From the author of The Facts of Life comes a cunning mix of tragedy and comedy, featuring one man's journey to self-discovery. * As befits the hero of a modern fairy tale, Lawrence Frost has neither father nor siblings, and fits so awkwardly into his worldly mother's life, he might have dropped from the sky. Like many such a hero, he grows up happier with plants than people. Whilst he is straightforward, honest, and a doting dad, he can be a difficult, taciturn husband -- but he's the last person one would suspect of being a killer...* Waking one morning to find himself branded a wife-beater and under suspicion of murder, his small world falls apart as he loses wife, daughter, liberty, livelihood and, almost, his mind...* With a bold mixture of tragicomedy, harsh truth and sublime fantasy, Patrick Gale has created a vivid and compelling portrait of a man at odds with himself, and an extended family of friends and lovers trying to take its proper shape.
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Patrick Gale is an original--at once very old-fashioned and very modern. Not for nothing has he been called "the Barbara Pym of the liberated set." In his warm, subversive comedies, characters of all sexual identities and ambiguities dance through endless configurations and marvelously contrived plots. And this English author's eighth novel, Tree Surgery for Beginners, is as full of coincidence and pleasurable surprise as ever. It begins, however, with a shock to the reader's system: arborist Lawrence Frost returns home after a night in his beloved Wumpett Woods to signs of great violence. Worse, he himself is the culprit, having beaten his wife in a jealous rage. Now Bonnie has, quite sensibly, fled with their daughter, Lucy--but even as our tree surgeon determines to make things right, a burnt, dismembered body that could well be Bonnie's turns up.
As Gale paints in Lawrence's background, he also provides strong, instant portraits of his mother, Dora; her twin brother, Darius; his father-in-law, and their town. Barrowcester (pronounced "Brewster") is alas a place where Lawrence will never again be at home--even after mother and child turn up safe. Not to worry, though, since the author next sends him and Darius on a rollicking Caribbean cruise. As constraints are loosened all around--on the Paulina, in the English provinces, and in Chicago, where Bonnie and Lucy end up--Lawrence cannot escape his emotional limbo. But then Lala, a chanteuse of a certain age and uncertain gender, captivates him:
He could not remember having his thoughts so jangled by the suggestiveness of a clothed female form since he fell in love with his French teacher at ten and began to receive even poorer marks than usual.Gale obviously adores his characters--including the possible transsexuals, definite murderers, and religious zealots--as much as he relishes working out his Shakespearean twists. (Tree Surgery for Beginners features the cameo appearance of a marauding but perhaps indecisive tiger.) Readers will be divided into those who delight in watching the author weave his people and plot strands together, elevating love over propriety, and those who consider him absolutely shameless. Few, however, can object to Gale's irreverent, bawdy vision of possibility and acceptance. --Kerry Fried --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
A curious transatlantic pastoral about a shadowy woodcutter accused of murdering his wife, English author Gale's eighth novel (after Cat Sanctuary) repays careful reading with its themes of organic growth, dismemberment and integration, culminating in a healing denouement. Lawrence Frost, raised in the British cathedral town of Barrowcester by his single mother, grows up as a solitary child who prefers the company of trees to people. He finally finds happiness with landscape gardener Bonnie and their baby daughter, Lucy. But on evidence of her affair with American architect Craig McBride, he abuses Bonnie so severely that one evening she disappears. Unknown to Lawrence, she has fled to America. When a gruesomely battered body?presumably Bonnie's?is found in the nearby woods, Lawrence is accused of murder. Although he is soon exonerated (the identity of the murdered woman will provide a shock later in the story), Lawrence has a breakdown and knows he must move on to stay sane. Aboard a ship to the Caribbean and in his later wanderings on the way to Northern California, he meets a mysterious older woman who alternates identities: she is variously torch singer Lala and heiress Serena Merle. Despite the jolt of the initial murder descriptions, Gale's story develops with such subtlety that the workings of Lawrence's healing process must be taken on faith. Gale fashions a patient, worthy transformation as Lawrence develops from a boy who does not understand his whole self (especially the violent extremes) to a man whose work as a tree surgeon is a metaphor for the growth of his soul and his family.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well done novel with a 19th century feel,
By U.N. Owen (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Tree Surgery for Beginners (Hardcover)
I liked this book enormously. It had such a contemporary feel to it and yet I couldn't help draw comparisons to 19th century writers like Hardy, Dickens, and Collins. The novel starts out with a criminal investigation but quickly resolves that plotline and delves into the workings of the family. Like a network of branches and twigs in a maturing tree, we follow the characters in increasingly complicated paths and watch how they keep crossing those paths in outrageous coincidence after coincidence. For those readers that love novels of character and writers who work wonders with the English language, this is a novel worth discovering.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Touching comedy - a family-centred Tales of the City,
By A Customer
This review is from: Tree Surgery for Beginners (Hardcover)
I read this book recently on the strength of reading Gale's collection of short stories (a gift). The unlikely title and some of the plot-details on the cover may be off-putting to some. This would be a pity because Gale tells a story of many layers which succeeds because you actually care about nearly every character, and the intrigue of the plot as each character develops. (Yes the plot does depend on some unlikely coincidences, but by the time these are recognised, you don't really care, because of the way it works for the characters). At the end you understand the seemingly bizarre title - the bittersweet conclusion left me a little moist-eyed. (Only Mark Helprin's books have done that to me before.) I came across these books in Australia (Gale is English) - I haven't seen his work stocked in US stores - but on inquiry found that this title would be. I hope this provides the wider readership he deserves.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Emotionally satisfying and endearing,
By tturner@perdueoffice.com (Jacksonville, Florida) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Tree Surgery for Beginners (Hardcover)
Patrick Gale has written yet another fine book full of believable characters and unpredictable plots. I have read all of his books and found them to be consistently well written, entertaining, and thought-provoking. This book delves into the infinite complexities of human relationships but does not become ponderous. His sudden and eccentric plot twists keep the reader stimulated and guessing. This book may seem dark at first, but don't give up - there is a rare treat in store. I have eagerly awaited Patrick Gale's each new offering for the last 10 years and have yet to be disappointed.
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