Into the Garden With Charles – Clyde Phillip Wachsberger

[PaperMoon]

How do I even begin to describe the many ways this memoir touched me – I read this in one five hour sitting. There are no over the top, attention-grabbing headlines or plot devices. No one is murdered or attacked. There’s not a porn actor in sight and if there’s any emotional traumatic suffering and pain – Wachsberger does not let on. It’s just a tale of a middle-aged ex-painter/artist who finds himself the owner of a 300 year old dilapidated saltbox house with a neglected half-acre garden in Orient (Long Island). Skipper’s (as Clyde is known) clear delight and joy in the hours spent planning and clearing that garden literally leaps off the pages. I was quite taken by his search for plants, exotic and visually captivating varieties, from catalogues, cuttings, other people’s gardens etc.

From a quarter-way through the book, a secondary theme emerges – that of Skipper’s quiet longing for a ‘special other’ to share his garden and home with. Having skirted the sexual excesses of the ‘60s and ‘70s, avoided the ravaging epidemic of the ‘80s and ‘90s … Skipper is resigned to ending his life alone surrounded by the beauty of his plants and trees, his fondness for art and beautiful objects, and of course his other great love – opera. But an amazing coincidental event brings along middle aged New Yorker (maître d’ at the Carlyle Hotel) – Charles Dean, who apart from being a great art collector / connoisseur is also a fellow gardener and plant lover – how truly sweet and wonderful! From their first meeting, and then through shared gardening experiences, the inevitable meeting of each other’s extended family members and lifelong friends, learning to make space for ‘the other’ in two established homes (Orient and New York) … readers get to experience the many many bonding ties that serve to make theirs a strong and loving partnership.

Wachsberger is quite brave sharing so much of his family back history and childhood experiences as well – they serve to highlight what shaped him into the person he became as an adult … his anxiety-gripped mother, his dashing older sister Freddie who instilled and shares Skipper’s passion for art, beautiful things and unusual objects , Skipper’s long standing friendship with Metropolitan Opera’s Martile Rowland. Local characters and neighbours from Orient also make their notable appearances within these pages – coming alive within that quaintly beautiful township setting that is Orient. I had very moist moments when Skipper and Charles each have interactions with their mothers who are nearing the end of their lives. I was crushed with the health news given to our two love-birds towards the second half of the book – a dark shadow that overcast the remainder of the book and yet, does not overwhelm the joy of life, living, planting and growing as exuded by Wachsberger’s writing. To balance things, there are many humorous moments and asides e.g.

“I wrote a long novel about unrequited gay love, called All During Never. I had in mind a hybrid cross: (Gone With the Wind x Now, Voyager) x Auntie Mame. It was romantic and not at all graphic, and it never got published.”

There are many opera references in these pages to entertain the buffs and enthusiasts. For plant lovers – be prepared to be seduced by stunning cultivars of magnolias, peonies, echiums, coleus, old world roses (yes Emilie – Mme Alfred Carriere, Souvenir de la Malmaison, Mme Isaac Perriere all make their appearances as does Josephine Bonaparte herself!). We meet rare delicate plants that fail to thrive, dastardly acts of plant thievery, the horrors of invasive planted cultivars, the dreaded results of marauding animal plant eaters and the hysterical attempts at keeping exotic plants alive through the dark and bitter wintry months. Art enthusiasts will also be pleased to discover Charles’ own notable collection and showing of abstract expressionist prints from the middle decades of the previous century. Finally – how can anyone resist the charm of Charles calling Skipper “honeybun” all through the book – awwww.

The life-stories within this book are shared by a non-remarkable gentleman, who in the telling, becomes a truly remarkable person for me. Several of Wachsberger’s delightful watercolours are scattered thoughout serving as illustrations for the book. The following link provides some pics of Skipper and Charles’ garden at Adsworthy House in Orient: http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/... (although I’m scared to think what may have happened to the Orient house and garden post-hurricane Sandy). Come what may - the garden that Skipper and Charles enjoyed together will live on forever in the pages of this memoir.

[Charles]

Okay, this one has to wait until next month's subsistence check comes in, but gardening, art, saltbox houses, Long Island, AND opera!!??

You had me at any one of the above.

