The Bottom Line
This well-written volume isn't a "gardening" book at all, in the conventional sense. But I'd recommend Garden Voices as a gift to gardening friends who crave a bud's-eye view into the personal lives of everyday people.
The subject of Garden Voices is not primarily the cultivation of the soil, but rather the cultivation of the soul. Rapp’s book gives voice to 12 women, for each of whom gardening is a sacred experience. Working the soil provides common ground, but these women’s stories are hardly "peas in a pod." A more fitting analogy would be to the diversity of plants found in an English cottage garden.
- "Garden Voices" puts into words what many of us feel about gardening -- but never say.
- Pearls of wisdom are scattered throughout "Garden Voices."
- Too bad the book's homey, reflective writing style isn't complemented by old-style illustrations.
Description
- Garden Voices reveals gardening's sacredness, but its diversity shows there's no Holy Grail.
- Pearls of wisdom abound, such as: "I think the first step to loving anything is paying attention."
- My favorite is Francie's tale. This fascinating Shakespearean scholar gives guided tours of an Elizabethan garden....
- In fact, if the whole book were more like the chapter on Francie's tale, Garden Voices would rate 5 stars.
- You have to love the similes in Garden Voices, such as "thinning out" plants being equated to setting life priorities.
Guide Review - "Garden Voices: Stories of Women and Their Gardens"
If Garden Voices had been written in olden times, it might have been titled, "On the Virtues of Gardening." Carolyn Freas Rapp presents the stories of 12 women for whom gardening is not just a hobby, but one of the underpinnings of their lives. Simply put, gardening makes them stronger.
But if this insight were all the book had to offer, one would be tempted to ask, "So what?" Anybody considering reading the book would already be convinced, after all, of the virtues of gardening. But Garden Voices goes beyond such "preaching to the choir" due to the sheer diversity of its 12 voices. Gardening is their common ground, but there is no one typical story in Garden Voices. Early on, the reader becomes aware that each new chapter is a new adventure.
A cancer victim's story launches the book, but later we find gardening helping a woman cope with having to watch her husband succumb to ALS. But not all the stories are about coping. One woman, e.g., sells her photos of garden produce; another sells paintings of garden scenes. Most are flower-oriented, but veggie-growers don't go unrepresented. Many of the women garden gregariously, but one (who sells her vegetables at a farmer's market) is enough of a loner to comment, "It's very hard for a hermit to go to market!"
This diversity from chapter to chapter keeps Garden Voices from ever becoming predictable. We're kept guessing throughout the book as to what kind of woman we'll find working the soil next.
