The Language Of Flowers : Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Image Credit: Karma-And-Some

Friends know that I love flowers. I go around trying to photograph flowers, and I fail miserably each time. Nothing you can capture in words or images can really illustrate the strength of beauty in each flower. Why, I even love the common weed! My favorite kind of flowers! The Language Of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh was kindly gifted to me by Vishy, a fellow blogger, who wrote his own review of the book here.

I am still in a strange reading phase. I want to read, and do nothing but read but I find that life puts things in your way and asks me kindly, please tell, me just what will you do? So I have spent these past few days wondering what I should do with all these things laid out - money, freedom, travel, jobs, contentment, or uncertainty? Pick them all, and leave out one? What would you choose? With these thoughts swirling through my head, I began this novel of quiet beauty. Diffenbaugh's debut novel is sparse in dialogue but rich in emotion. Victoria Jones is the narrator here, abandoned at birth by her mother, and then thrust from one foster home to another by the time she turns 18 and then is out on her own. Diffenbaugh uses a parallel time technique, if that is what they call these kind of constructions in creative writing classes, moving from Victoria's past and her present. The past is shrouded in mystery, and the reader is led to believe that there is something that is building up. But what eventually gets constructed made no sense to me at all. And the present is a mass of congealed emotions, all the bloodied emotions that Victoria has bottled up through her childhood, refusing to dissolve and melt, and hampering her relations with her everyone she meets.

Victoria is a damaged individual - one who has to learn to love - and learn to trust herself - and it is through the language of flowers that she begins to do so. The author has worked hard at creating this world, this dictionary of flowers, and interweaving it into her characters' lives.

Relationships are formed tediously in Victoria's world - the figure of the foster mother she was closest to, Elizabeth looms largest in her life, and her shadow casts its long fingers even in her relationship with Grant, Elizabeth's nephew. All of this was fine - and I was intrigued by the premise of the story, especially considering my previously mentioned love of flowers. What I couldn't relate to was Victoria herself. I couldn't connect with her on any level - despite knowing that Victoria would have problems relating to people after years of abandonment, I just couldn't fathom her actions many times. To say the truth, she frustrated me. I wanted to throw the book at her, and tell her, lady, wake up! Perhaps, I am too harsh, considering that I am a known bearer of darkness myself. However, I can see the beauty in this novel - how thwarted emotions can mire so many relationships. And sometimes, during the course of the book, I kept wishing that I had a flower to give to all those who I once mired in my own bog of flawed emotions.

My favorite line from the book?

"Do you really think you're the only human being alive who is unforgivably flawed? Who's been hurt almost to the point of breaking?"

Verdict : Beautiful passages, and tense emotionally, but lacked connect for me. 


Rating : 3/5

Goodbye Tsugumi : Banana Yoshimoto

Image Credit : Tower

I think Banana Yoshimoto is fast making it into my list of favorite authors. I remember reading her NP and loving it, and now the emotionally brimming Goodbye Tsugumi has captured my heart as well. Yoshimoto is known for writing fairly short novels, and I think I understand why. With the amazing power she has over words, she doesn't need too many convey the complexity of human emotions. The economy with which Yoshimoto crafts her world belies the precision of her art. Here is a master storyteller, one who I can read again and again.

The novel is narrated by Maria, who is fascinated, just as I was with her cousin, Tsugumi. In Tsugumi, Yoshimoto has created one of the most intriguing characters I have ever read. At once abrasive, sarcastic and almost soul-shatteringly rude, Tsugumi is a person you cannot ignore. Fighting a daily battle with death, Tsugumi looms larger than life over the other characters, including her sister, Yoko, who is painted as the long-suffering patient nurse for Tsugumi. There is no doubt that there is much to dislike about Tsugumi - she is insolent, nasty, malicious and seems to show neither mercy or love on those who take care of her every need. Yoshimoto's skill lies not in the plot, which is thin, but in her characterization. It's here that the sea emerges as the fourth most important character with the author weaving a nostalgic web around the sea.

"It's a marvelous thing, the ocean. For some reason when two people sit together next to it, they stop caring whether they talk or stay silent."

Interwoven is also Maria's own stumbling quest to understand new family ties, and her own quest to capture the mystery of Tsugumi. And I admit I am fascinated by Tsugumi as much as Maria. There is an intensity to her, a rare fire that can consume or liberate those around her. And it is this fire that keeps the reader interested, turning page after page in the hope of discovering. Goodbye Tsugumi has to be one the best books I read this year, even though the book itself is decades old.


Verdict : Read it please. 


Rating: 4/5

Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth : Peter Kelder

Image Credit: Booku

Here's an unusual one on Life Wordsmith. After having spent a few weeks doing work I didn't like, and then allowing my head to wrap itself too much around this work I didn't like, I walked into my local library, unsure of which book to pick. I am/was in a stage of reading listlessness - books spoke to me for barely a page before I turned the lights off. What do I spot then at that moment? Right there on the shelf at the front was this book, Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth by Peter Kelder.

There was a time when I used to read a lot of self-help, spiritual books when I was younger and wiser. It's funny how we go through these phases in life - but I can say those books did help. Help enough to help you realize that you are your own help most of the time in life as we stumble, fall stutter and grope through life trying to find a light through the darkness of ignorance we shroud ourselves in. When I saw Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth, I wanted to laugh. I am not trying to get younger - I think I was pretty silly when I was young. Ahem, I think each time I look at my yesterdays, I shrivel and wonder at the follies and flaws I so beautifully exposed to the world. So why would I want to know about the fountain of youth? I don't want to step into that past as much as I don't want to fast forward the future.But what did attract me to that book was that it promised me five ancient Tibetan rites. Right, that sucked me in. Not to become younger, but considering that I am always intrigued by the esoteric, by the unknown and generally anything that comes from that land across India's east, it was an easy pick.

These five rites are supposedly more than 2,500 years old. Kelder introduces the reader to a man known as the Colonel who reportedly stumbled upon some Lamas residing in a remote monastery who were cherishing the secret of youth. A transformed Colonel then returned to the States, where he shared his knowledge of the rites to interested others. The book promises that these rites will help turn your hair from gray to black (wouldn't I want that!), rejuvenate you and promise a fresh lease of life. Not all these claims are true, of course, but exercise of any kind I believe will not harm you. The proven benefits of exercise are already known - performing these five rites will only augment those. So, did I like this book? Yes, I did. Underneath the hyperbole, there is some wisdom. Now if only we can use it well.

Those who are interested in reading the book can read it for free here.

Verdict: Interesting and insightful


Rating: 3/5