Customer Reviews

The Land of Green Ginger

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

 

 

This is a beautiful book, which I'm afraid will get lost in the exorcism of European presence in South Africa. As terrible as Apartheid is and was, a few individual stories should not get lost in the shuffle: among them are The Story of an African Farm, The Flame Trees of Thika, and The Land of Green Ginger.

Joanna is a young woman of English heritage, born in Africa, against whom circumstances conspire to deliver back to England. But Africa, and specifically the land of green ginger is forever with her, and she never quite fits into slow-paced English society. She has an adventuresome spirit that her purely English provincial neighbors perceive as not quite ladylike.

In the beginning, when Joanna is young, she is unaware of how she comes across, and the beauty of Holtby's writing is her ability to communicate the charm and spirit of Joanna to the reader so that the reader finds her appealing, and at the same time, with the same actions, show her time after time committing minor faux pas that make the neighbors wary of her.

Eventually, Joanna realizes just how much she doesn't fit in, and she longs more and more for Africa. She has married a man who shared her longing for something outside of provincial England, but was struck with tuberculosis. She has had two children, and because of her husband's illness, bares almost sole responsibilty for them. By this time we have come to love Joanna, and are rapt, hoping with her to find some way out of the English fog into the African sun, and a happier life for her children. Each step toward or back from Africa is an emotional jolt for the reader, and the end is a long sigh; as we close the book-- or at least as I did, a whispered "Amen."

Poor Ms. Holtby must be sick to death of her book being confused with the even more out of print Noel Langley's Land of Green Ginger. I don't see Pelican reprinting the latter any time soon - it may be a little bit politically incorrect these days with it's silly proper names for characters from various ethnic groups.

Born in Africa to English parents, Joanna grows up back in England. During WWI, she meets Teddy, a young man with tuberculosis (although she doesn't know it at the time). They settle down on a farm in Yorkshire with their two daughters. A group of Eastern European workers move into town, including a young interpreter from Hungary who Joanna befriends. Their friendship is the start of her troubles with Teddy, and eventually leads to tragedy.

This is a very powerful, strongly emotional novel (without going overboard). Despite the fact that Teddy is an invalid, it's nearly impossible for the reader to like or sympathize with him; he constantly feels sorry for himself. Joanna is high-spirited, and this is also what causes a rift between the two of them. Joanna doesn't fit in with her English neighbors, so it's only natural that she develops a friendship with Paul, another outsider. I love how Winifred Holtby is able to communicate all of this without explicitly saying it out loud. What I like about Holtby's novels is that they're free of histrionics. But the emotion is there, right under the surface. The ending of this book is supposed to be happy and uplifting, but it left me feeling a bit sad, too.

The first point to make is that this is NOT the wonderful children's book by the same title by Noel Langley. If you are looking for that great children's fantasy book, please see the book with ISBN 057121083X.

Now, for Ms. Holtby's novel. It is a story of a woman at the turn of the century who is caught running a farm to support her husband who has tuberculosis and her two daughters. She is constantly thinking that she should be somewhere else, namely in Africa or some other wondrous lands having adventures. She misses what she calls "the land of green ginger".

The life of Joanna, the main character is quite boring until foreigners move in next door and one of them becomes a boarder at her house. There he tells her the story of his horribly depressing life, which is followed by a semi-romance under the eye of a jealous and sick husband.

The ending is supposedly "happy" but only after lots of people are hurt deeply. I am not sure why this novel gets praise for depicting Joanna's "spirit" or "charm". I found the character to be clumsy and the plot rather uninteresting. It is a story of wishes not fulfilled and it leaves you with a depressed feeling of longing for something else (possibly a different novel).

I am quite sure this novel would not be getting as much attention if it had not shared a title with the great book by Noel Langley.

As a woman approaching her mid thities I have searched for the book 'The Land of Green Ginger'. Now I have found it. If this is not a fair indication of the beauty of the book I don't know what is. It is a childs fantasy (for children of all ages! ), with some familiar characters (Aladin and his mum), and some not so familiar characters (The button nosed tortoise if I remember correctly). They charm you and make you smile. It is all a bit vague now but I shall re-review it after reading it again, but I would still highly recommend this book.