The Orchard: A Memoir: Theresa Weir: 9780446584692: Amazon.com: Books

Review

O Magazine Fall Reading List Pick:

What do those perfectly round, shiny red apples really cost? This poignant memoir of love, labor, and dangerous pesticides reveals the terrible true price.

-- Karen Holt, O Magazine

"Equal parts moving love story and environmental warning." B+

Entertainment Weekly

The memoir is a gripping account of divided loyalties, the real cost of farming and the shattered people on the front lines. Not since Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres has there been so enrapturing a family drama percolating out from the back forty.

Macleans.CA

Boston Globe Pick of the Week:
"...searing...the past is artfully juxtaposed with the present in this finely wrought work. Its haunting passages will linger long after the last page is turned."

An Oprah Magazine Fall Pick
Featured Review in Entertainment Weekly
October Indie Next List
LIbrarians' Best Books of 2011Maclean's Top Books of 2011
On Point Best Books of 2011
Abrams Best of 2011
Publishers Lunch (Publishers Weekly) Favorite Books of 2011Best Nonfiction of 2011

***

OUT NOW

Be sure to look for the companion memoir, The Man Who Left.

A hypnotic tale of place, people, and of Midwestern family roots that run deep, stubbornly hidden, and equally menacing-THE ORCHARD is sublime and enchanting, like a reflecting pool, touch the surface and watch the ripples carry you away.

--Jamie Ford, NYT bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

The Orchard is a lovely book in all the ways that really matter, one of those rare and wonderful memoirs in which people you've never met become your friends. I read it in a single sitting, lost in the story, and by the time I put it down, I was amazed by Weir's ability to evoke such genuine emotion. Read it: you'll be glad you did. (Nicholas Sparks)

From the Author

This is a story about one farm, but it's also a story about every farm. It's a story about a nation and big business. It's a story about people not speaking up. It's a story about our children and our children's children. It's a story about acceptance of things that shouldn't be accepted. It's a story about a young girl who falls in love, marries an apple farmer, and never sees the world in the same way again. It's a story about one of the deepest and most profound loves of all: the love of a parent for a child.

The main thing I set out to do with The Orchard was to document and capture a farming era in an anthropological yet very personal way. That was my number one goal. I never really wanted this book to be about me, or about one family. I wanted it to feel like every farm, and every family. I wanted it to be a parable. Which is why I used my name only once in the book. (I wouldn't have used it at all, but I didn't want readers to think I was Lily.) I didn't want to intrude upon a story that I didn't feel was my story, but was rather everybody's story.
Throughout the book, starting with the opening scene, there's this real lack of consideration for the next generation, for our children and our children's children. There's the acceptance of things that shouldn't be accepted. I wanted to drive home the fact that we are all responsible, and we are all important. Theresa Weir

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; 1 edition (September 21, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 044658469X
ISBN-13: 978-0446584692
Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 1 x 8.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #425,049 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Theresa Weir Page

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR (2013)
USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR
BARNES & NOBLE BESTSELLING AUTHOR (2013)
RITA AWARD AUTHOR (SUSPENSE)
AMAZON.COM BESTSELLING AUTHOR
~~
~~
Theresa Weir (a.k.a. Anne Frasier) is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of twenty-three books and numerous short stories that have spanned the genres of suspense, mystery, thriller, romantic suspense, paranormal, and memoir. Her titles have been printed in both hardcover and paperback and translated into twenty languages. Her memoir, The Orchard, was a 2011 Oprah Magazine Fall Pick, Number Two on the Indie Next list, a featured B+ review in Entertainment Weekly, and a Librarians' Best Books of 2011. Going back to 1988, Weir's debut title was the cult phenomenon AMAZON LILY, initially published by Pocket Books and later reissued by Bantam Books. Writing as Theresa Weir she won a RITA for romantic suspense (COOL SHADE), and a year later the Daphne du Maurier for paranormal romance (BAD KARMA). In her more recent Anne Frasier career, her thriller and suspense titles hit the USA Today list (HUSH, SLEEP TIGHT, PLAY DEAD) and were featured in Mystery Guild, Literary Guild, and Book of the Month Club. HUSH was both a RITA and Daphne du Maurier finalist. Well-known in the mystery community, she served as hardcover judge for the Thriller presented by International Thriller Writers, and was guest of honor at the Diversicon 16 mystery/science fiction conference held in Minneapolis in 2008. Frasier books have received high praise from print publications such as Publishers Weekly, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and Crimespree, as well as online praise from Spinetingler, Book Loons, Armchair Interviews, Sarah Weinman's Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind, and Ali Karim's Shots Magazine. Her books have featured cover quotes from Lisa Gardner, Jane Ann Krentz, Linda Howard, Kay Hooper, and J.A. Konrath. Her short stories and poetry can be found in DISCOUNT NOIR, ONCE UPON A CRIME, and THE LINEUP, POEMS ON CRIME. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and International Thriller Writers.

