Customer Reviews

The Night Garden

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

 

 

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.

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.

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!

In her new novel, "Night Garden," author Pamela Holm captures the ephemeral nature of relationships, and the multitude of emotions ignited when a partnership/romance ends. This is a quirky tale of people whose lives are in flux, and who are able to handle their changed status creatively. The essential element, common to all, is a strong sense of self on which to fall back. These characters are survivors.

Dawn Mackenzie and her nine year-old daughter, Jewel, have moved into a new house, "painted an awkward blue of a Mexican bakery with straggling bougainvillea that arches over the front door." The best feature is the deck which looks over the rooftops to the San Francisco Bay. Dawn chose this particular house because it has a downstairs studio apartment she can rent out to help with expenses. The back yard is in shambles but she has plans to begin a garden with Jewel, who wants her own scent garden, "In case one of us goes blind." The child is delightfully morbid throughout.

Dawn and Jewel had lived with David, their boyfriend/father figure, for five years. An overpowering, larger than life man, he began to stifle Dawn until she really needed her own space to thrive. She and her daughter are adjusting to the newness of living on their own, after the comparative luxury of David's place, and his home cooking. Ironically, Dawn works as an exterminator, by day, killing vermin. At night, however, she draws them. She was trained in technical drawing and aspires to become a full time illustrator of insects. One of her new projects is to put together a portfolio.

Harlan, a documentary filmmaker, responds to Dawn Mackenzie's "Apartment for Rent" notice. He becomes the new tenant, occupying the studio space and sharing a common roof. Harlan had been happily married for years, but his wife's obsession with having a child, to the detriment of all else, distanced the two considerably. On a night out, Harlan picked up Sophia at a club. She is a beautiful exotic dancer. He thinks he's in love. Oh, how a little lust can affect one's thought processes! After confessing all to spouse, Macie, she threw him out. Thus the need for new digs.

Over a period, Dawn, Jewel, and Harlan become good friends. When Dawn cannot sleep at night, she goes out to work in her garden in the dark. Harlan often comes to help out and keep her company. The garden becomes a special sanctuary for all of them. Harlan's business partner enters the picture when he becomes smitten with Dawn.

Ms. Holm writes a straightforward, fluid narrative, although the pace is slow at times. Her characters are credible and she juggles various storylines with ease. Although she makes some perceptive observations about the nature of love and lust, decision making and the inevitable consequences, the plot is somewhat predictable. Holm obviously loves her city and her descriptions of San Francisco during all the year's seasons are quite beautiful. Overall, this is a charming, often humorous, story and makes for an entertaining read.
JANA

I just finished this book and I'm wondering why it took me so long to buy it! Pamela Holm's characters are lifelike and likeable-very important aspects when you are reading a novel and have to spend 200-plus pages with these people! I even really liked the little girl, Jewel! To me, children are hard characters to make likable and are often depicted as too cute or precocious, but not so here! The story takes place in San Francisco and Holm knows her city well! The writing is extremely descriptive, but taut. This was a very enjoyable read and I recommend it to anyone who loves a good, well written story of relationships, friendships and the struggles and joys of getting through this life.

Everyone harbors dreams when they are young, but time passes and accommodations are made, expectations shifting towards more realistic goals. Dawn has recently left her boyfriend of five years, an artist, setting up house with daughter, Jewel, in a new place, one with a room to let downstairs. Before the room can be rented, Dawn, an exterminator-cum-artist by trade, must first tame the weedy jungle that has filled the back yard, blocking the entrance to the rental unit. Meanwhile, nine-year old Jewel enjoys tunneling through the wild growth, exploring.

Harlan and Macie have spent the last few years of their marriage in pursuit of parenthood, a quest driven by Macie's intense yearning for a child. Without realizing it, how-to videographer Harlan, who considers mid-thirties "middle-aged", has grown dissatisfied with their relationship and life in general. On a night out with his business partner, Jason, Harlan meets the ethereal Sophie, a dancer barely surviving on a limited income from the small gigs her agent arranges. Sophie offers an escape into romantic fantasy, her beauty and grace a powerful magnet to the disenchanted Harlan. Macie learns of the affair and Harlan answers Dawn's immediate need for a tenant.

Everything coalesces around Dawn's place, where Macie and Sophie accidentally meet and Dawn and Harlan share long conversations about the direction of their lives, gardening under the light of the moon or in the early morning hours. Hence, the title, "The Night Garden".To be honest, this nice little story just manages to overcome the banality of the character's names and the predictability of their situations. The author focuses on the ordinariness of such crises, the commonality of relationship breakups and their aftermath, the need to sort through the obvious disappointments that come at a certain age and the grace to adapt and move on.

Although Dawn appears to be the main protagonist, the novel is really about Harlan's dilemma, the affair that consumes him and the denouement of his marriage, complete with soundtrack, the melodies of his youth that fill his distracted mind: "I fooled around and fell in love". Where others experience the isolation of strangers in close quarters, Dawn and Harlan find camaraderie, creating an oasis of quasi-family/friendship. They forge new commitments to meet the challenges of the future and heal old wounds with forgiveness and reparation. In the end, everything fits perfectly into place, if realigned, couples coupled, all right with the world, neatly wrapped. It's all very well done, but the author stays well with in the comfortable parameters of her simple plot, avoiding conflict. Luan Gaines/2005.