Rhapsody in Green by Charlotte Mendelson
Library or Purchase: Library
Takeaway: “For every professional enthusiast who weighs their runner bean and blogs about their extraordinary savings, there are thousands of us whose toil produces barely enough to keep a vole in vitamins.”
Read again: Yes
My first impression of Rhapsody in Green, damn can she write. I’ll let the author introduce herself, she has: “written four novels published by Picador/Mantle, one non-fiction book about her tragic gardening obsession, Rhapsody in Green, much literary journalism and work for radio, and is Gardening Correspondent for the New Yorker. Her most recent novel, Almost English, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. When We Were Bad was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, and was chosen as a book of the year in the Observer, Guardian, The Sunday Times, New Statesman and Spectator. Her second novel, Daughters of Jerusalem, won both the Somerset Maugham Award and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and she was shortlisted for The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award. She grew up in Oxford and currently lives in London with her daughter and cat, and spends most of her time in the garden.”
It’s the phrase “tragic gardening obsession” that so aptly describes Rhapsody in Green. Halfway through the book, I wanted to shake it into submission or throw it across the room. She is hard on herself and her accomplishments in the garden. Which in article form is palatable but in long form can get tedious. However her punchy sentences keep you turning pages to the end. She can distill into a sentence more truth then I’m comfortable with. Perhaps that’s why it was painful to read. She knows intimately our/gardeners obsession, the addictive tendencies, the lies we tell ourselves, our secrets (such as ferreting seed packets past partners). We are exposed on these pages. As gardening can be such a individual task it was entertaining to see a mirror of ourselves and our community written on the page.
There are gardening books that make great presents. Most are usually filled to the brim with colorful photography that can distract the layperson from planting schedules and latin names. That is not this book. This is book that should be passed furtively between fellow gardeners. Charlotte Mendelson writes only for us. She even provides a book list for her readers; a wonderful gift for those of us that love to wander in the library stacks. . “Each of these books, whether cookery, garden or, most dangerously, both, has contributed to my downfall. They will lead you astray ; approach with caution.” A quick glance isolates which I currently have on my shelves and which I will be picking up from the library this Sunday. How dare she! Dangling a reading list before we shut the book and set it aside. I’m hooked. Should I ever have a chance to meet her at an author event I’m not sure whether to press a packet of seeds in her palm with a knowing smile or loudly accuse her of profiteering off our mutual green cravings.