Title List
Writing as Anne Frasier
Hush, USA Today bestseller, RITA finalist, Daphne du Maurier finalist (2002)
Sleep Tight, USA Today bestseller (2003)
Play Dead, USA Today Bestseller (2004)
Before I Wake (2005)
Pale Immortal (2006)
Garden of Darkness, RITA finalist (2007)
Once Upon a Crime anthology, Santa's Little Helper (2009)
The Lineup, Poems on Crime, Home (2010)
Discount Noir anthology, Crack House (2010)
Deadly Treats Halloween anthology, editor and contributor, The Replacement (September 2011)
The Pale Boy (2011)
Once Upon a Crime anthology, Red Cadillac (April 2012)
Woman in a Black Veil (July 2012)
Dark: Volume 1 (July 2012)
Dark: Volume 2 (July 2012)
Black Tupelo (July 2012)
Girls from the North Country (2012)

Writing as Theresa Weir
The Forever Man (1988)
Amazon Lily, RITA finalist, Best New Adventure Writer award, Romantic Times (1988)
Loving Jenny (1989)
Pictures of Emily (1990)
Iguana Bay (1990)
Forever (1991)
Last Summer (1992)
One Fine Day (1994)
Long Night Moon, Reviewer's Choice Award, Romantic Times (1995)
American Dreamer (1997)
Some Kind of Magic (1998)
Cool Shade RITA winner, romantic suspense (1998)
Bad Karma, Daphne du Maurier award, paranormal (1999)
Max Under the Stars, short story (2010)
The Pale Boy (2011)
The Orchard, a memoir (September 2011)
The Man Who Left , a memoir (April 2012 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER)
The Girl with the Cat Tattoo (June 2012)

Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars

(70)

4.6 out of 5 stars

See all 70 customer reviews

“ This book was easy to read. ” K. Emanuelsen | 24 reviewers made a similar statement

“ Her style of writing is so smooth and she is such a story teller. ” Tammy A. | 16 reviewers made a similar statement

“ It will make you see that dysfunction exists everywhere, and that people can still maintain and survive. ” bg426 | 11 reviewers made a similar statement

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 49 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Orchard is a great read. September 12, 2011

By bg426

Format:Hardcover

I don't read memoirs, biographies, autobiographies. I don't find real life to be all that interesting. But since Theresa Weir has been a friend of mine for almost a decade now, and since I love her Anne Frasier books, I had to read this one. I never expected to review it, as I also don't review books. I went into thinking I'd learn a thing or two I might not have heard before, probably laugh a few times and enjoy the story. I didn't expect to not be able to put it down, I mean, it's real life after all and I already know this woman. I laughed, I sighed, I got that feeling in my chest where you feel as if you can't breathe, and I cried. A few times.

Theresa was a young city girl working in her uncle's bar when she meets the sexy farm boy Adrian. After what will be described as a whirlwind romance, they are married and living on his family's apple farm. I feel as if maybe the whirlwind romance part is neither, but more the typical behavior of a girl who grew up as Theresa did...we catch bits and pieces of that too. As an outsider to this farming world, Theresa is shunned by Adrian's family and basically isolated on the property. When you read of the dinners alone, your heart will break. You will curse her mother in law, want to shake Adrian, and want to tell Theresa to
pack her things and hit the road.

Theresa surprises the reader by staying married to Adrian and living in this hostile environment and raising two children. She comes to deal with the fact that his family will never accept her, and will only accept the children if they tow the line and follow the way of the family thinking. She and Adrian work together to fight off the moths that could ruin the apple crop, and Theresa is very concerned about the effects chemicals could have upon them.... Read more ›

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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Wounded Always Return Home September 14, 2011

By Story Circle Book Reviews

Format:Hardcover

"Sometimes there are people you must forget because of the damage--blood ties or not." Theresa Weir describes her mother here, but could just as easily be referring to her vicious mother-in-law or one of the many men in the parade of her mother's unreliable, dishonest boyfriends. A luminous, tender memoir, The Orchard unfolds gradually, revealing a harsh, sometimes harrowing, childhood and an unlikely marriage between a stoic Iowa farm boy and a rudderless, rootless girl.

