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The Forgetting Tree: A Novel
De Tatjana Soli
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A New York Times Notable Book!
From Tatjana Soli, The New York Times bestselling author of The Lotus Eaters, comes a breathtaking novel of a California ranching family, its complicated matriarch, and the enigmatic caretaker who may destroy them
When Claire Nagy marries Forster Baumsarg, the only son of prominent California citrus ranchers, she knows she's consenting to a life of hard work, long days, and worry-fraught nights. But her love for Forster is so strong, she turns away from her literary education and embraces the life of the ranch, succumbing to its intoxicating rhythms and bounty until her love of the land becomes a part of her. Not even the tragic, senseless death of her son Joshua at kidnappers' hands, her alienation from her two daughters, or the dissolution of her once-devoted marriage can pull her from the ranch she's devoted her life to preserving.
But despite having survived the most terrible of tragedies, Claire is about to face her greatest struggle: an illness that threatens not only to rip her from her land but take her very life. And she's chosen a caregiver, the inscrutable, Caribbean-born Minna, who may just be the darkest force of all.
Haunting, tough, triumphant, and profound, The Forgetting Tree explores the intimate ties we have to one another, the deepest fears we keep to ourselves, and the calling of the land that ties every one of us together.
Actions du livre
Commencer à lireInformations sur le livre
The Forgetting Tree: A Novel
De Tatjana Soli
Description
A New York Times Notable Book!
From Tatjana Soli, The New York Times bestselling author of The Lotus Eaters, comes a breathtaking novel of a California ranching family, its complicated matriarch, and the enigmatic caretaker who may destroy them
When Claire Nagy marries Forster Baumsarg, the only son of prominent California citrus ranchers, she knows she's consenting to a life of hard work, long days, and worry-fraught nights. But her love for Forster is so strong, she turns away from her literary education and embraces the life of the ranch, succumbing to its intoxicating rhythms and bounty until her love of the land becomes a part of her. Not even the tragic, senseless death of her son Joshua at kidnappers' hands, her alienation from her two daughters, or the dissolution of her once-devoted marriage can pull her from the ranch she's devoted her life to preserving.
But despite having survived the most terrible of tragedies, Claire is about to face her greatest struggle: an illness that threatens not only to rip her from her land but take her very life. And she's chosen a caregiver, the inscrutable, Caribbean-born Minna, who may just be the darkest force of all.
Haunting, tough, triumphant, and profound, The Forgetting Tree explores the intimate ties we have to one another, the deepest fears we keep to ourselves, and the calling of the land that ties every one of us together.
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Avis
The Forgetting Tree almost feels like several novels in one. It's the story of a family in the aftermath of a horrible act of violence; it's an exploration of that family's ties to the land; it's the tale of a mysterious stranger who enters that family--told from both sides. It made we wonder at times whether Soli might have decided, at some point, to combine several originally unrelated story ideas and see what developed--which sounds a little haphazard, maybe, but for most part it seems to work, largely because most of it is centered on one character.As the child of immigrants, Claire finds Forster Baumsarg's family legacy of citrus farming almost as appealing as Forster himself, and the early years of their marriage are about nurturing both the land and a growing family. Then tragedy strikes, and Claire clings more tightly to the farm than ever, even as her husband and daughters grow more apart from it, and from each other. Eventually Claire's the only one left...and she gets breast cancer. In need of a live-in companion while she goes through treatment, she welcomes a beautiful, intriguing West Indian woman into her home. Minna is mercurial and mysterious, but Claire may prefer her that way; it allows her to believe what she wants to believe about her. And then, just when the reader isn't entirely sure what to believe about Minna either, Soli completely switches gears to her perspective, although she ultimately returns the story to Claire.The Forgetting Tree is a novel that feels both sprawling and intimate--it has the scope of a family saga, but is primarily told from a single character's perspective. Soli retains the gifts for vivid and evocative physical description she showed in The Lotus Eaters, and shows herself equally adept at creating complex psychological landscapes; many of the scenes between Claire and Minna feel fluid and dreamlike.Soli's second novel is ambitious in a very different way from her first, and I appreciate that she's exploring other directions, and I think her writing is capable of sometimes elevating her material. Ultimately, I didn't find The Forgetting Tree as satisfying as The Lotus Eaters, but Tatjana Soli is a writer whose work I intend to continue following.
