Reviews

Garden in the Wind by Gabrielle Roy

margaretpinard's review

challenging emotional hopeful sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

theliteraryhooker's review

3.0

I'm a little disappointed with this collection. I've heard so many amazing things about Gabrielle Roy, and I was excited to finally get around to reading some of her works. But the stories fell flat for me. The writing was good, the ideas were interesting, but I couldn't connect. The stories also felt just a little too similar to me; three out of the four stories are about immigrants trying to make themselves a home in the prairies, and the loneliness and desolation that faced them. I think it's fine to have an overarching theme to a collection of stories, but these started to feel a little repetitive to me. I think that's part of the reason that the first story, Tramp at the Door, was my favorite of the collection, but even that one wasn't particularly memorable or hardhitting for me.

I'll certainly give her novels a try, probably in the original French, but this wasn't a great first experience with her work.