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Book Review of The Red Garden

The Red Garden
reviewed on + 665 more book reviews


So enchanting I didn't want it to end. I loved the way the chapters were loosely strung along the wire of history, relating to the same place and many of the same families. There's a full range of irony, heartbreak, joy and life dilemmas in these stories, not one of which is conventional or predictable. My favorite episode was one where a New York City writer during the Depression comes to the town on a WPA project looking for local color and keeps on overlooking the very best story in the town. And I loved the recurring themes of people who feel they didn't belong, leaving town or living out in the woods, as well as the motifs of bears, eels, gardens and more. Simply magical!