Claire Baumsarg marries a citrus rancher and learns to love the hard life of living off the land. But tragedy strikes Claire not once, but twice in her life, and in the midst of tragedy, Claire begins to question who she can trust. Most of the story is told from Claire's perspective, but about 3/4's of the way through the book, Soli takes us into the past of the assistant who Claire has hired, making us realize that it is hard to understand someone's motives without understanding their past. I liked this strategy of bringing us to the same story through two different viewpoints, but some of the key events were hard for me to believe. I also never felt that I got close enough to any of the characters to be more than just an outside observer.
Stopped listening to the tape part way thro first tape. Mother is attacked, and young son disappears. Rest of family ,left adrift. Too depressing
This a beautifully written novel. The descriptions of the citrus ranch at the heart of the novel are well done and Claire's obsession with the land is rendered completely believable. It is a complex and ambitious novel, and the last quarter is simply marvelous. However, it dragged in spots and the complex nature of the book is both one of its strengths and one of it weaknesses as it gets in the way of the story. It is hard to understand why the main character's friends and families would abandon her the way they do. It is equally perplexing why Minna would cause so much trouble among the workers and Octavio.
I have mixed feelings about The Forgetting Tree. On the one hand, the prose was lush and poetic. I felt like I was in a melancholy fog right along with Claire as I was reading it. On the other hand, I could not relate to Claire or Minna at all. I think they both were mentally-ill in some way. I never found Minna to be a mysterious enigma – I found her to be crazy and mean. I couldn’t understand why Claire was taken with her – sometimes I felt like it was mostly just because Minna was black and Claire hadn’t been around too many black people in her life. That made me uncomfortable, but that is also just my interpretation of Claire and could be totally off base.This may be one of those cases where I am too practical for a book. I just wanted Claire to fire Minna and get on with her life. I kept wondering why no one else in her family was intervening – I think it was pretty clear Claire needed some kind of mental help. My problems with the plot got in the way of my enjoyment of the beautiful writing. The descriptions were wonderfully written, I just didn’t care for a lot of what was being described. Although, I didn’t love this book, I think there are people out there who will.
THE FORGETTING TREE begins with a tragic loss and ends with a long-delayed renewal. The bulk of the novel deals with what happens in between these two events, showing the gradual changes that become the impetus for a dramatic rebirth of sorts.The loss of ten-year-old Joshua leads to the eventual dissolution of the Baumsarg family. The mother Claire is left living alone in the family home on their California citrus farm. Her ex-husband Forster has found someone new, and daughters Gwen and Lucy can't stand to be on that isolated farm with their mother and her painful memories.Years later, breast cancer treatments require that a caregiver be found for Claire. Enter Minna, a young woman of dubious motives and questionable background. Here is where the story began to break down for me in terms of both interest and plausibility. I could not buy that Claire would just hire this girl Lucy found at a Starbucks, with no references or background checks. If Claire's tragedies and illness left her feeling frail and vulnerable, she would be LESS trusting of strangers, not more so, especially given the fact that she would be alone with this person in a remote location. And if Claire did act too hastily in hiring Minna, she would have quickly rectified her mistake when she and her neighbors compared notes and found that Minna's stories didn't add up.The premise we're meant to accept is that Claire is so needy and Minna is so exotic and interesting that Claire is just besotted, willing to let Minna call the shots, even when the house is disintegrating around them. It just didn't work for me. I can't say much more about it for fear of spoilers.I also found the reading a trifle tedious in that long stretch where Minna and Claire are living in the house together, mostly lazing around, with Minna doing her weird ritualistic stuff. It felt like I spent almost the whole book waiting for something to happen. When things DO finally start to happen close to the end, it's very dramatic and exciting and a little spooky. But it takes an awfully long time to get to that point where both Claire and Minna reach for renewal and irrevocable change.I loved Tatjana Soli's first novel, THE LOTUS EATERS, but THE FORGETTING TREE, though masterfully written, was less resonant for me. I will certainly look forward to her next book.
