The Heirloom Garden by Viola Shipman

 

What is your favorite flower?

The Heirloom Garden by Viola Shipman was the March selection for the Page-turners Book Club at the Kewaunee Public Library.  I enjoyed reading this novel at the beginning of the month and it started me thinking of spring and my garden.

Abby Peterson has moved to Grand Haven, Michigan in 2003 with her young daughter Lily, and husband Cory.  Cory has just returned from the war in Iraq and is struggling with PTSD.  Abby is hoping for a new start in their rented home and has a new job as an engineer at a nautical paint manufacturer.  As the family works to build their lives back, they meet their old neighbor Iris.  Iris lives next door and has a beautiful garden that is walled off by a high fence.  She has been alone for a long time after losing her husband in World War II and her daughter to an illness afterwards.  She was a botanist who worked on propagating her own flowers including daylilies.  After she is befriended by Lily, will she be able to come out of her shell?

I loved this story.  It was beautiful and brought tears to my eyes.  I loved the structure of the novel that was in sections named after different flowers as they bloom through the year.  I loved that the story was narrated both by Abby and by Iris.  The story was in 2003 and also flashed back to World War II and after to tell Iris’s story.  I loved that it showed that you may make assumptions about a crabby old neighbor, but that they may have a story that is much deeper. 

As a female engineer, I also loved how Abby’s travails at work was written.  It was so very relatable, especially being the only female engineer at the table.  It’s like Viola Shipman had been to work with me early in my career.  I enjoyed that the author had Abby be a female engineer and Viola a botanist.  It was great to see science careers in a novel!

This book made me really want to visit Grand Haven.  As a kid, we always went to South Haven and Holland to the beach, but never Grand Haven.  I grew up in Michigan, but now live in a small town in Wisconsin on Lake Michigan.  I love flowers and growing them in my own yard.  I have a lot of favorites, but I love Irises and I love peonies.  I have a peony from my Great Grandma Kile that I enjoy seeing bloom each year.  I just planted one last fall from my Grandma Arlt, and I can’t wait for it to bloom. 

Favorite Quotes:

“What I know is that war, sadly, is sometimes necessary not simply to protect a people but to save the world from evil.  But too often war is used as a way to keep people in fear and, thus, in line.  It is a false symbol of safety.”

“On the highway, Cory grabs my hand and holds it until we pull in the driveway, me thinking of trillium the entire way, of how we are all just like them, so fragile, so in need of protection, but also, always, a harbinger of hope.”

Overall, The Heirloom Garden by Viola Shipman was a beautiful story full of family, hope, and gardens.  This was my first Viola Shipman novel, and it won’t be my last!

Book Source:  Kewaunee Public Library