The Night Gardener: A Search for Home [Hardcover]

Marjorie Sandor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1999

Through these essays emerges a portrait of a mother, scholar, fly fisher, and gardener living each role with furious passion.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ranging from childhood reminiscences to her life after separating from her husband, Sandor, whose first collection of short stories (A Night of Music) won a Rona Jaffe Award for fiction, offers 20 finely observed and expressive personal essays. Of particular interest are the selections that deal with fly-fishing. While living in Florida with her husband and new baby, Sandor took up the hobby as an antidote to cabin fever. In "Attitude Creek," she describes the peacefulness that, for her, comes from solitude in the wilderness. After Sandor observed a dozen Hasidic Jews watching her fish in the Colorado River, she was compelled, because of her own Jewish ancestry, to research the relationship between Jews and fishing. "Waiting for a Miracle: A Jew Goes Fishing" is an informed and gently funny rumination on this connection. Since Sandor details how she and her husband moved with their young daughter to Oregon in a search for an ideal home that would satisfy their mutual love of nature, it comes as something of a shock when she recounts how, after three years, she moved out; she states only that she fell in love with someone else, and her husband asked her to leave. "Solomon's Blanket" is a poignant account of how the shared custody arrangement to which she and her husband agreed could not prevent their six-year-old daughter from grieving over their breach. Although some of the pieces are more engrossing than others, this is a thoughtful collection by a talented writer. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Sandor (A Night of Music) here assembles 20 short pieces about her life. They range from her early years in Southern California as the youngest child of four, through a number of fly-fishing outings and time spent teaching in Florida and Oregon, to life as a wife and then as a single parent. Her engaging style draws us into her predicaments, whether it is tolerating the ever-present Florida alligators or enduring judgments on her attempts at gardening. Throughout, she effectively conveys the force of memory as a determinant in one's choices; as she says when leaving Florida, "There's no separating the smells of our remembered places...finding a way into the next wilderness I hope to call home." Highly recommended for all libraries.AGina Kaiser, Univ. of the Sciences Lib. in Philadelphia
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 212 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press; 1st edition (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558219315
• ISBN-13: 978-1558219311
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,349,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Marjorie shares her life with the extended family, December 22, 1999

By 

Susan Kahn Paul (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Night Gardener: A Search for Home (Hardcover)

As a member of a wide extended family, within whose ranks Ms. Sandor grew up, I found this book delightful in its woven tapestry of mysticism and real-life meditations on life's ebb and flow. Her stories evoke a gentle tug on one's spirit, while discussing things as disparate as gardening and fly fishing. I look forward to more of Ms. Sandor's work.

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Storyteller, December 25, 1999

By 

Ray Minjares (Diamond Bar, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Night Gardener: A Search for Home (Hardcover)

The final chapter of the book captured an image of my great-grandmother that had never been visible to me. I am the great-grandson of Francisca Rodgriquez, and my mother was a childhood friend of Ms. Sandor. As a child I would accompany my mother to visit my great-grandmother, but I have unfortunately never heard her tell me any ghost stories. Her warmth and presence have remained intimately with me. I see the volumes of history and experience in her hands and in her spirit. As a child, I used to play under the tables of her living room and laugh with her dog molly. As I have grown to the age of 19, I feel my maturity opening my eyes to her special place in my heart. It is only now, with the memoirs of Ms. Sandor to inspire me, that I wish to grab a hold of grandma's stories and ensure that as she turns 89 years old, her spririt, wisdom, and love live forever.

7 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written, but self-absorbed and ultimately sad, October 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Night Gardener: A Search for Home (Hardcover)

First the good points. She's an excellent writer. The stories are well-told, interesting, and her style is interesting. The personalities of many of the key characters remain obscure, yet we learn a lot about her father, Uncle, and a woman who helped raise her. I thought this was an interesting approach.

But the story is ultimately a sad one. For no apparent reason she leaves her husband to take up with another man. The writing starts to get very dramatic and maudlin. "The summer I fell in love and shouldn't have," is a phrase she repeats often. "But that is his story to tell," she writes about her ex-husband, as if he has the opportunity to write books explaining his side of the story. She ultimately wants to see a woman who once helped raise her, in part because this woman won't judge her.

The whole book left me feeling very sad. Sad for her daughter, he ex-husband, but not for the author, who did it to herself.