This was the ideal book for me at a time when I am recovering from a serious illness and hospital stay. A truly complex novel that can be read in many ways, with an extremely strong woman character who pushes things to the limits and beyond. What it means to love the land, family, strengths and ties, to fight for what one believes in and to not give in just because others believe one should. Soli takes this woman, her motivations and tears them down than rebuilding them into a new form. A serious tragedy almost costs this woman her sanity, costs her family much more and only the land, the citrus groves, the belonging to something bigger than herself saves her that time. Than a serious illness threatens once again all she holds dear and this novel takes a bizarre and strange turn. A woman comes to be a companion and caretaker as she fights the invader to her body and the novel shows us the power of letting go. As the groves rot from the outside, the situation with the young woman from Haiti turns serious and quite scary. Are these woman really demented or is there some sense in the way they feel? What can possibly be the outcome of this strange pairing? Why is her family not stepping in and taking over? So many questions, so complex the problems and yet how satisfying, though strange this original and powerful book. 2 comments · see review
When Claire gives up her dreams of a literary degree and life spent in books to marry Forster Baumsarg and live with him on his family's citrus farm, she knows that she is choosing a life of physical labor and financial uncertainty. What she doesn't know is how tied to the land she will become both physically and emotionally, invested in the success of the farm and desperately attached to it even in the face of terrible tragedy. When Claire and Forster's young son Josh is kidnapped and murdered, his body buried at the foot of the original root stock tree, Claire and Forster start their long slide away from each other, differing on whether to leave the farm and start anew or to dig into the soil that has supported the Baumsarg's for so long, the rich soil at the root of Josh's death which became his final resting place. Gwen and Lucy, Claire and Forster's daughters, are also indelibly marked by their younger brother's senseless death and they cannot get away from the farm fast enough and side with their father when he urges Claire to let him sell out to developers as so many of their neighbors have done.Years after the tragedy, Claire is alone on the farm with the girls grown and gone, divorced from Forster although maintaining an amicable relationship with him, tied forever by their shared loss. But when Claire is disagnosed with breast cancer, she needs someone to care for her as she undergoes treatments and neither of the girls wants to come back to the farm to oversee their mother. So when free-spirit daughter Lucy finds the appealing and mesmerizing Minna, the professed great-granddaughter of novelist Jean Rhys, everyone jumps at this simple solution to a live-in caretaker. And yet everything is not as it seems with Minna. Her story slips and slides, rife with small, almost unnoticed inconsistencies. But she winnows her way into the beleagured and weary heart of Claire. Although she drives away the very people upon whom Claire has depended for years, farm foreman and family friend Octavio and his daughter Paz, widowed neighbor Mrs. Girbaldi, and the local Hollywood leading man Don Richards, and isolates her at the farm, Minna becomes Claire's lifeline, the only person she sees for days at a time as she descends into the hell of treatment for her cancer. And despite the fact that there are disturbing occurances surrounding Minna, Claire defends her and depends on her, trusting her with her very life.Told in several sections, including one that details Minna's life in Haiti and how she ended up in California on Claire's farm, the writing in this novel is gorgeous and lushly descriptive, cinematic in scope. Throughout it all, there are threads of sinister, almost gothic undertones. The characters are multi-dimensional and complex. Claire's stubbornness, entrenched sadness, and regret resonate through her interactions with others. The brief snatches where Claire (and the reader) see through the veil of caring to Minna's core are alarming. And the tension spirals ever tighter as the novel progresses. In the end, this is a masterful, deeply symbolic story of loss and connection and belonging.