Weir's upbringing made her an unlikely candidate for the role of farm wife. Raised by an impulsive and self-absorbed single mother, she spent much of her early life wandering from place to place. In a typical move, Weir's mother follows a man across the country to Albuquerque, borrowing gas money from her six-year-old daughter. Upon arrival, she places a phone call to the man's home from a public telephone and dissolves into hysterics while the children watch from the car. The man is not divorcing, after all. She should have called ahead.

The turning point in Weir's life appears in black slacks and white shirt, walking into her uncle's bar for a beer. Youthful and handsome, Adrian Curtis immediately attracts the barmaid's attention. Much to her surprise, he returns her interest, and begins their brief courtship with a late-night horse ride. The young couple spends every spare moment together. Everyone around them disapproves. Propelled by youth, stubborn will, and infatuation, they are quickly married. At first, it's disastrous, and early on it appears the marriage won't last.

Woven throughout Weir's personal story, there is another, larger story of the backbreaking work, and the sacrifice of body and soul that go into maintaining a family farm across generations.... Read more ›

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18 of 22 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Sense of Foreboding Amidst the Apple Trees September 20, 2011

By Holly Weiss TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

It is hard to believe that a USA Today bestselling author of nineteen novels had difficulty finding a publisher for her memoir. Theresa Weir, who has published award-winning suspense, romance, thriller and paranormal books under her name and the pseudonym Anne Frasier, persisted. Three years later, The Orchard was published. Her gift to us is a riveting, honest memoir.

At age twenty-one, Theresa fell in love with Adrian Curtis, an apple farmer, whose family waged a battle to keep their orchard trees free from moths. She never anticipated being shunned by his family or the bleakness of farm life. The environmental implications of pesticide use in the story are chilling. Although the issues raised are disturbing, the writing is fluid. Weir expertly weaves a sense of foreboding through the rows of apple trees the Curtis family vow to protect.

The book jacket leads us to believe the story is that of saving a fifth-generation apple farm. The author's note, however, is very telling. The book is a catharsis. Sometimes the only way to purge oneself of a poison is to write about it.

Grand Central Publishing graciously supplied the advanced readers copy for my unbiased opinion.
Reviewed by Holly Weiss, author of Crestmont

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The instant I laid eyes on the title of this book, I knew it was something I wanted to explore September 30, 2011

By Bookreporter

Format:Hardcover

The instant I laid eyes on the title of this book, I knew it was something I wanted to explore. For a dozen years, I have spent at least one day a week (often two) all year round, working in a friend's rare heritage orchard near the small Oxford County town of Princeton, Ontario, Canada. Apart from the copious amount of windfalls and "seconds" that I come home with during our long harvests (stretching from late July through mid-October), I have amassed almost enough apple lore and hands-on knowledge to equal most of an undergrad agricultural college diploma. I can even be trusted to do a passable job of pruning a whole tree on my own and see the results in more and better fruit the next season.

I couldn't even begin to describe how far removed this acquired avocation is from anything I was ever formally schooled or trained for: talk about relating, big time, to city-bred author Theresa Weir's sudden immersion into orchard life! Growing up in suburban Toronto, and living for the past four decades in a fast growing mid-sized city, I never dreamed that the happy place of my middle age and beyond would be a small rural orchard that my farm-bred university girlfriend and her husband (also city-raised) patiently rescued and restored to its present perfection.

Compared to the industrial scale of the operation that Weir's semi-autobiographical character encounters halfway through THE ORCHARD (after a whirlwind courtship and marriage to the grower's oldest son and compulsory heir), some three-dozen bearing trees on just over two acres of land in southwestern Ontario don't seem very impressive.

In fact, most commercial fruit growers today disdain what's left of the family-sized orchards that once dotted mixed farms all over Canada and the U.S.... --- places where people grew the hardy and dependable old-world varieties they loved, not the ones that produce in uniform excess to make money for distant grocery-store chains.

Sadly, most of those small orchards are mere abandoned remnants now, home only to neglected, dying and broken trees whose stunted paltry fruit harbors myriad insect pests, scab, fungus and who-knows-what. Worse still, the bugs, spores and bacteria from these neglected trees are the bane of big growers like Weir's business-centered family in THE ORCHARD, who must battle the unwelcome guests with ever-increasing dosages of powerful retardant sprays. No, it's not really your typical "big and bad versus small and good" tale, and Weir knowledgeably bypasses such superficiality.

