that comes to mind, but D**n it I did not expect to be that much influenced by it.
So go ahead guys and give it a go, you'll not regret it!
https://thequidnuncblog.wordpress.com...
What's better than a cosy nook, a good book and a cup of cocoa when outside the snowing is silently covering the world and changing the destiny of all of us? I am so lucky to have read this wonderful novel at the very beginning of 2017... And it is so close to its publishing date that I am enthralled for you guys to be able to read it.
It is for sure one of the best reads I have had recently, furthermore, it marks 2017 as one of the best years to come in my adult reading life! I barely can wait for the next jewel to appear magically in my hands.
Mrs Wallace has the skills of magic and the tongue of a storyteller! I am forever grateful for the joy she brought to my heart with her poetical writing. Every word, every phrase, every sentence is a block of spicy chocolate melting in your mouth... better yet: you know the effect of a good old glass of scotch after a hard day of work at the very end of the week... This is what this book is all about. It not only soothes your nerves, but also leaves your whole being lingering with nostalgia and a sense of beautiful sadness.
In short the novel tells a number of stories of heartbroken characters, each carrying burdens of their own. I love to read about damaged people, who find the strength in them to lift themselves up, because life is more-often-than-not a hard travel, and sometimes when I indulge in a novel like this one, I find it easier to continue the fight.
It was such a profound read... I closed it gently, put it on the ground, and stared at it for a couple of minutes... I am still struggling to find the words to best describe it. Unique is one of them... Poetic - another... Strong is the third that comes to mind, but D**n it I did not expect to be that much influenced by it.
So go ahead guys and give it a go, you'll not regret it!
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