This is where having both a Kindle and a Nook comes in handy. Although I loves my Nook, oft-times B&N is more expensive than Amazon. In this case, $14.99 vs.$12.74. I know which one I'm getting now....and I want it NOW.

[PaperMoon]

LOL Chuck!

For gardening aficionados ... I was just mentioning to Emilie of the upcoming Julie Bozza offering:

Hilary Kent, a Londoner all his working life, retires to Wiltshire after an estranged cousin unexpectedly leaves him an inhabitable tower surrounded by an overgrown physic garden – and that's when graduate student Tom Laurence suddenly erupts into his life, convincing him that together they can restore the ancient garden to its former glory. Tom's cheerful friendship is the best thing that's ever happened to Hilary and he's perfectly content with that until, to his astonishment and confusion, it seems that Tom's affection for him is beginning to grow into something more … something he feels he probably shouldn't allow.



I can't wait for this! It sounds like a "gay-er" version of those lovely Beverley Nichols Merry Hall books (fingers crossed).

[Charles]

PaperMoon wrote: "LOL Chuck!

For gardening aficionados ... I was just mentioning to Emilie of the upcoming Julie Bozza offering:

Hilary Kent, a Londoner all his working life, retires to Wiltshire after an estrange..."

Where are all these recommendations coming from? (And keep 'em coming!)

The Apothecary's Garden sounds wonderful. My God, gardening, inhabitable towers and student boyfriends. What more could one ask for?

I didn't realize that Julie Bozza was also the author of The Butterfly Hunter, which also looks wonderful. I love the cover art.

I can't find The Apothecary's Garden anywhere. Is it a VERY recently published work?

[Octobercountry]

Charles wrote: "I can't find The Apothecary's Garden anywhere. Is it a VERY recently published work? "

If PaperMoon doesn't mind my jumping in here a moment... The book will be released on the first of May---here the author says a few words about it: http://juliebozza.com/?p=995

This one is definitely on my list as well---sounds interesting.

[Mercedes]

Julie Bozza's book are sold by Manifold Press out of the UK. Last year I bought Butterfly directly from them and then a few months later it became available on Amazon.

[Charles]

Those of you who know me fairly well know that I'm the original cynic. So, going into this book I kept thinking "Oh, God, the garden as metaphor for life, love and a relationship. Sheesh!" Also, I never cry. I may say that I sobbed like a little girl during poignant passages of books, but *spoiler* I don't.

Until I finished this book. I managed to hold out through the end of the book until I got to the copyright........the frigging copyright, and realized that it was held by Charles Dean, and not by Clyde "Skip" Wachsberger. That meant that Skip had died from his metastasized cancer. I broke down, went back and re-read the last couple of chapters literally through a veil of tears.

This is not to say that this is a sad book. This is possibly the most life-affirming book I've read recently. In fact, if this were written as fiction it would be unbelievable. Skip's sister just happens to be friends with Peggy Guggenheim's grand-niece, Iris. Who then proceeds to become his personal Auntie Mame. Uh, huh. Or, how about the fact that Skip sees Charles' personal ad after a series of publishing accidents that literally defy belief. But it's all true; and so goddam romantic.

From time to time I got a tad tired of hearing about cuttings and graftings and the like. Every time that happened, though, it was followed by a story that involved dining next to Kitty Carlisle Hart at the Carlyle (where Charles, of course, is best buds with Bobby Short.) See what I mean about never believing it if it were written as an invented story?

Then you get to the parts about Charles' American abstract expressionist art print collection being featured first in Architectural Digest, then acquired by the Library of Congress. Believable, I think not......if it hadn't actually happened.

Or Skip's (gorgeous, and so friggin' colorful) paintings of family and, of course, the garden, being eventually reviewed by Art in America after starting as a small hometown exhibition.

This is an incredible love story. But be aware, it isn't for anyone looking for action, overt sex, or anything beyond what two people can achieve together in making a long life together.

And their dog, Rover (I kid you not, that's the damn dog's name!), their bloody dog turns out to be a TV star on Animal Planet.

This book is "just" two men blessed by finding the other; and exactly what their really sweet story can do to inspire outsized happy feelings in the reader.

[Octobercountry]

Wow, this book has been so highly praised that I think I'm definitely going to have to check it out, sooner or later.