The White Garden: A Novel Of Virginia Woolf (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
I enjoyed the first two-thirds of the book very much. I spent time near Sissinghurst and the White Garden itself is something I've always wanted to replicate. That was what drew me to the book to begin with, though I am also interested in the Bloomsbury Group, and I have learned to relish Stephanie Barron's careful research and loving recreation of other times in her Jane Austen series. The central mystery concerns Virginia Woolf's last days and the discovery of a diary/novel about those days by an American garden designer who is visiting England.The contemporary scenes are strongly reminiscent (sometimes a little too much so) of the equivalent scenes in A. S. Byatt's Possession and the final resolution of the mystery was a little disappointing for me, but the evocation of wartime Britain, and the damp, green glories of the best British gardens in late fall are wonderful. One would think that I would find a book about Virginia Woolf--any book, fictional or otherwise--to be entertaining. And yet this novel is poorly written, dull and ignorant of even basic details of Virginia's life. Only the portrait of the feminist scholar strikes me as having any entertainment value. The reader is presented with a mystery that turns out to be no such thing--by the end I wished only that all the characters had been butchered around page 30, when they were just starting to wear out their welcome. The solution to the mystery of "The White Garden"? A radical re-writing of history that comes off as the work of someone for whom Wikipedia is the ultimate resource.
What do You think about The White Garden: A Novel Of Virginia Woolf (2009)?
Very interesting "what if" take on Virginia Woolf's death.
—funkie204
It was ok, but I lost interest towards the end.
—laineadams
