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The Borders of Life
An elderly patron of the town of Lee's Corners returns to her ancestral home to live out her final days. But she has more time left than she realizes, when a mysterious man appears, presenting her a key to a very special garden--where the dead citizens of the town continue to "live". Unable to comprehend this incredible new world, a different mystery reveals itself...a scandal involving the murder of a young girl years ago. And in order to unravel the secrets of the garden, she must first solve this mystery.
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
36 people want to read
About the author
G.A. Kathryns
2 books5 followersG.A. Kathryns (Gael A. Kathryns) is a pseudonym for Gael Baudino
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 10, 2017
A 77 year old female protagonist! Sounds like it could be a cool grannies-saving-the-world type of story, but it isn't. Perhaps as befits a mature narrator, it's not a simple forces of good vs forces of evil matter: things aren't black and white (ha). On that note, a word of warning about the heavy prevalence of racism in this story. The author does include A Note About the Language before the start of the book (in such haughty pretentious language that I was put off a bit from enjoying the book). Suffice to say that the book does a thorough job of showing racists as disgusting and morally repugnant, but for all that it's hard to read. Specifically, anything involving Lindy but especially from pg 286 on gets upsetting. Overall, the story feels mostly like a crime/ mystery novel. A significant amount of the action revolves around the death of Greta Harlow and the custody of her son Magic. But since it's not actually a crime novel, the answer is left for you to piece together, and I don't think Marshall MacDonnell ever gets to prosecute justice. In the end, the characters mostly get what they deserve? Maybe? The other theme of the book is about what waits on the other side of death. Alma is old and tired, and just wants a rest. I'd be interested in whether old ladies find her relatable.
March 28, 2007
Favorite Quotes
And oh, what songs came out of her, welling up as though from some bright, secret place within her soul that human beings and all their vanities and dust could never touch.
Looking for anything hard enough, one is inevitably found by it, the act of searching turning as though by abstruse and Oriental mysticism into the act of being found. The suitor, pursuing, finds himself caught. The hunter kills not his pray, but himself. The unbeliever is felled by a flash of lightning on the way to Damascus. Perhaps it is an excess of hope that accounts for this, that leaves us all vulnerable to sudden invasion, perhaps it is merely a symptom of our innate yearning for surrender to something outside of ourselves, something that will relieve us of the awful burden of conscious autonomy and decision, something that will enthrall us in the most precise meaning of the verb and return us to the bright, golden womb.
Now I’ve left a piece of me here, and I’ve taken more than a piece of here into me. And I don’t know what that means.
Oh, true, her present guilt and sorrows were more exotic than they would have been otherwise, perhaps, but exotic or not exotic, was merely a distinction of quality…one imperceptible, in any case, to anyone who did not know he exotic in the first place.
And oh, what songs came out of her, welling up as though from some bright, secret place within her soul that human beings and all their vanities and dust could never touch.
Looking for anything hard enough, one is inevitably found by it, the act of searching turning as though by abstruse and Oriental mysticism into the act of being found. The suitor, pursuing, finds himself caught. The hunter kills not his pray, but himself. The unbeliever is felled by a flash of lightning on the way to Damascus. Perhaps it is an excess of hope that accounts for this, that leaves us all vulnerable to sudden invasion, perhaps it is merely a symptom of our innate yearning for surrender to something outside of ourselves, something that will relieve us of the awful burden of conscious autonomy and decision, something that will enthrall us in the most precise meaning of the verb and return us to the bright, golden womb.
Now I’ve left a piece of me here, and I’ve taken more than a piece of here into me. And I don’t know what that means.
Oh, true, her present guilt and sorrows were more exotic than they would have been otherwise, perhaps, but exotic or not exotic, was merely a distinction of quality…one imperceptible, in any case, to anyone who did not know he exotic in the first place.
December 18, 2020
Based on all of the rough reviews, I'm going to have to give this a reread. I do want to say, though, that this book was a milestone for me. It was one of the first "adult fiction" books I had ever read. I had just turned 14, and I was a big fan of the paranormal and mystery books and was surprised to find a book aimed at adults that combined the genres (little did I know, haha). The blurb sounded interesting and I bought it. And I really liked it, and read it over again a number of times.
In retrospect, ok, yes, I can see where people found the writing a bit florid (I think if I reread it today I would feel the same- I'm not a fan of that style of prose), and the racism plot was maybe heavy handed (although I don't think it was) and the paranormal aspects kind of vague and confusing, but... I still loved it. It had an interesting, unusual story, a solid mystery, and enough weird stuff to keep my 14 year old self happy. I liked the protagonist. She felt believable, to me. I liked the ruminations on existence.
I think, overall, it was a good book to bridge YA and adult fiction. But as I mentioned, I will have to give it a reread to see how it held up.
In retrospect, ok, yes, I can see where people found the writing a bit florid (I think if I reread it today I would feel the same- I'm not a fan of that style of prose), and the racism plot was maybe heavy handed (although I don't think it was) and the paranormal aspects kind of vague and confusing, but... I still loved it. It had an interesting, unusual story, a solid mystery, and enough weird stuff to keep my 14 year old self happy. I liked the protagonist. She felt believable, to me. I liked the ruminations on existence.
I think, overall, it was a good book to bridge YA and adult fiction. But as I mentioned, I will have to give it a reread to see how it held up.
January 17, 2008
I found this a little hard to get into but after the first 30 pages it picked up and ended up being a fascinating story. An elderly white woman returns to her ancestoral home in the small southern town of Lee's Corners after years of being doctor "up north."
Shortly after her return a mysterious black man, appropriately dubbed Mr. Dark, shows up with a key to a mysterious garden created by her grandfather many years ago. It appears that the garden is on the border of the world of the living and the shadow world of the dead. The dead from her past come to life.
The story explores the nature of relationship and the struggles presented by racism in a small southern town that is still quite provincial.
Shortly after her return a mysterious black man, appropriately dubbed Mr. Dark, shows up with a key to a mysterious garden created by her grandfather many years ago. It appears that the garden is on the border of the world of the living and the shadow world of the dead. The dead from her past come to life.
The story explores the nature of relationship and the struggles presented by racism in a small southern town that is still quite provincial.
June 9, 2008
It described itself as being like Something Wicked This Way Comes...it isn't. I almost stopped reading it, but wanted to discover what happened. The book ended and I still don't know what happened. Oh, I got some of the big stuff, but there were so many loose ends. The writing itself...I'm still not sure if it's just trying to be more intellectual than it really is. I almost gave it an "OK" but the ending pushed it back to "didn't like it". It had some good points, but the poor greatly outweighed it!
January 7, 2009
I had bought this book new back in '99, and it sat in a box for years until i finally took it out and read it this week. I agree with the other reviews of this book, its a strange one. Not sure i will ever read it again or recommend it to another reader. The language in it is difficult to deal with, because of the topics of racism it includes in the story. Difficult.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews