Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z.: A Novel [Hardcover]

Debra Weinstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 20, 2004

Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z. is about two women: Annabelle, an aspiring young poet from the suburbs, and Z., the celebrated mentor who tries to hold her back. It’s no accident that their initials span the alphabet, as this hilarious book is about language, writing, and the appropriation of ideas. It is also about the high-wire relations between older and younger women, between reputation and aspiration.

“There is so much I wanted to learn from Z.,” Annabelle confesses in the opening chapter. Obsessed with the question “What is poetry?” Annabelle thinks her new job with the distinguished Flower Poet Z. will help her penetrate the answer. What is revealed to Annabelle instead are the secrets of Z.’s personal life—not least, her dysfunctional family, adulterous behavior, and professional tyranny. Meanwhile, Annabelle is charged with finding Z.’s favorite ink (“jet black, not midnight black, not shoeshine black”), buying prescription cat food for a cranky literary critic, and illegally beheading flowers in the New York Botanical Gardens—anything to preserve Z.’s “psychic space.”

As for what Annabelle learns about the literary world, much of it occurs in spite of Z.—in writing seminars where one-line poems are toiled over for years; in bed with her James Joyce–fixated lover, Harry Banks; at a confessional-poetry retreat at the home of Z.’s glamorous nemesis, Braun Brown. Still, Annabelle remains loyal to Z., until Z. egregiously crosses the line.

From Annabelle and Z. to the painfully obscure Miss Jane Elliot, Emily Dickinson, and Sylvia Plath, Debra Weinstein’s Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z. amounts to a joy ride through the world of poetry and the emergence of a great new comic voice.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The devil wears tweed in poet Weinstein's funny, catty first novel, a skewering of the university poetry scene. At a thinly veiled NYU, scholarship student and aspiring poet Annabelle Goldsmith becomes the assistant to her literary hero, the flower poet Z. (so called for her sexual poems about flowers). Unsurprisingly, Z. is a terror to work for, demanding "jet black, not midnight black, not shoeshine black" ink for her fountain pen, sending Annabelle to buy gifts for her lover ("silk boxers, a tasteful pattern") and asking her to research "masculine flowers" and design syllabi. Hungry for life experience to turn into poems of her own, Annabelle begins an affair with Harry, a 30-year-old graduate student who asks her to be Nora to his James Joyce and act out erotic scenarios involving gloves and typewriters in a famous dead novelist's abandoned country house. The novel conjures up all the rivalries, politics, scandals and affairs of 1980s academia, but caricaturish characters and Weinstein's almost relentless wittiness make the end result feel a bit contrived. Z.'s rebellious daughter, Claire, whose moods are reflected in her hair, and Z.'s cuckolded husband, Lars, are particularly flat. Smart but clueless Annabelle has pluck going for her, but she may try readers' patience: it takes her nearly the whole book to realize that her "mentor became her tormentor," and even then she's still shocked by Z.'s final act of exploitation. There's much to appreciate in this energetic satire, but it will appeal most to readers who've had a brush with this insular milieu.
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From Bookmarks Magazine

Z. is a must-read for anyone who has logged time in a poetry workshop. This published poet's first novel--an All About Eve "with literary grants" (Detroit Free Press)--is "witty and generous" (The New York Times) and a "keenly observed, droll satire" (Miami Herald). While some critics found the constant word play and wit cloying and cited a few flat characters, most reviewers praised Weinstein's energetic send-up of the literary art scene. Yes, Annabelle is unbelievably clueless, and her life isn't as distinct as the terrible Z.'s, but this novel is sure-footed and insightful where The Devil Wears Prada, a novel with a similar plot, falters. "Peppered with poetry, some deliberately and hilariously awful, some quite good, Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z. is an auspicious debut" (The St. Petersburg Times).

