jeffhall's review against another edition
4.0
Ronald Fraser's Flower Phantoms is the dreamy, poetic story of a young woman's obsession with the mystical and erotic power of plants, and the difficulties this obsession creates for her in the world of humdrum reality. Encouraged by her brother to marry a suitor whom she likes (but does not really love), her initial rejection of this unwanted fate is overcome in the end, although the last sentence of the book confirms that things are not truly settled: "For the time being the ghosts were laid."
I admire Fraser's ability to portray a free-thinking young woman who does not shy away from ecstatic visions and experiences, despite the risks she faces in the hidebound society of interwar Britain, when women's choices in life were not always their own to make. While the descriptions of dreamy visions can get a bit repetitive, the short length of the book works in its favor, and the complete work feels more like a prose poem than a traditional novel.
I admire Fraser's ability to portray a free-thinking young woman who does not shy away from ecstatic visions and experiences, despite the risks she faces in the hidebound society of interwar Britain, when women's choices in life were not always their own to make. While the descriptions of dreamy visions can get a bit repetitive, the short length of the book works in its favor, and the complete work feels more like a prose poem than a traditional novel.
sampulham's review against another edition
5.0
Listen to an in-depth discussion of this novel on episode one of Sherds Podcast: http://www.holdfastnetwork.com/sherdspodcast/3/10/2017/episode-1-flower-phantoms-by-ronald-fraser
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