The Girl in the Garden

The Girl in the Garden claims to be a book about a young girl and her infant son who are abandoned at a seaside motel in New England and the people she comes into contact with who help her find her way. After reading this book, I found that to be an almost minor point to the story. It seemed like it was more about Iris, the wealthy recluse who allows June and her son to stay on her property, and her slow deterioration.

Each chapter was written from a different person’s perspective, and while l normally find that interesting, it made this particular story disjointed and hard to follow. The lack of quotations was a bit disconcerting, and it always felt like something was missing in each person’s narrative. The story itself was actually very depressing, with pretty much no happy endings.

I personally did not enjoy reading this book, but if you like tragedies, then I can see how this would interest you.