Customer Reviews

Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A review in the WSJ, caught my eye and I ordered this book. I sent "Defiant Gardens" directly to our daughter, who is currently in prison. Spoke with her today - this book is an inspiration. Women, other inmates, are lined up to read it after she's shared passages out loud with them...

She loved Nelson Mandela's words, "To plant a seed, watch it grow, to tend and then harvest it, offered a simple but enduring satisfaction. The sense of being the custodian of this small patch of earth offered a small taste of freedom."

Or from the quote about ghettos and camps,"These defiant gardens were an attempt to create a kind of peace in the midst of madness and order in the prevailing chaos."

Kenneth Helphand has hit the mark with his insight. We are donating Defiant Gardens to the prison library so his words can be enjoyed by those who might appreciate it the most.

Gardeners, Veterans, psychologists, sociologists, folks who have lived through an encampment or been a prisoner can appreciate this book. Keep a hankie close by. You will be a better person for having read this book. It repeatedly illustrated resilience in people of all ages and races. People like plants, want to live. Even if it is a daily struggle to survive, it is worth it to have another day. Read this book. You will be grateful.

Death and misery all around, but there are things to remind us that there is always hope. "Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime" are stories of people, who in spite of their terrible surroundings, build gardens in places where one would least expect. With stories telling of Jewish couples building gardens in the ghettos of Germany, French soldiers sowing gardens outside the trenches, and even modern American soldiers offering Baghdad plant life, "Defiant Gardens" is a moving tale that history buff and gardening enthusiast alike will enjoy.