Customer Reviews

Banana Rose

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I think Natalie is wonderful, so I'll try not to be too harsh. I just never warmed up to the characters. Perhaps if the sixties was more like this experience for you, you would enjoy it more. But by the end, I just didn't care what happened to Banana Rose. I thought she was nuts for not rushing into her female lover's arms and staying there. And she does whine, on & on, while refusing to face facts. Like all of us, I suppose. I'd rather enjoy Natalie on writing, and her wonderful voice.

Unless you particularly enjoy reading about life in a commune, drugs, free love and what everyone is eating, you probably won't like this book. The characters were so strange that I couldn't really like them or care what happened to them. I thought about not finishing the book several times, but I decided to stick it out. There was no great revelation here for me.

I can see, however, that people living this lifestyle or who are artists may enjoy the book more. There is a lot of banter about whether Banana Rose is motivated to paint or not..whether Gauguin can write songs or not..whether Anna can write stories or not...and so on.

Banana Rose is one of those books that make me glad to know that writers like Natalie Goldberg are in the world. I first took this book out of the library, and immediately fell in love with it. I took it out of the library a few more times, and then finally got my own copy. Anytime I want to remember Taos, or the dreams of what could have been in a believable character's life - or in my own, for that matter - I read Banana Rose. The book just makes me feel better; no small feat in this world. Goldberg also does a good job of making all of the other characters - besides Banana Rose, Gauguin and Anna - very much alive. Blue is one of my favourites. I can "see" all these people. The book rambles a bit here and there, but it's worth hanging in through those parts, for the magic of the whole.

I can't recommend this book highly enough.

I loved Natalie Goldberg's books about writing, which is why I found the novel so disappointing. The style is odd; it feels both too intentional, and also too much like a stream-of-consciousness exercise. Either way, it is not a well-crafted novel. Some passages were beautiful, and I love any book that can take me back to New Mexico. But Goldberg had a wonderful subject and setting, and didn't do either justice.

Having started out as a hippie-type and then turning into a 30-something Libertarian, I was fascinated that a book would follow the growth of someone from hippie (i.e. young, carefree, slightly irresponsible) into adulthood (i.e. older, wiser, more responsible). The books characterizations were very concise and I could picture each person. However, that didn't make them any more dear to me. I was continually annoyed at Banana Rose/Nell for her selfishness, immaturity and melodramatic personality. I felt sorry for the other characters and was relieved when she and Gaugin parted ways - he could go on to find a woman who wouldn't throw little hissy fits when she didn't get her way. I made myself finish the book to see if perhaps Nell grew and learned a little on the way about how to interact with people in a more give and take manner. In the last couple of chapters I finally stopped wanting to shake some manners and sense into her. I just got the impression that everyone in her life got used by her in her search for herself... (and came out injured in one way or another...). I was disappointed that I was never rewarded with a decent plot or the feeling that Nell grew up! Just my humble opinion but this book left me feeling irritated. Moving on to something less "spiritual"... If you want a great read about deep insight try "Mutant Message from Down Under". THAT is great writing!

I started this book before ever hearing Ms. Goldberg read from one of her books. I wanted to prepare for her visit to Spirit Rock Meditation Center and started Banana Rose. I had a hard time getting into it. I found that Banana was a bit of a whiner and the story seemed to go nowhere interesting. But when Ms. Goldberg gave a talk and read from her book, "The Great Failure," suddenly her voice leaped out at me. Her phrasing and emphasis helped me see that where I earlier took Banana as a "whiner," she was actually funny. She's a bit neurotic but if you can see what she says as more ironic and dry then it becomes funny. I enjoyed the remainder of the book once I could see the characters with Ms. Goldberg's voice.

I wish I could say that my life was entirely linear...focused and directed, easily understood and appreciated by all I come into contact with...but it isn't always that way. This is a good book and a good story...not always moving in a straight line like some of the books I've read...but moving somewhere and noticing along the way some of the things we might have missed while we demanded a story that felt familiar. Whether this book is as good as her books on writing is kind of irrelevant...it stands on its own and deserves a place in my world, at least. Thankyou, Natalie. More, please. Long Quiet Highway is a great book, too...check it out.

I love every other thing Natalie Goldberg has written, and while I can't say I loved this book, I find it compelling enough to read again and again. It's honest, sometimes too honest. It's the same essential story as Long Quiet Highway, except it's about the hippie chick Banana Rose/Nell, not the ever fascinating Natalie and her exploration into Buddhism. The characters are authentic and very real, but the basic lack of suspense and purpose in their lives and the plot make it sometimes difficult to stick with them, or sometimes even like them. But then, that's reality. Long Quiet Highway was the best book I read this year, but this is a nice, if not extraordinary, companion. This was one of her first books. I'd like to see what she could accomplish now.

I agree with the reviewer who said, "This book reads like an adolescent's diary." That's exactly what I told my husband. It's not worth the time, totally dull. Actually, an adolescent would be more emotional. It's like reading a poorly written soap opera.

Her descriptions are good. I read "Writing Down the Bones" and thinking that Goldberg, in that book, mostly teaches how to get it all out in a carefree way, which may be good for practice writing. Still, I hardly ever find my practice writing good to read. It reminded me a little of Nell's rambling story. I definitely didn't get "into" it. I couldn't understand Nell's actions...there was no depth! She just did what she did, that was it. So she slept with two other people right before her wedding, that's just what happened. Blood on her husband's sheets from another woman. Following him to New Mexico. He's leaving, she wants a divorce just because she's mad, seeing him with something else but won't tell him. All of these major events are just dropped there...plop. She doesn't seem to go into them at all and I felt very blah through most of it. Like others I kept waiting for something to pick up, some plot to develop. Still, at the end, I couldn't see the connection. I didn't hear enough of the story of what was inside Nell. I didn't give it the worst rating because I still felt inspired to write and make art in it, that came through, which is what Goldberg is good at. She gives out inspiration to get going! But at the end when she said she (Nell) wasn't a writer, she just had to tell this story I thought "what story?". I'll stick with her inspirational stuff.