The Savage Garden
1 journaler for this copy...
The Savage Garden is set in Tuscany in Italy in 1958, not long after the Second World War. A student is sent by his Cambridge professor to investigate a very old garden associated with the Villa Docci.
Most writers cannot write, therefore to find one who can is always a pleasure.
I was seduced into reading this novel, not by a kidnapping, a brutal murder, but by the sheer pleasure of reading the prose.
There is a lovely passage set near the beginning of the book. Unlike his counterparts, in their dotage but still surviving on long-forgotten past glories, one sinecured professor, now in his late seventies, is still very active.
'How did he manage it? He never hurried and was never late; he just loped around like a well-fed cat, giving off an air of slight distraction, as if his mind was always on higher things.'
Adam Strickland, a Cambridge student, is sent by his professor to Tuscany to study a 16th century garden untouched by the fads of fashion, associated with the Villa Docci belonging to the Docci family, an ancient Florentine family.
On arrival in Florence, before setting off for Villa Docci the following day, Adam Strickland spends a day wandering the streets of Florence.
I am reminded of Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho (who also can write), who likes when visiting a place, to wander around and see what he can find. Nothing delights more than turning a corner and discovering something for oneself, not because a guide or a guidebook tells us what should see.
It is what I like doing. I was walking through the centre of Washingborough, a small village in Lincolnshire in England, when I spied an old water pump. I used to see a lot of these as a child in the old stone villages set on the spring line. This one caught my eye because of the way the sun caught it. A few minutes earlier or later and it would have passed unnoticed or at least unremarked.
The Villa Docci and its sunken garden tempt one to want to be there, to visit, or at the very least, to be in a Mediterranean country, surrounded by lovely old buildings, with a view of the countryside, reading The Savage Garden in the shade of a tree.
In the opening chapters, shades of The House at Riverton by Kate Morton, or even more so, Daphne du Maurier. A house with a dark secret, or in this case, a garden with a dark secret. As the story unfolds further, we learn the house has a dark secret too. The upper floor is shut off, 'a curse on the house'. Note the similarity with the book covers. [see BCID 5659603]
As the story unfolds, we find we have a garden with a Classical secret to tell. The garden, its statues and settings, interweaves Greek gods, renaissance art and literature, within which the dark secret is held.
I'd like to be able to say this is an interesting debut novel by an unknown author, but if I did I'd be mistaken. His debut novel was The Whaleboat House. Whether or not Mark Mills is an unknown author is a moot point, I at least had never heard of him until I read The Savage Garden.
The Savage Garden was selected as Summer Read 2007 for the Richard and Judy Reading Club. His other books are Amagansett and The Whaleboat House.
Most writers cannot write, therefore to find one who can is always a pleasure.
I was seduced into reading this novel, not by a kidnapping, a brutal murder, but by the sheer pleasure of reading the prose.
There is a lovely passage set near the beginning of the book. Unlike his counterparts, in their dotage but still surviving on long-forgotten past glories, one sinecured professor, now in his late seventies, is still very active.
'How did he manage it? He never hurried and was never late; he just loped around like a well-fed cat, giving off an air of slight distraction, as if his mind was always on higher things.'
Adam Strickland, a Cambridge student, is sent by his professor to Tuscany to study a 16th century garden untouched by the fads of fashion, associated with the Villa Docci belonging to the Docci family, an ancient Florentine family.
On arrival in Florence, before setting off for Villa Docci the following day, Adam Strickland spends a day wandering the streets of Florence.
I am reminded of Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho (who also can write), who likes when visiting a place, to wander around and see what he can find. Nothing delights more than turning a corner and discovering something for oneself, not because a guide or a guidebook tells us what should see.
It is what I like doing. I was walking through the centre of Washingborough, a small village in Lincolnshire in England, when I spied an old water pump. I used to see a lot of these as a child in the old stone villages set on the spring line. This one caught my eye because of the way the sun caught it. A few minutes earlier or later and it would have passed unnoticed or at least unremarked.
The Villa Docci and its sunken garden tempt one to want to be there, to visit, or at the very least, to be in a Mediterranean country, surrounded by lovely old buildings, with a view of the countryside, reading The Savage Garden in the shade of a tree.
In the opening chapters, shades of The House at Riverton by Kate Morton, or even more so, Daphne du Maurier. A house with a dark secret, or in this case, a garden with a dark secret. As the story unfolds further, we learn the house has a dark secret too. The upper floor is shut off, 'a curse on the house'. Note the similarity with the book covers. [see BCID 5659603]
As the story unfolds, we find we have a garden with a Classical secret to tell. The garden, its statues and settings, interweaves Greek gods, renaissance art and literature, within which the dark secret is held.
I'd like to be able to say this is an interesting debut novel by an unknown author, but if I did I'd be mistaken. His debut novel was The Whaleboat House. Whether or not Mark Mills is an unknown author is a moot point, I at least had never heard of him until I read The Savage Garden.
The Savage Garden was selected as Summer Read 2007 for the Richard and Judy Reading Club. His other books are Amagansett and The Whaleboat House.
