Customer Reviews

Rose Grower

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

 

 

The Rose Grower is a historical novel that unfolds as languorously and luxuriously as the petals of any flower, revealing first one complexity, then another. Although the story is interesting, it is De Kretser's lush and voluptuous prose that ultimately seduces us, opening our senses and pulling us into the world of the novel.

The story beings on 14 July 1789, the day of the storming of the Bastille. In the little village of Montsignac, in southwestern France, a man literally falls from the sky, marking the beginning of change for the once aristocratic Saint-Pierre family.

Stephen Fletcher, the wounded balloonist who fell from the sky regains consciousness on the Saint-Pierre's sofa and immediately falls in love with the eldest daughter of the family, the vain and beautiful Claire. For Stephen, it was a coup de foudre as he calls his first vision of Claire, "the lightening flash which reveals the lay of the land between a man and woman." Complications, however, ensue. Claire is married to the rich and pompous Hubert de Monferrant and they have a son.

The youngest sister, Mathilde, a brilliant and precocious eight-year-old, is also smitten with Stephen and he quickly becomes her hero. Rounding out the trio, is Sophie, the plain, almost unnoticed, serious middle daughter, considered an old maid at the age of twenty-two. Sophie, too, feels passion for Stephen, and she lavishes this passion on her gardening, more specifically on her efforts to bring forth a truly crimson rose, a unique and special specimen. "In eighteenth-century France, crimson roses do not exist. There are red-purple roses, of course, and rosy-red, and a sumptuous deep pink overclouded with plum and mulberry. None of which will do."

This book is more than a love story, however. This is France during the time of the Revolution and the country is seething with political unrest. An idealistic young doctor named Joseph Morel is drawn into Sophie's world when he is invited to dinner at the Saint-Pierre's. A member of a group of revolutionaries nearly as elitist as the monarchy they are trying to overthrow, Morel will have a profound influence over both Sophie and the entire Saint-Pierre family.

As love flourishes, the horror of the Revolution increases. A convent which has been converted into a holding jail for traitors becomes the site of a massacre and it is Monsieur Saint-Pierre who has the bad fortune of discovering the carnage. As Saint-Pierre begins to investigate the gruesome murders, Claire's husband jeopardizes the entire family's safety by becoming a counterrevolutionary, fighting on the side of the monarchy.

The Rose Grower is a sweeping historical saga with a large cast of characters whose lives are intricately interlaced. But it is De Krester's eye for detail that captures our attention in this complex and multi-layered story. This author brilliantly captures the very essence of the meals, the scent of the flowers, the conversations. The air of the past is brought vividly to life.

The thing that sets The Rose Grower apart from other historical novels and also serves to elevate it, is the sheer luminosity of De Krester's prose; its lush style is perfect for a novel of eighteenth-century France. "That morning the sky above Castelnau was laid with creamy clouds lit up along the folds like crumpled satin." She writes of "white birds like clumsy stitching on blue cloth" and "the stainless voices of children."

This prose-poetry, juxtaposed against the horror of bloodshed that leads to a human sacrifice of sorts in the Saint-Pierre household, is breathtakingly beautiful. The Rose Grower is a book that portrays ordinary people struggling to survive and keep their dignity intact in the most extraordinary of times. The book's two worlds--love and war--are perfectly symbolized by Sophie Saint-Pierre's blood-colored rose. A rose that springs forth, exuding life and death, but above all, the persistence of hope.

Flowers, French food, medicine, politics, wit, humor, gentility, violence, revolution, poignancy, yearning, choices, false loves and true ones. This book offers all, and more. The layers of relationships in this story are like the layered petals of the historic roses that inspire heroine Sophie to hybridize a re-blooming crimson rose, something unknown in the 1790's. The beauties and subtleties of THE ROSE GROWER are numerous. The writing is sublime.

I was terribly disappointed to learn this is a first novel. I would so much like to read other works by Michelle de Kretser--and hope to have that pleasure in the not too distant future.

This is a great novel, unexpected in the flow of hackneyed romances which has flooded upon the reading public. Oddly, it reminded me in structure of Fitzgerald's TENDER IS THE NIGHT, opening as it does with an American visiting France, an American whom the reader assumes will have great impact on the story to come. Both these books also feature young women of other-worldy beauty and doctors at the cutting edges of their professions. Yet in both these books, the visiting American is no more than an ancillary character, and the style of the stories diverge from there.

THE ROSE GROWER begins in a small town in the French countryside on the day that the Bastille has been stormed in Paris. Of course, with the poor communications of that era, the country folk are unaware of the import of the tearing down of the prison. The book continues through the worst years of the French Revolution, the "Terror" as it popularly was known. The revolutionaries evolve into creatures who rival Hitler and Stalin in their cruelties, though the simpler citizens of the countryside are unaware to this prospective impact in the first flush of anti-Royalist excitement.

