Update: The winner is Manju. Congrats!
Another post was intended for today, but in light of a recent (and disturbing) disparately located online thread that suggests that garden writers should stick to sunshine and roses and leave out the “negative” stuff, I have decided to switch gears and reintroduce a book I have discussed at length in the past, “My Garden (Book)” by Jamaica Kincaid.
Ms. Kincaid is a fierce writer, one of a handful whose words and courage I turn to when my footing has slipped and I need some examples of women who know how to speak their mind. My god, that woman speaks her mind with such power and force and nary a sign of apology. I need to know, and read about these women. Women who do not tow the line. The ones who are not happy rolling over, or painfully etching away at their character in order to serve the status quo. I want to tackle my fears in the best way that I can, with all the resolve I can forge, and walk into those scary places with them, behind them, beside them, wherever, as long as it is not chained in silence to a white picket fence by fear. Gardening is a part of human culture. We are fallible, messy, beautiful, miserable, and everything under the sun. It only stands to reason that the cultures we create carry all of us within them, for better and for worse. To say that one should stick to gardening is saying that one should write about everything and anything related to growing plants, because everything that is in us is in it.
That Jamaica Kincaid is also an avid gardener who can lovingly and tenderly walk that line between both sides of the spectrum and everything in between is a testament to her skill as a writer. She can express the obsessive horticultural longings and compulsions us plantaholics share, while also delving deep into the depths of gardening’s not-so-pretty side, especially as it relates to human history.
I recently came across a copy of her book “My Garden (Book)” and since I love it so much, decided to buy it to share as a giveaway to an interested reader. To be entered feel free to share some of your own favourite women writers (gardening or otherwise) or simply leave a comment expressing your interest to be entered. I’ll pick a name at random on Tuesday, Sept 6.
Leave a comment
