In her first novel since the acclaimed memoir The Toaster Broke, So We’re Getting Married, Pamela Holm brings us a poignant, funny story about monogamy, motherhood, and the wonders of gardening. Dawn, an exterminator by day and an artist by night, and her charmingly morbid nine-year-old daughter, Jewel, find themselves with a room to rent out when they move out of Dawn’s boyfriend’s house and into a new home. They soon hear from Harlan, a frustrated documentary filmmaker whose world is quietly crashing down on him too. Over the course of a year, Dawn, Jewel, and Harlan’s worlds become intertwined as they transform their lives and bring the neglected garden of their new home back to life.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Toughing it out in San Francisco, single mother Dawn and her nine-year-old daughter, Jewel, prove a sympathetic pair in Holm's fresh first novel (after her memoir The Toaster Broke, So We're Getting Married). After years of ambivalence about her relationship with David, an overbearing artist, Dawn (an exterminator by profession, illustrator by ambition) finally calls it quits and moves into a new house with a view of the San Francisco Bay and a downstairs studio she plans to rent out. Enter Harlan, a 30-something video producer at loose ends since his marriage with Macie fell apart under the strain of trying unsuccessfully to conceive a baby. Holm deftly and humorously brings Harlan and Dawn together when he responds to Dawn and Jewel's ad for their basement flat, finds a warm reception in their home and helps to reconstruct the overgrown garden. In a refreshingly unpredictable outcome, Dawn and Harlan become good friends while Harlan's best friend and business partner, Jason, serves as Dawn's love interest. With a quirky protagonist who likes bugs and her spunky daughter who keeps a rat, Holm has fashioned a charming urban tale of heartbreak and survival. Agent, Stephanie Rostan. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Such vivid characters it becomes a movie in your mind,
By soho (soho, ny) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Night Garden (Hardcover)
This wonderful novel is so simply and beautifully written and the characters are so strong and vivid that you feel right there with them. I love the way the characters progressively clarify and grow like the night garden itself. There's no annoying artifice of writing or of style or authorial presence to boot you out of the incredibly compelling world Pamela Holm has created. There's a fantastic sense of place in the book--the night garden as it comes together in the world of the characters and the city of San Francisco that they live in are as strong and fascinating as the characters themselves. So just go live in it and enjoy your new friends in San Francisco.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Got Nitrogen?,
This review is from: The Night Garden (Hardcover)
What a fun read! I loved planting myself in The Night Garden, and surrendering to Pamela Holm's quirky, crisp, and compassionate voice. Each of her characters cultivates their own species of love, and each blossoms differently - a process that unfolds over four seasons in San Francisco. Despite its breezy, conversational tone, it's a very moving book. And what an adorable protagonist! How can you help but love a wise-cracking, conflicted heroine who's an artist and an exterminator? This is a wonderful first novel, full of humor and sadness, with a heart of gold.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just What I Needed!,
By
This review is from: The Night Garden (Hardcover)
I picked up this book because I like to grow Moonflowers, which bloom at dusk and at night, and I loved the title. What a wonderfully delicious first novel and delightful story this turned out to be! The characters are so well defined you expect to run into them at Wal-Mart or the grocery store. I love the way Ms. Holm brought full circle Macie's marriage (and baby-lust) and her cheating husband's repentance. The final scene with his girlfriend is priceless. (What woman among us hasn't dreamed of doing just that to a man we love/loved?) And Dawn and Jewel stole my heart from the get-go. This is a great tale about real people with real world problems and feelings. I highly recommend it. I thought it would be just a light, fluff read, but it turned out much, much more than that...and just what I needed to read at this particular time in my life. Thanks, Ms. Holm, for a fabulous book!
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