Ms. de Kretser is a lyrical author, as gifted as any of the other modern greats. Each word she chooses is a gem. She writes with a feeling of stillness, of import, of foreboding. She doesn't waste a single sentence. Her heroine, indeed, does grow roses, in order to earn a bit of extra money to assist her long-impoverished aristocratic family. When Ms. de Kretser describes the flowers, her prose is sensual; one even could say sexual. Yet always, in the background, the tumbrels roll. This book deserves to be read by anyone with an appreciation of the art of the novel.

The Rose Grower contains such beautiful prose, such lush and lyrical description and such a wonderful sense of place (Gascony), that I almost feel guilty giving it only three stars. However, one thing The Rose Grower lacks is a clear and compelling storyline.

All through the reading of this lovely book I kept asking myself: "What is the story question around which this book revolves?" Well, there isn't one, and without a story question, there is no story. This is not a novel; it's 323 pages of lovely prose. The problem is, lovely prose does not make a book.

In the hands of a skilled writer, plot can often take a backseat to other literary devices. The Rose Grower, however, contains no such devices. Neither is it a character study. In fact, the author forces us to keep our distance from all of the characters, making it difficult to know them or care about their fate. The ending is particularly dismal. What little emotion and hope this book does contain is invested in the characters of Sophie and Joseph and De Krester sets us up for something she never delivers.

And what about that title? De Krester never lets us experience Sophie (the rose grower) as she struggles in her garden. We know nothing of her hopes or frustrations. I was as puzzled by this as I was annoyed.

In the Rose Grower, De Krester writes extremely beautiful prose. She also begins her book with an unforgettable image, yet she fails to develop that image. She definitely has the skeleton of a lovely and touching story; one she simply failed to develop. I felt like I was reading an outline; nothing was fleshed-out. De Krester seemed to be afraid to write the big scenes, the dramatic set-pieces.

De Krester's mistakes are common among new writers and they are easily corrected once recognized. Any editor or even first reader should have spotted them immediately and worked with De Krester to correct them. It's a shame they didn't; De Krester is talented, but both she and her readers were cheated out of what could have been a fascinating and poignant book.

I really enjoyed this novel. The characters were well described, and the action seemed realistic to me (although I'm ignorant of history). The pretty and descriptive, but not flowery, writing was entertaining and I was most definitely transported to France. If you liked Chocolat and God of Small Things (like me) you might enjoy this book.

This was a stunning novel, in every way. I hope Michelle De Kretser is working on another because I'm already waiting in line.

Sophie has stayed with me for days and days and I expect she's not going anywhere soon.

In the ten years from 1789 to 1799 in the village of Montsignac in Southern France, love blooms among the tender petals of roses and the thorns of the French Revolution.

Jean-Baptiste raises his three daughters, Claire, Sophie, and Mathilde amid the isolation of the farming village while writing a treatise on the history of French food. There is a day of excitement when an American balloonist, Stephen Fletcher from Paris, falls from the sky into their fields, changing their lives and their world forever.

Claire, the eldest is married to a man in exile as a traitor and has his son. She loves the brash American but is morally tied to her husband, Hubert. Stephen loves Claire but knows he cannot have her and hopes that Hubert dies in the war. Sophie, the aspiring rose grower loves him too, but her love is unrequited. Joseph, the local doctor, loves Sophie but she barely notices him. Mathilde, the youngest, loves her dog, Brutus.

Joseph dislikes Stephen intensely. If he had to name a rose after him, it would be Bombast Recollected or Fragrant Fool. The arrogance of Stephen parallels the harshness of Joseph. To Sophie's father, neither is her ideal partner.

Love, jealousy, desire, and rejection are set among the disease and decay of the French Revolution. Malice, unpatriotism, counter-revolution and the spectacle of execution by guillotine are too strong for fragile love and roses.

Humorous, evocative and tragic, it is an intriguing and interesting novel.

Martina Nicolls, Author of "The Sudan Curse" and "Kashmir on a Knife-Edge"

This marvelous first novel is meticulously researched, yet the accuracy of the background remains a light pastel backdrop for an intimate story. The plot's quiet progress allows the characters to evolve subtly and effectively. This requires some patience on the part of the reader, but it is well worth the wait. Stylistically what seemed most important was the almost tunnel-vision-like focus, a precision of description which left the reader unaware of things occurring just outside the frame, much as we move through our own lives focused on the immediate surroundings and oblivious to potential joys or disasters lurking just around the corner. This not only explained the characters' misunderstandings of each other; it also allowed suspense to build to a stunning conclusion.
Upon finishing, I immediately loaned my copy to a friend who grows roses and loves novels with historical settings. She wept when telling me how much she enjoyed it and how many copies she has ordered for friends and family.

I was quite disappointed reading this novel. Like others have said, there really was no plot. There were many bits and pieces and fragments and I couldn't figure out why they were relevant. There really was no ending or conclusion. The ending did not tie up all the loose ends. I've studied the French Revolution before and read other novels based during that time, so I don't think its a problem of not being familiar with the historical era.

I made myself finish this book - couldn't wait until it was over so I could begin a better one. I just couldn't get into it - thought the plot and characters were weak and under-developed. I've read much better novels of this period of history...this one I can't recommend.