But the environmental damage and cumulative genetic changes wrought by the necessities of mass production do become an increasingly urgent theme in THE ORCHARD, an issue the author struggles to articulate and despairs of changing. A major limitation of industrial production, for example, is a corresponding reduction in variety; spraying and maintenance for thousands of trees must be a one-size-fits-all routine. And the sheer volume of airborne chemical particulate can be almost unbearable, as Weir attests from having lived downwind of it, always wondering what the eventual health impact on her family would be; tragically, it contributed to her husband's untimely death from cancer.

Unlike the tiny orchard where I work, on an industrial farm you can't spray your four varieties of early-bearing trees one week, your nine mid-season ones two weeks later, and your dozen or so late-ripening types a couple of weeks later than that; you don't dare diversify to such a radical extent! You can't hand-direct a spray wand to the specific volume, height, age and current needs of each individual tree, thereby using up to 75% less spray to achieve the same (or better) effect.

In fact, many of our Ontario heritage apples and the venerable trees that bear them (some closing on 70 years old) are literally endangered species, like the ill-fated one that Weir describes near the end of THE ORCHARD. Having finally awoken her emotionally austere husband's environmental conscience and concern for the disappearance of traditional apple varieties, they rebel and try to cultivate a stand of productive trees (a fictional composite called "Sweet Melinda") without heavy infusions of chemical. They soon learn the profound heartbreak of trying to grow "organic" alongside factory-scale production. Simply put, it's an impossible task. Their lovingly raised trees become vulnerable magnets for typical pests like the ubiquitous and persistent Codling Moth and must be destroyed.

It's not the happy ending one wants to read, especially when placed against the author's chaotic background of a childhood marred by parental neglect, substance abuse, poverty and broken relationships --- barriers that take more than half the book to describe and rationalize into a hopeful new life. When I finally got to the orchard-related pages, I then understood (and respected) the length of her journey.

While Weir lost a real-life battle to reclaim the authentic traditions of apple growing, she succeeds powerfully in conveying the urgency of re-thinking large scale food production. Between the lines, there is a passion for giving back to the land and for rescuing and preserving a genetic diversity that is so rapidly being lost. This is a passion that deeply resonates with my own, which is why I could not leave "my" orchard out of the experience that Weir's book brought to me.

Out of some two-dozen different apples grown in our Oxford County orchard, more than 20 are never found on grocery store shelves, only (if you're lucky) at the local farmers' market. With hard work and dedication, perhaps these old varieties will still be around for future generations. I can't help thinking that's the kind of orchard THE ORCHARD really wants to be about.

--- Reviewed by Pauline Finch Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Haunting story - more personal than political

I did not know Theresa Weir's other books before picking up her memoir. In fact, I don't generally read memoirs at all, but something about this grabbed me. Read more

Published 16 days ago by Lindsey A. Boyer

5.0 out of 5 stars Kansas girl

I loved this book and it really hit home with me. I married a farmer and we grow corn, beans, and wheat. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Elizabeth

5.0 out of 5 stars The Orchard: A Memoir By Theresa Weir

This is a very good memoir. It is an unlikely love story and also a frank and disturbing
disclosure of pesticides used in the family business - an apple orchard. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Hilary Pearson

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprised

My daughter recommend The Orchard.....being an avid reading, I thought I was familiar with all good reads.
Very hard to put Down. So well written.

Published 2 months ago by Oneil

5.0 out of 5 stars This story is about a young women dealing with a loveless childhood...

I seem to gravitate to books with strong women. It was a very interesting book with. Her way of dealing with her life was true survival. Wonderful ending

Published 2 months ago by C. M. Dipietro

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent read

I read Theresa Weir's followup book to this one first, then had to come back and read this one. It was really hard to stop at the end of a chapter. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Tammy A.

4.0 out of 5 stars Romance and Science

Young couple marry quickly, everyone predicts a disaster. His mother is a controlling, angry person. Read more

Published 2 months ago by bionica

4.0 out of 5 stars A Nice Story

I liked this book and it kept my attention but I didn't love it. The story is a bit understated which is OK but a bit disappointing.

Published 2 months ago by Yumyum57

4.0 out of 5 stars Not what I usually choose to read, but I enjoyed it.

I got this book because my book club was reading it. I very much enjoyed the writing style - it was very evocative for even the simplest comparisons or actions. Read more

Published 2 months ago by okstomper

5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking!

I normally don't read many biographies or memoirs as I prefer novels. But The Orchard was simply breathtaking. Read more

Published 3 months ago by oandtmom

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