Alice Hoffman. The Red Garden.
New York: Crown Publishers, 2011
as reviewed by Ted Odenwald
Through a collection of interwoven stories about the citizenry of rustic Blackwell, Massachusetts, Alice Hoffman has earned a place of honor on the bookshelf near Saroyan’s The Human Comedy, Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, and Joyce’s Dubliners. This fictional backwater is populated by two-and-one- half centuries’ worth of unique, intriguing characters whose passions, drives, and idiosyncrasies make them attractive, memorable, and even worthy of legend.
Situated in a valley below Hightop Mountain, Blackwell is isolated from the complexities of urban life. The lineages of the founding families stretch out through the centuries, anchored firmly in this valley with its primordial Eel River weaving through its thick vegetation. Also prominent in several of the stories are a “Tree of Life,” which allegedly possesses spiritual powers, and a garden whose blood-red soil evokes tales of love, betrayal, violence, and sacrifice.
In “The Bear’s House,” Hallie Brady, a 17-year-old English immigrant bride, proves to be the true founder of Blackwell. Virtually single-handedly, she saves an expedition of prospective pioneers, led by her bumbling husband who has scammed the travelers into paying him to direct them, when in fact he is clueless with regard to both their location in western Massachusetts and survival skills. When pummeled by a ferocious winter storm, the group is ready to “…lie down on their straw pallets, close their eyes, and give up the one life on earth they’d been given.” Enraged by their easy submission, Hallie journeys out into the storm, catching eels in the icy river; hunting rabbits, and even milking a hibernating bear. Preferring to die trying rather than simply giving up, she explores the wild surroundings, making use of what nature has to offer.
Hallie’s love of nature and her frustration with incompetent human society lead her to seek spiritual fulfillment through an attachment to a bear which she had saved when it had been orphaned as a cub. For more than 15 years, she meets the bear in her garden, unseen by humans, until her son-in-law murders the animal. Horrified and devastated, Hallie disappears into the woods, never to return. The garden now serves as the gravesite of both the bear and the infant Hallie had lost years before. The garden is a place of love and tenderness as well as terrible sorrow and loss.
“Eight Nights of Love” presents the history/legend of the town’s “Tree of Life,” an apple tree planted by John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed). The townspeople have always believed the tree to have spiritual powers: “…when it bloomed, anyone standing beneath its boughs could ask for mercy for his sins.” Encountering Minette as she is contemplating suicide, Chapman helps her to discover the beauty that exists within her, her connection to the universe. “…the universe could be found in a single instant, a drop of water, a blade of grass, a leaf of an apple tree.” Camping in the red-soiled garden outside Minette’s home, Chapman gives her new life, impregnating her, and helping her to separate herself from the stilted, ignorant townspeople and helping her to find new hope for life in the “manna” of the perfect trees which he has planted.
Each of the 14 stories portrays characters whose lives have been shaped in some way by Blackwell. In “Emily,” Hoffman presents the brief stay of an enigmatic young woman who “…liked to disappear, even when she was in the same room as other people.” Desiring to be known, Emily (Dickinson) suffers in isolation until she meets a nearly blind man, Charles Straw, who sees her for who she is. In a sad, futile expression of her love, she attempts to keep him from departing from the town by replanting the red garden in such a way as to reveal in the plantings her true love: “…the flash of scarlet, the blood, the inside story of who she was.”
In “The River at Home,” Evan Partridge, a Civil War amputee, mourns deeply for his brother, wondering if “messages from the beyond” would bring comfort or despair. He consults with William Starr, whose 6-year-old sister had drowned years ago-but who, according to local legend, occasionally reappears as an apparition. William is also mourning his son, who had been killed in battle. Mattie, William’s widowed daughter-in-law, seeks a comforting message “from the beyond,” but falls into the perilously rushing waters of the Eel River, only to be rescued by the amputee. They find comfort in each other: “Where blood has fallen, the ground aches but the fruit is sweet.”
In “The Monster of Blackwell,” Matthew James runs away from society because he is considered a monster: ugly, misshapen, hunched, and twisted. He seeks refuge in the woods of Hightop Mountain, feeling more comfortable with animals than with humans. People occasionally catch glimpses of him, and conclude that he is a wild monster. Matthew suddenly appears to rescue Carl, a mischievous young camper, who has deliberately wandered from his camping group into bear territory. In gratitude, Kate Partridge, the responsible counselor, begins an interesting relationship with Matthew, providing him with food baskets and library books. Years later, after Carl’s teenage sister has been raped and murdered, stories about the monster are renewed. But the truly monstrous character turns out to be Carl’s friend from the city; he attacks both Kate and her aunt, intending to rape and murder both of them. Kate feigns unconsciousness and then kills her attacker with a large rock. Matthew re-emerges to clean up the scene and remove the body so that Kate will not be implicated. There have been two types of monsters in Blackwell: the physically hideous but beautiful, and the morally twisted.
The history of Blackwell, Massachusetts is traced in The Red Garden not in terms of earth-shattering events or in events that will have any impact outside the immediate surroundings. But the stories are incisive views of a community rich in its self-grown and self-preserved heritage. The characters resemble archetypes making mystical connections with the primordial forces around them-forces manifested through Hightop Mountain, the Eel River, the “Tree of Life,” and the Red Garden.
Ted Odenwald and his wife, Shirley have lived in Oakland for 40 years. He taught HS English at Glen Rock High School for all of those years plus one more. Now he is enjoying time spent with his family, singing in the North Jersey Chorus and quenching his wanderlust. Ted is also the Worship Leader at the Ramapo Valley Baptist Church in Oakland.