A review by kblincoln
The Memory Garden by Mary Rickert
4.0
I came to The Memory Garden a fan of M. Rickert's short stories from years ago. I hadn't read a story by her in a long, long time, but as soon as we encounter the teenager Bay, and her garden and past-obsessed Nana, it was like curling up in front of a fireplace with a steaming herb tea.
Rickert has a dreaming quality to her characters that makes them as loveable as a befuddled great aunt in the nursing home. Nana is elderly, and her two former best friends finally reuniting with her long after their terrible secret forced them apart, are also a bit vague.
"Are you having goose pimples? Did someone just walk on your grave? Isn't it just the sweetest place? Can't you just picture it with a little garden of daffodils? Deer won't eat daffodils, you know, but they love tulips. And some rocking chairs and wind chimes?"
This quality was atmospheric and homey in her short stories, but in this novel, some times you loose the thread of the conversation. And basically, this novel is one, long conversation about Nana's secrets, who Bay thinks she is, and how the three friends all don't really see each other clearly.
It's a book to sit with and savor, as the characters savor a flower-themed meal in the book (that had my mouth watering) of chicken with rose-petal sauce and curried dahlia lillies, calendula biscuits, and lavendar-goat cheese stuffaed dates.
And tucked within the story are illuminated moments like this one:
"The snow falls, and Nan feels strangely light. She might at any moment rise out of her clogs and fly above her house and garden, like a sparrow. The now falls, and Nan covers her mouth with one hand, as though to prevent the exhalation that will release her from the gravity of a world more beautiful than anything she deserves."
If you like Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic, you'll most likely enjoy this book. A lovely, meandering lovesong of a book focused on growing old, and regrets, and learning to see who your loved ones are, conducted in a garden of witchy herbs and flowers.
Rickert has a dreaming quality to her characters that makes them as loveable as a befuddled great aunt in the nursing home. Nana is elderly, and her two former best friends finally reuniting with her long after their terrible secret forced them apart, are also a bit vague.
"Are you having goose pimples? Did someone just walk on your grave? Isn't it just the sweetest place? Can't you just picture it with a little garden of daffodils? Deer won't eat daffodils, you know, but they love tulips. And some rocking chairs and wind chimes?"
This quality was atmospheric and homey in her short stories, but in this novel, some times you loose the thread of the conversation. And basically, this novel is one, long conversation about Nana's secrets, who Bay thinks she is, and how the three friends all don't really see each other clearly.
It's a book to sit with and savor, as the characters savor a flower-themed meal in the book (that had my mouth watering) of chicken with rose-petal sauce and curried dahlia lillies, calendula biscuits, and lavendar-goat cheese stuffaed dates.
And tucked within the story are illuminated moments like this one:
"The snow falls, and Nan feels strangely light. She might at any moment rise out of her clogs and fly above her house and garden, like a sparrow. The now falls, and Nan covers her mouth with one hand, as though to prevent the exhalation that will release her from the gravity of a world more beautiful than anything she deserves."
If you like Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic, you'll most likely enjoy this book. A lovely, meandering lovesong of a book focused on growing old, and regrets, and learning to see who your loved ones are, conducted in a garden of witchy herbs and flowers.