It is disappointing to sit down to write a review after a satisfying reading experience only to discover that the words that most readily leap to mind are those so stripped of meaning by overuse that they are rendered virtually powerless. Such is the nature of the hyperbolic overuse of adjectives.
World Fantasy and Crawford award winning short story author M. Rickert’s debut novel, The Memory Garden, is a book that leaves this amateur reviewer keenly aware of his inadequacies when it comes to command of the English language. Words such as “enchanting” and “magical” should be utilized, along with many of their descriptive cousins, yet I fear the easy dismissal that these words might cause those worn out from the overzealous hyping of all things in this commercial age.
Dismissing a debut this lovely would be a shame.
The Memory Garden is a book rooted in seasons, those in the world outside our doors and those that form the cyclical patterns of our lives. It is a love story, though not of standard romantic fare, that celebrates family and friendship and the importance of looking beyond the veil of our own assumptions and prejudices. It is a novel that will stir your hunger for good food, beautiful gardens, and lasting relationships.
I have to thank Mssrs. Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe, along with author Mary Rickert, for their recent podcast discussion of this debut novel. As I walked my dog on a cool Spring night late last week and listened to them talk about The Memory Garden, I got the distinct impression that this was a novel that I needed to read immediately. Call it intuition if you will, but these rare occurrences of book-related clarity invariably result in the kind of meaningful book-to-reader relationship that we long for every time we open a book and begin that journey.
The Memory Garden centers on an older woman, Nan, and her fifteen-year-old daughter, Bay, the girl she adopted as her own after Bay was left in a shoebox on Nan’s porch. As Bay begins to tread the border between childhood and womanhood, she begins to suspect that there are things she does not know, little knowing that the secrets she is unaware of are much larger than she could imagine. Nan has been hoarding secrets for some time, hoping to provide Bay the protection made necessary because of the evils in this world. But Nan has been keeping secrets for far longer than Bay’s fifteen years, and as age advances Nan knows that she cannot hold back the truth forever, especially when there is a chance that the truth holds the promise of freedom.
Mary Rickert has created a verdant landscape in The Memory Garden, inhabited by flowers and herbs that make the senses come alive, and characters so developed they will charm you, and exasperate you, and ultimately win you over. There is an opportunity for stories with a fantastical nature to become so ensconced in the fantasy realm that they lose the cadence of real life. Mary Rickert’s world is an authentic, if somewhat enchanted, place peopled with memorable characters who make an impression because they exist in a genuine manner. When Nan’s two childhood friends come to visit, the relationship between these three older women results in an exploration of past and present that gives a story shape to Rickert’s prose.
Mary Rickert begins each chapter with a plant or flower or herb and a brief description of its meanings and uses. She then weaves that knowledge into the story, creating a landscape that the reader can see so clearly with the mind’s eye. The Memory Garden is a sensuous book, replete with descriptions of sights, sounds, and smells that carry the reader away and characters that you cannot bear to part with at the novel’s end.
Mary Rickert shares her own reluctance to say ‘goodbye’ to these characters in her Note from the Author at the end of the novel. Having spent my Memorial Day weekend with them, it is a sentiment I understand all too well.
No author, editor or publisher knows the secret formula that will make a book connect with readers in a profound manner. If they did, our every reading opportunity would be a reading experience. There are just some novels that come to you at the right time, and The Memory Garden‘s Spring release could not be more timely. But it is so much more than good scheduling by the publishers as there are books aplenty that make for inspired reading during the early growing season. The Memory Garden is a perfect blend of mystery and delight, eerie expectation and skillful revelation. There is something at once familiar and unsettling about the individual and collective journeys these characters are on. For a first novel it is highly impressive to see how Mary Rickert keeps you guessing about the many secrets hinted at throughout the story. At roughly 300 pages, Mary Rickert does not waste a word, a skill no doubt developed from years of writing short stories that have garnered both nominations and awards.
There is much I have not told you about The Memory Garden, which is a calculated choice designed to avoid misconceptions that might keep you from this experience. While listening to Strahan, Wolfe and Rickert talk about the novel, I couldn’t help but think about Among Others and the ways in which I enjoyed how Jo Walton’s magical realm encroached upon the mundane world. I had the sense that something similar may be at work here, and I was rewarded with a story that touched me in familiar fashion. Do not misunderstand, the stories could not be more different. They do, however, share a kinship in their ability to use literary and genre conventions to examine the importance of our relationships while maintaining an effective story structure.
The Memory Garden turned out to be the book I didn’t realize I was craving following the busyness of the past few months. It is a special accomplishment and I thank Mary Rickert, and those who influenced her, for going back and giving the novel format another try. This one is a winner.
What a lovely cover and intriguing review! There is always a wonder in the fact that the perfect book can arrive at the perfect time.
