The Rose Notes

by Andrea Mayes

Charming, infuriating Dobie Kinnear, widower and manipulator extraordinaire, is battling to retain his wits, his authority, and his only daughter, Pearl.Pearl, a hostage to her ageing father's needs, fiercely resents her role as Dobie's unofficial housekeeper. The years are passing on their southern Riverina farm, and still her life lacks meaning or purpose. She loves the farm with a passion but, tending her rose garden, she dreams of escape.Then a stranger comes to Mamerbrook Farm bearing a secret from the past and a gift for the future. Along with an old scrapbook of roses, a hitchhiking angel, and an onion farmer with a knack for rescuing people, he will turn their world upside down . . . and change their lives forever.The Rose Notes has been listed for VCE Literature Studies 2008/9/10.

340 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2005

Reviews

[Dale Harcombe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story took me a little while to get into but once I did, I was interested in the characters and their lives in the Southern Riverina. Life in Mamerbrook Farm is hard. I have to disagree with the blurb on the book which describes widower Dobie Kinnear as ‘charming’ though. ‘Infuriating’ as it also describes him, yes. Definitely. He is an old curmudgeon and not a likeable one. His treatment of his daughter Pearl and lack of consideration for others annoyed me. Okay, he has had a hard life and suffered great loss, but others have too and they do not end up so twisted and nasty. I felt very sorry for Pearl who feels life, youth and a chance of happiness and marriage have passed her by. Her biggest passion in life is tending her rose garden. The other story that connects with this is that of Thomas who has been given a quest left him by his father and handed over three months after he died. His quest sends him to the Riverina and ultimately to Mamerbrook Farm.
The Australian setting of this book is well portrayed and the characters are all well drawn, even if some of them like Dobie are unlikable. I enjoyed this book and was glad I picked it up from a friend’s bookshelf. Although I did have concerns about some aspects of the ending, it was a really good read.

[Helen O'Toole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this Australian novel up at a sale hoping that it would be an easy read and I was not disappointed. Loved the setting of a farming community in the Riverina and it is peopled with very believable characters. The Hearne and Kinnear families are linked through the love of roses by their respective father and mother. I enjoyed the way the choices made by people had a ripple effect through the years such as the kind nurse who agrees to send the tape made by the dying Henry Hearne to his son Thomas. The Kinnear daughter, Pearl, is very believable even down to her love of having so much wine every night to ease the burden of being stuck on the farm with her rather cranky father, Dobie. You never really know your parents should be the moral of this novel.
“ Old Henry. You never really know them, do you? The joke of it, the glorious joke of it. Henry's way of bringing them all together as soon as he himself was safely out of the way,beyond criticism, beyond judgement, beyond questions.”
Page 356

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find this on the recently returned shelf. I wanted to give it 2 and 1/2 stars but 2 seemed too low. A' nice yarn' and I enjoyed it because of the wonderful descriptions of the Australian landscape, very nostalgic.

[Dellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book randomly at a friends house no one claimed it so I took it, I would never had read it otherwise... It turned out to be wonderful!