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Book Review of The Forgotten Garden

The Perfect Book Club Book

Have you read any books by Kate Morton? The House at Riverton (my review) was my launching pad into her work, and everyone kept telling me to read The Forgotten Garden next. And I can see why - how she chooses her words on the page, what thoughts her character’s think, how she describes the landscape, emotions, and passing of time. Here, Kate Morton was masterful.

Synopsis

Mini summary: Cassandra’s grandmother dies in 2005 leaving her to deal, not only with her death, but with the secrets she left behind. Her grandmother, Nell, showed up in a port in Australia all alone, having sailed from England, in 1913. The dock master and his wife keep her as their own. But on her twenty-first birthday, her parents break the news to her that they aren’t her real parents. Dealing with abandonment, in 1975 she decides to try to figure out her past using the only things she has from that life: a small suitcase containing a book of fairy tales. Life gets in the way, and she never figures out her mystery, but Cassandra is determined to find the truth.

To make matters even more intriguing, we don’t see the mystery unfold only from Cassandra and Nell’s perspective. Kate Morton takes us back in time to 1900 and 1913 to the Blackhurst Estate where the Mountrachet family are living out their slippery lives.

Why is it that a story being told from different perspectives is more interesting than a cohesive narrator? And why is it even more interesting to have the story jump back and forth throughout time? This novel has both. Time and characters are tools by which Kate Morton slowly unravels the mystery.

Themes

But, being Kate Morton, she also uses houses as characters. And these silent characters, made of stone, reveal so much about the inhabitants. The rich, pristine estate is dark, with obsessions hidden behind closed doors. But, like the family, it gives the outward appearance of a perfect dwelling. At the same time they think they are keeping their biggest secret hidden away in a little cottage by the sea the garden a secret, closed off space surrounded by a wall and protected by a maze. Yet, this is the place where life flourished.

To make it even more interesting, there are little stories with in the story. The only link to Nell’s past is a book of fairy tales that are sprinkled throughout the novel. What seems to, at first, be a children’s story suddenly begins to have parallels to the rest of the novel. The fairy tales are an added element to unravel the mystery, deepen the character’s development, and to understand their motives.

Family

With all the themes and symbolism, it all comes back to family.

The bonds of family aren’t easily broken. Linus’ bond with Georgianna, however inappropriate, brought Eliza back to the home. Then Eliza’s bond with Rose caused her to act in an unimaginably sacrificial way. And her bond with her baby, led Nell back to the “scene of the crime” even though she could only pull vague memories of it to mind. And Nell’s bond with Cassandra pushed her into finishing Nell’s search, and, ultimately, solving the mystery. Families cause secrets, and families unravel them.

What does it mean to be a family? Can your family really abandon you, or will you always be drawn back to some part of your past? How can a mother’s love be unhealthy when they hold their daughter too smotheringly close, and how is it equally unhealthy when they let their daughter go completely, abandoning her to someone else?

How things felt for me

As I was reading, I was pulled completely inside The Forgotten Garden as if I was lost in the secret garden walls myself. Noise and things around me were completely blocked out and time stopped. Even though I wouldn’t call this a suspense novel or thriller, it held me in suspense until the end.

Do you ever reach a point in a book where you just know you are going to finish it tonight? It doesn’t matter that you need to wake up extra early tomorrow, or that your baby will cry in the middle of the night. You’ve reached the point of no return.

The last 100 pages of the Forgotten Garden was that for me. I was so close to the end I could almost taste it. I could feel the mystery coming into focus, and I had to know how it played out.

But then I woke up the next morning a little bit sad. (Ok, bleary-eyed from lack of sleep) But I was also mourning the loss of the characters. I wanted to crawl right back inside of the book and live there (preferably in the cottage behind the forgotten garden).

Your next book club book - The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

The Perfect Book Club Book

I want to keep discussing the themes and symbols and characters and settings with you…but I don’t want to give everything away! This would be the perfect book to read in a book club because there’s so much to discuss! Mothers losing daughters, and daughters being abandoned by their mothers. Gardens representing life and wellness, and houses representing cold, lonely, sadness wrapped up in a prestigious front. How time is a factor. How the stories within the story affect your understanding of the plot. Oh my gosh, there’s so much! Somebody come to my house and have coffee with me so I can keep talking about it!