There really is. I guess it wouldn’t be special if it happened all the time, but sometimes I do wish these magical book moments happened more often.
Well, hell. Guess who needs to find a book store. And set aside a weekend for reading an awesome book. 🙂
Yes! 🙂 I recommend doing so with a vase of flowers nearby and some really good chocolate.
I’ve added it to the list, thanks to your delightful, insightful review. For me, it’s the “voice” of the author that makes all the difference, and I think this one will work just fine. I’ll plan on reading it out in the garden.
I didn’t get into it in the review, but I found her voice to be quite unique. I really enjoyed the way she structured her sentences and the way the story flowed between viewpoints. I almost picked up a print copy of it today to put on my shelf (read it electronically), and I may yet do so. Seems like it should have a place on the shelf with Among Others and my two Anne Fadiman essay books…its anyone’s guess as to exactly why I have all four of these books aligning in my head with some kind of symmetry.
Great review! I just ordered THE MEMORY GARDEN. Can’t wait to read it!
I hope you enjoy it, George.
I saw you had recommended this on goodreads (I couldn’t comment, was on the phone & its awkward) so I was going to investigate any way, but your review means that this will be the one exception I am allowing myself during my “buy NO books phase” (it is supposed to last until the end of June at least.
It sounds fascinating, since have a house and garden I’ve been entertaining the idea of some sort of a herb garden, so that part of the book might provide me with just enough inspiration to actually do something apart from go “hmmm, should do something with that” 🙂
It sounds like a serendipitous exception indeed! We planted a few herbs in our garden this year. I would like to do so with more foresight and planning in the future.
On a nonfictional note, the book Bean Blossom Dreams by Sallyann J. Murphy is one of my favorite inspirations for getting out doors and trying to grow things. I’ve re-read it many times over the years.
Fence, good luck with that “buy no books” thing. I never seem to keep that up for longer than a few weeks at most, despite the best intentions when I begin. There’s always some irresistible book that comes along. Like this one.
I learned awhile back that I was better off trying to buy “fewer” books and be more choosey with my purchases vs. not buying any. I just don’t have that kind of sustained willpower where books are concerned.
Carl,
Thanks so much for this thoughtful, thorough review. I am so pleased that you enjoyed the garden and its company as much as I did!
You are very welcome. Thank you for giving novel writing another go. It was obviously a very successful venture and it sounded like, on the podcast, that you had a great deal of fun writing it, which makes the pleasure I received from the story all the more enjoyable. Nan and Bay will stay with me, they are treasures.
I’m very happy I gave novel writing another try! It was fun to write, actually. As to Nan and Bay, it is wonderful to know that they are loved in the world I have released them to.
I have a friend who is in her mid-late 70’s who I thought of often while reading this book. I believe she’ll be getting a present from me the next time I see her.
Oh my. I think you just made me love this book without even reading it! Your review was lovely. Truly lovely. I’m fairly certain that if I already owned this book, I would pick it up and start it as soon as I finished this comment, but sadly I don’t. But I will soon!
So great to hear from you Debi. I added your page to my Feedly account so that I can *hopefully* do a better job of keeping in touch with you.
There was so much I enjoyed about this novel and I hope you do as well.
I read a review of this the other day and wanted to read it eventually but now you’ve made me want to read it as soon as possible! I sounds really wonderful
I’m glad, Stefanie. I feel it is a book that deserves to get some attention now while it is new on the shelves.
I just got it from library, on pg 6. Will read more when back from feeding roses.
Feeding the roses…how perfectly fitting while reading this book.
What, what a good review of what seems to be an extraordinary book. It’s gone right onto my list of books to get this coming week. I love gardening, and a book that can blend gardening and flower and plant lore with storytelling sounds irresistible. Thanks for this lovely review, Carl. I would have overlooked this book for a while more, without your review.
It is for that moment of entering a world unexpectedly and finding it a wonderful world, that we read, isn’t it? I like how you compare it to Among Others also, which I read last year and wished I could be in her world, also. That same feeling of wonder mixed with this reality that makes it seem like it is more, if we look more carefully.
The plant lore is really fascinating and works so seamlessly with the overall theme of the novel.
I couldn’t help but compare the book with Among Others, although I wonder if others who have read both would wonder how in the world I could make that connection. I’ll be interested in seeing if you feel any similarities when you read this.
I’m happy the review made you aware of the book. I’m thrilled that I listened to that podcast or I wouldn’t have seen it either, especially as I don’t spend a lot of time in the general fiction section of the bookstore, where the book is being shelved.
Wow, this looks wonderful. And the cover is so enticing. Thanks for shining your light on this book.
My pleasure, it is such a wonderful story. I hope you get a chance to read it soon and that you enjoy it as much as I did.