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (January 20, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400061555
• ISBN-13: 978-1400061556
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,759,880 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The things we do for poetry., May 10, 2004

By 

G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z.: A Novel (Hardcover)

In her first novel, Debra Weinstein, tells the wicked-funny story of creative writing student and aspiring poet, Annabelle Goldsmith, and her apprenticeship to the famous flower poet Z. "This is the story of how I came to momentary prominence in the world of poetry," Annabelle tells us, "and, through a series of misunderstandings, destroyed my good name and became a nobody" (p. 3). Because of her naivete, Annabelle ultimately becomes little more than a personal assistant to her self-absorbed literary mentor. When Z exploits Annabelle by sending her on personal shopping errands to buy blue, burgundy, and purple hand towels, "jet black, not midnight black, not shoeshine black" ink, and silk boxers, in addition to conducting botanical research, Annabelle's academic dream job soon deteriorates into pure hell. In an erotic subplot, Annabelle becomes immersed in an affair with an older graduate student, Harry, who expects her to play Nora (naked, except for high heels and gloves) to his James Joyce.

Z is a more fascinating and well-developed character by far than Annabelle. An interesting character study in narcissism, Z is equally charming and detestable, yet in the end, hardly "the finest poet writing in the English language" (p. 13) Annabelle believes her to be. Though plagued with a disappointing ending, which employs a novel-within-a-novel conceit, Weinstein's tale will nevertheless appeal to readers (like me) with a passion for poetry, and to readers (like me) who have experienced academic life in a college English department or creative writing program. Readers who enjoy this genre of fiction should also experience Tobias Wolff's OLD SCHOOL.

G. Merritt

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Poets, buds, and budding poets, May 8, 2004

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z.: A Novel (Hardcover)

Who knew that poetry was such a cutthroat business? Debra Weinstein's debut novel is a brilliant, multilayered look at the world of poetry and the people who populate it. Funny and yet strangely lyrical, "Apprentice To The Flower Poet Z" is a lovely read.

Student and wannabe-poet Annabelle Goldsmith stumbles into a dream job when she becomes the "apprentice" (read: assistant with a more glamorous title) to Z., a famed poet who writes poetry about flowers. Among Annabelle's duties is buying ink, trespassing for flower desciptions, and buying a boyfriend's underwear for the charming, enigmatic Z. Vaguely she knows that all this is awful, but she submits meekly anyway.

Annnabelle also takes up with an older student, Harry, who enmeshes her in some weird erotic situations to serve as his muse. Then Annabelle meets Z's husband and sullen daughter Claire, both of whom hide more unflattering secrets about this glamorous poet. But Annabelle discovers the most shocking fact about Z yet -- and it's tied to Annabelle's own budding poetry.

"I want the world to think poetry, the way it thinks television..." So says Spence, Z's sexy boyfriend. That may be a bit much to ask, but Weinstein certainly makes the world of modern poetry -- either beautiful or ruthless -- closer to readers in this book. While there are a few subplots that seem to peter out (like the story of Harry's mentor, or Annabelle's shrink sessions), the main plot is the mesmerizing one.

Weinstein herself is a poet, and it shows. She has a sort of spare poetry to her prose writing, a bit like a prose haiku -- minimal details, but still evocative. And the poetry she sprinkles liberally through "Apprentice" is simply beautiful, always very polished and striking. She also strikes deep into the heart of an aspiring poet's world -- the workshops, the intellectual snobbery (usually revolving around Annabelle's love of Dickinson), the guidelines that others can set for poetry.

Z is the most fascinating character of the book. We can tell that below the cool, smart artist exterior that there's something a lot less pleasant, but Weinstein unwinds the "flower poet" so that we only get hints to add up. Annabelle can be a bit of a doormat, but she's a nice lead character with all the artistic idealism of a person just setting out in her wished-for job.

From Emily Dickinson to empty flower poems, "Apprentice To The Flower Poet Z" is a beautifully-written, wickedly witty debut novel. Highly recommended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finest kind and then some, says Kat from Readerville, March 2, 2004

By 

KatPanama "katpanama" (Readerville) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z.: A Novel (Hardcover)

I read such a marvelous, amusing and brilliant novel today: Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z. by Debra Weinstein. By turns morbidly then innocently funny, high wit and low, searching and cynical, finest kind indeed. And, the writing -- dear god, it's a marvel and a gift. A young under-grad poet-in-training from Long Island lucks into a fellowship in Manhattan with a highly respected poet and, dear reader, this is their story. Wow and wow.

A must-read for anyone who has an interest in good novels, poetry, luscious language, insightful stories amusingly told, Manhattan, the academic milieu. My only regret on reading this book is having read it since it won't ever again be unknown ground to me. I fully expect to see this title on some of the award long and short lists for this year.

This is the sort of novel I stand up for ... it's that good, and how.