One might in fact say that Gardener to the King is the novel Jerzy Kosinski tried—and failed—to write in his leaden Being...
The “greening,” one might say, of its stoical (eponymous) protagonist is the gradually flowering theme of this eloquent récit by a young French writer.
The time is the 1670s, the place primarily Louis XIV’s pleasure palace of Versailles—to which the vainglorious monarch repairs frequently to escape from the boredom of ruling and the pressures of successful military campaigns against Holland and Germany. Richaud’s focal character, however, is Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie, Steward of the Orchards and Kitchen Gardens: a recluse who seems to have no past, and no present relationships or interests away from his duties, and who is much admired by the grateful king and his retainers for the bountiful products of his horticultural skills. Richaud patiently depicts the gardener’s gradual awakening to his master’s arrogance and self-indulgence, as he forms friendships with long-suffering neighboring peasants, and corresponds with casual acquaintance Philippe de Neuville, a radical critic of the regime’s “spiritual tyranny” and disregard for social equality. La Quintinie’s own radicalization crystallizes at a lavish banquet at Versailles, during which he ruefully observes Louis’s frivolous guests “devouring in minutes what had cost him a lifetime to produce.” The gardener, forced to conclude that his dream of an “enclosed world, yet one without boundaries” will never be realized, undertakes a withdrawal from the unreal world of the court, which assumes richly suggestive symbolic form in the poignant closing pages. Neither the novel’s movement toward stasis nor Richaud’s unfortunate decision to overexplain its meanings detracts significantly from the force of this delicately crafted little allegory: it evokes memories of both Voltaire’s Candide and José Saramago’s teasing parabolic fiction.
One might in fact say that Gardener to the King is the novel Jerzy Kosinski tried—and failed—to write in his leaden Being There. It’s a beautiful piece of work.Pub Date: April 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-55970-583-3
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Arcade
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2001
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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