Customer Reviews

The Invisible Garden

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My bookclub has just finished reading this wonderful book. We all loved it; one member compared it to "Gifts from the Sea" with its evocation of quietude and solace. This is a book for gardeners, who will delight in the delicious insights Dorothy has as she hacks her way through the brambles beside her stream, as well as nongardeners, who will finally gain some insight into why gardeners delight in working the earth and transforming the landscapes outside ourselves into things of beauty. I found reading the essays enjoyable, humorous, and deeply satisfying. Each essay is easily read on its own, but together the book becomes a gardener's journal, a transcription of what goes on in a gardener's mind as she designs and transforms the land around her.

This is an enchanting book, subtle in working on many levels to capture and to hold your attention. The theme, intertwining the impact on her life of some family and friends with various aspects of gardening life, works surprisingly well. The workmanship is fine, in many senses of that word; as in grading gems, or in the weave of a great tapestry. It is something that her grandfather, or her neighbor Tom--both craftsmen in their own right, and important in her life--would recognize and admire. The style is somewhere between early John McPhee in The New Yorker, and Bill Bryson's latest book of essays, "I'm A Stranger..", between straight autobiographical and first-person commentary. It comes off very well, and you put down the book with some insight into a complex person still exploring herself and the world around her. The insight reflects into our own life, giving pause for reflection and reevaluation of important things we might have slighted in passing. Her sketches of the individuals she chooses to illuminate aspects of her own growth are simultaneously detached and loving. The chapter on her physicist husband's encounter with flowers shows the tender exasperation that any non-scientist wife of a scientist would instantly recognize. The vividness of a flashback to her grandfather's youth, spanning more than a century, pays a debt to his memory while showing us the unbroken chain of generations. So, too, the balance in "The Pond" chapter on her mother; and the nostalgia in the chapter on "Little Houses" grips each of us and thrusts us back to our childhood, where "-all the polyurethane of life-" can not intrude. A wonderful book, well worth reading.

November 29, 1999

Dorothy Sucher is a therapist by trade, and a gardener by avocation. As I read her book, "The Invisible Garden" I had a sense that she would make a good friend. She seems to have an appreciation of human limitations and frailties, and probably lives up to the old axiom "A friend is someone who forgets your shortcomings." Well, maybe not where her husband is concerned, but what can a gardener do with a guy whose allergic to the great out-of-doors and can't tell a Dandelion from a lily.

Ms. Sucher's book is not so much about gardening as it's about coming to terms with a yourself. Sure, she cultivates the garden, But she also understands it's existence is as ephemeral as the life of it's author.

Each of us carries our own memories of past gardens. I will always be reminded of my parents garden in North Carolina when I see daffodils blooming in the spring. My folks grew thousands of daffodils. I don't think my father ever met a daffodil he didn't try to grow. And everytime I see a Brunnera I think of my mother, standing over the little blue flowers and saying, "What are these things? I can never remember their name!" We all laughed because it's colloquial name is "forget-me-not."

The invisible garden consists of the cumulative memories of gardens past that you carry in your heart.

It's not often that I read a book in one sitting, putting off the day's work until I absorbed every bit of the wisdom and truth in Sucher's book. Not a how-to, not a memoir, but a little of both. I recommend this little jewel to all who have gardened , who will garden or who are wondering "why start"?

"The Invisible Garden" is a wonderful book.Even though it's set in Vermont,it reminded me of a "A year in Provence,"only better.There were laughs and a few tears,too. It's about gardens and also about people,about neighbors and family.I picked it up to dip into it,after my wife read it and loved it also.Even though neither one of us are gardeners, we both wanted it not to end..

"The Invisible Garden" is a wonderful book. Even though it's set in Vermont, it reminded me of "A Year in Provence," only better. There were laughs and a few tears,too.It's about gardens and also about people,about neighbors and family. I picked it up just to dip into it(even though I'm not a gardener), and I couldn't put it down.

The Invisible Garden brings forth the coming of age of a wise woman. As if sprouting from a single root system, flowering meadows and blossoming window boxes erupt from the souls of those who first brought them to Dorothy Sucher's summers. A beautifully moving tribute to her mother ripples through The Pond. Her warm affection for her husband illuminates One Man's Fuschia. And her admiration of her Vermont neighbors graces every Lady Slipper and wildflower like fresh New England morning dew. It is a "must read" for gardeners of the earth and of life itself.

Reading Dorothy Sucher's book, THE INVISIBLE GARDEN, I found myself relating to her experiences in both the real garden and the invisible garden. Her style of writing is very appealing and I felt as if I could hear her talking to me as I read. I highly recommend it to everyone and particularly to "book clubs" as it is guaranteed to provoke thoughtful and interesting conversation.

What delightful moments "The Invisible Garden" by Dorothy Sucher presents to the reader. It's a memoir of a garden, no less, presented through the perceptions of the gardener.

This is a book for both gardeners and non-gardeners. Ms. Sucher shares the joys and frustrations of tending people as well as plants. As she fights brambles and weeds in the land, she negotiates the intricacies of memory and a variety of human relationships. This is a series of essays, actually, so this is a book to be enjoyed a piece at a time or, if time permits, indulged in with abandon -- like gorging on a box of chocolates.

The treat here, though, is how she illuminates her own growth through sketches of individuals who come into her (and her garden's) life. Her explorations of herself and the world of her garden continuously touch tender buds of awareness in the reader. Her style is direct and honest as she explores her expectations, frustrations, and failures crowned by the occasional triumph. This book should become a classic -- it's bound to be loved by everyone who stops to smell the flowers on the way through life.

I would recommend to this book to anyone who has a passion for gardening if not the outdoors in general. Not only is it a good read but it's educational too. I'm learning different names for flowers and not to mention all about the people of Vermont, AND SOME PLACES EVEN MADE ME CRY! Dorothy Sucher is a very good writer. I hope to see more of her work on bookstore shelves in the future.