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The Mother Garden: Stories
by
Robin Romm (Goodreads Author)
Robin Romm's arresting and resonant stories take on the fundamental themes of the human condition: mortality, loyalty, and love. In fresh and irreverent prose, Romm captures the mo-ments before and after loss, mining the depths of grief with wit and grace.
The stories in The Mother Garden are at once vividly realistic and infused with the bizarre -- a man uses a chi
...morePaperback, 224 pages
Published
July 10th 2007
by Scribner
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I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. I was never bored with these stories, though I did get worn-out by the same subject being tackled again and again--I don't hold that against the author, though I'll say that "The Egg Game," really the one story that wasn't about a mother dying of cancer, was one of the best. The writing is solid, but never overly exciting, and the endings are, with almost no exceptions, terribly weak. Still, I was entertained, and the stories are full of ...more
A beautiful book, with many moments of grace and brilliance. The down to earth stories have a quirky angle, the quirky stories are strangely down to earth. Lots of unexpected twists and turns. Considering it approaches loss from so many angles, it's also plain funny in places - a dry and tender wit. Can't speak highly enough of this collection, it's just a keeper.
Some of Romm's sentences made me laugh out loud. They needed to. Romm's stories are variations on the themes of loss and betrayal, and without the leavening agent of humor, the stories would be overly hard and dense. Call it a saving grace, except that here there is no salvation and little grace; these are not tales in which death and sadness are overcome. Characters experience them and, it seems, become mired in them. Whether the characters will ever be able to extricate themselves from th...more
I have to start off my review by confessing that my mother has cancer again for the third time. She is not dying. In fact she and my father are both undergoing chemo. That is not why I picked up this book. It wasn't until I read through a few of the stories that I wondered about my peculiar timing for choosing this small book of short stories. I had not read any previous reviews and it was not on any of my to-read lists. It was just sitting there on the shelf with an intriguing jacket summ...more
Because of my own Big Loss, I approach books that orbit around Big Losses with a certain amount of fear. How do you even begin, as a writer, to approach a sentiment as huge as the loss of someone you love? It's too big, way too big to tackle, and I'm impressed that Romm gives loss the room it deserves in this collection. Yes, almost all of these stories deal with a young woman who's lost or is losing her mother to cancer. This frame, to me, is much more convincing than if there were a singular s...more
I read this because I enjoyed The Mercy Papers so much. I didn't like it quite as well, but I still enjoyed it. The first few stories were too weird for me--weird in a sort of deliberate and thus clumsy way. By the last stories, I was on the train, I was going to town, I was feeling it.
I am a short story fanatic so I really enjoyed this book. Crazy, amazing stories - how does Robin do it? She draws you in immediately and you leave a different person with each character you meet.
The imagination of a drug addict, crafted with the care of your favorite grandmother. Robin loves these stories, that much is obvious.
Robin is an excellent writer and a friend!
If you have ever wanted to read a fiction about the grieving process which is uncloyingly touching, real, surreal and even a little funny this is the book. It is as if Joyce Carol Oates and Barry Yourgrau had a writing baby. The prose style and short story format carry you along so that you can't get bogged down in the deep and painful emotions accessed. This is a must read for anyone who has ever lost their mother to cancer or their father to abandonment of the literal or emotional kind.
I really enjoyed this book even though it was all about death. These short stories looked at death from very different perspectives, like the poem 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. Some stories even had a little abstractness to them a la Aimee Bender.
A wonderful short story collection. Good blends of surreal imagery and honesty about the nature of relationships between lovers and parent and child. Some of the reflections on death are a bit heavy and the sexual content is very forward, but these are not so much criticism as general observations. For me, it was as refreshing as it was insightful, and there are a handful of stories worth rereading again and again.
Robin Romm is one of the most gifted storytellers that I've read in quite some time. Her master of language and her ability to use words that make you truly feel something is remarkable. Her stories left me laughing, in tears and generally just touched deep within my soul. I recommend this book to anyone who needs a tad bit more beauty in our lives -- isn't this all of us?
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this short story collection. Romm presents a series of stories that all deal with the sobering topics of loss and death, but are written in a very down-to-earth style that is often both touching and humorous. Unlike most short story compilations that I've read, I actually read every story and liked almost all of them.
this, don waters' "desert gothic," ben percy's "refresh refresh," and jonathan messinger's "hiding out" comprise my favorite collections of 07. the stories here are wildly imaginative, fresh. above all though, they're affecting. haunting, frightening, uplifting all at once. the title story is gem.
Interesting book of short stories with a theme of illness and death, and how family members relate differently to death. Not as depressing as I made the book sound.
the woman who wrote this book is not only from oregon but she got her mfa at state. AND it's a sweet book. why aren't you reading it right this second?
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really liked her voice. The stories were surprising and fresh, i found myself emotionally involved pretty quickly.
One of the best books I've ever read. I couldn't put the book down. Can't wait for her next book to come out.
i love this book --it is the book I would have have written about dealing with loss, if only I could write.
Very depressing. Lots of short stories about mothers dying of cancer or having just died of cancer.
Romm reshapes loss and grief in every story in a delicate and graceful way.
The Egg . . . I want one. Read the book.
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Robin Romm is the author of two books, The Mother Garden (stories) and The Mercy Papers (a memoir). The Mercy Papers received the cover review of the New York Times Book Review ("a furious blaze of a book") in January 2009. The Mother Garden was a finalist for the PEN USA prize and the Northern California Independent Bookseller Book of the Year Award. She teaches in the MFA program at...more
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