Mystical Rose

by Richard Scrimger

A beautiful novel about the fragility of memory, Mystical Rose is the carefully paced monologue of a woman in her late eighties with a disordered mind. Now on her deathbed under the constant care of doctors and nurses, Rose is having a one-sided conversation with God. Delving into her past, she revisits herself growing up in Cobourg, Ontario in the twenties. When her father returns from WWI an empty shell of his former self, she helps the family by going into service as a maid. Before long, she finds herself married to the scion of the wealthy family she works for, and transported into a world she doesn't understand; life becomes even more difficult when he meets a terrible early death. Through Scrimger's lyrical, precise prose and haunting images, Rose is revealed as a woman never quite in control of her own destiny, still trying to understand her own life. To Rose, her mind ravaged by senile dementia, the events of six decades ago are just as immediate as those of yesterday. As the Globe and Mail "Rose isn't sure why everyone is so upset with her and can't understand what she's saying, thinking, seeing." She drifts from crystal-clear recollections of her past, to confusion in the present as she attempts to interact with hospital staff and her daughter Harriet, whom she fears she never loved well enough. She forgets words and misuses them -- and yet, having worked in a flower shop for years, she still remembers the meaning of every flower's name. Scrimger "Mystical Rose started from a picture I had of an old lady talking to God on her deathbed in a hospital. From there I began researching Alzheimer's Disease." This short novel, then, is written as a subtle montage of experiences, a style which Scrimger says is suited to the way our minds work today, with the influences of film and television. "I think more like a filmmaker, using quick cuts. Our eyes are more attuned to video games and Much Music; it has affected the way our minds think.

Genres: Literary Fiction

248 pages, Paperback

First published May 16, 2000

About the author

I was born with very little hair and very little feet and hands. They all grew together and I still have them, together with all my organs except tonsils. I do not have four children -- they have me and we all know it. I write and teach and talk about writing and other things. Actually, I talk a lot. I’m right handed, my car has a dent in the passenger side door, and my blood type is A-. The motto of South Carolina is Dum spiro spero.— success comes by breathing. I like black licorice and rice pudding and ratatouille and coffee. Lots of coffee. My hair usually needs cutting. How much more do you need to know about anybody?

I have been writing since 1996. No, that's not true. I wrote for years before that, but no one cared. Since 1996 I've published fifteen books for adults and children. You can read more about them somewhere else on this site. A few of the books did very well. Some came close. A couple didn't do well at all. My most recent offering is Ink Me, a tragicomedy about a tattoo gone wrong, told in supercool phonetic speak by our learning-disabled hero. Zomboy – an undead story – is due out next year. (My editor and I are arguing about certain scenes right now.) And I am writing a semi-graphic novel about kids who fall into a comic book.
Do you want more details? Really? Okay, then.

In 1996 I published my first novel, Crosstown (Toronto: The Riverbank Press), which was short-listed for the City of Toronto Book Award.
Humorous short pieces about my life as an at-home dad with four small children used to appear regularly in the Globe & Mail and Chatelaine, and can still be found fairly regularly on the back page of Today's Parent. I reworked some of this material into a full-length chunk of not-quite-non-fiction, which was published by HarperCollins as Still Life With Children.

I started writing children's fiction in 1998. Two middle-school novels, The Nose From Jupiter and The Way To Schenectady did well enough to require sequels. There are four Norbert books so far, and two Peelers.

My work has received a lot of attention in Canada and The United States. The Nose From Jupiter is a Canadian bestseller. It won a Mr Christie Book Award, was on most of the top ten lists and has been translated into a Scottish dozen languages (that’s less than 12). Bun Bun’s Birthday, From Charlie’s Point of View, Mystical Rose, and Into the Ravine made a variety of short lists and books of the year – Quill and Quire, Canadian Library Association, Globe and Mail, Chicago Public Library, Time Out NY (kids), blah blah. Ink Me is part of the “7” series – linked novels featuring seven grandsons with quests from their common grandfather. Pretty cool, eh? As my most recent book, it is my current favorite. But watch out for Zomboy next year. It’s a killer!

Reviews

[Junessa Gray · Rating 2 out of 5]

very confusing. an attempt at literary art that leaves the author entirely confused and bored. the story follows the life of rose on her deathbed as her dementia mind remembers her life that she is never quite in control of. would not recommend.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very cleverly written story which plays with timelines, like a person with Alheimer's or dementia as Rose, the central character, has.

[Jas · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounding up to 3. Oddly written with an odd timeline. Heartbreaking yet boring. Would not reccomend

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

BEWARE. I DON'T FLAG SPOILERS. BUT I DON'T PUT MY REVIEWS OUT ON ANY FEED, EITHER.

Disclaimer - my "reviews" are not truly that. Rather than a critical analysis, each "review" is mostly my quick summary of the plot -- so I can refresh my unreliable memory. Also, I find that once I journal a book, it's easier for me to give it away. That's important, as our house is getting "overgrown" with books.

---

Brilliant (but I'm a sucker for art fiction on the theme of love that if not quite unrequited, never gets to bloom as it would want)!
"Mystical Rose" comprises the full lifetime of Rose Rolyoke, which she retells from the Alzheimer's-clouded end of her life.
Hard to believe that Scrimger, a male author, could convey so much of a woman's sensibility as to sexuality and love relationships.
Deft touches of humor interwoven with highly unusual plot turns (such as freak accidents and miracle healing).
Fluid shift between bygone eras (Rose is a child in WWI) and present time, which is cleverly justified and accomplished by the heroine's Alzheimer's.
Rose has suffered losses, but her end-of-life detachment puts a new tincture to the events.
Haunting" and "exquisite" is what the promotional bookjacket calls this tale. For once, I agree wholeheartedly w. a jacket.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

loved the setting, elements of the story, but not the way it was set out