Book Title: "The Forgetting Tree”Author: Tatjana SoliPublished By: St. Martin’s PressAge Recommended: 18+Reviewed By: Kitty BullardRaven Rating: 5Review: This is a superbly mesmerizing story of a ranch family in California, their troubles and toils, life and loves. The book takes you on a provocative journey into their lives and leaves you changed forever. I found this novel to have depth and sincerity the kind of story you’ll never forget. Tatjana Soli is a wonderful writer that weaves an untimely tapestry with her words, you do not want to miss out on this one! Be sure to pick up her other novel, “The Lotus Eaters” as well!
This was another book I had trouble with. Well written, and I really came to care about the main character, Claire. The book opens with the disappearance of her young son, who is eventually found dead. Claire struggles with this reality all her life. Later, she suffers from cancer and hires a strange woman to live with her during her treatment (her marriage fell apart, her husband is remarried, and her daughters have their own lives.) It is hard for Claire, and for the reader, to decide if the strange woman is "legit," but I think the reader figures it out before Claire. Claire is just so damaged, she doesn't know who to trust. Things are wrapped up a little too neatly (well, maybe not so neat, but quickly) for me near the end, but overall this is a good book.
This is really more like two books- one about a family dealing with the loss of a child, the other examining the close but destructive relationship between an ill woman and her caregiver. When a teenager dies in a crime gone awry, his mother, Claire, struggles to put her life back together. The family's citrus farm becomes the project into which Claire funnels her grief and energies. When she is diagnosed with cancer Claire reuses to leave her ranch for treatment. The rest of the family is reluctant, but Claire agrees to hire a caregiver. She winds up with the mysterious and elegant Minna. Claire and Minna form a desperately close but damaging relationship. This is an elegant complicated book, about a relationship between two troubled women. The writing is rich and the characters are complex. My favorite part of the book was when I finally got to Minna's story. I was less interested in the breast cancer part of the book. I guess I'm getting a bit weary of breast cancer books. They're rare original but always depressing. Thankfully this book had enough other elements to add originality. The descriptions of the ranch are beautiful, and I was captivated.
Tatjana Soli has written another compelling novel (her first was Lotus Eaters) this time set in a California fruit ranch. In it, she says alot about home; our helplessness when tragedy enters our lives; the rootedness we cling to; our need for escape from reality. So many things that deserve a great reading group discussion. I was very impressed with Lotus Eaters. (It made a wonderful book for discussion.) And I was fascinated by The Forgetting Tree.
Very complex story. Claire marries a citrus rancher and has three children. Her youngest, and only son, is kidnapped and killed and her marriage falls apart. Her relationship with her daughters is distant and becomes even more so when Caribbean born Minna comes to take care of her because she develops metastatic breast cancer. Minna practices voodoo, steals, controls, but also helps to free Claire and help give her strength to fight the cancer. Well developed characters--holds my interest, although it took a bit to get into it.
Tatjana Soli doesn’t disappoint in her second book. I loved her debut novel THE LOTUS EATERS. The death of a son, leaves Claire bereft. As her marriage fall apart and her daughters leave, she decides to stay on the California citrus ranch and run it with the support of their longtime ranch manager Octavio Mejia. Cancer and a mastectomy force her to look for a caregiver. Meena, a girl from a Caribbean Island becomes her caregiver and friend. If nothing else, made this book compelling is how I struggled along with Claire’s friends and family with Claire’s gradual total dependence on Meena, her acceptance of Meena’s lies. When Meena forces the termination of her longtime friendship with Octavio, I kept saying “Wake up, Claire to how Meena is manipulating you.” Although the ending seems to free Claire from her love of the ranch, I found it disturbing.
Novel takes place on s citrus farm in California. Claire is a relateable characte who suffers greatly when her son is kidnapped and murdered. Storyis written with such tenderness and great imagery. However when Claire gets cancer and distances herself from her family, her life falls apart. She hires ahatian caregiver who we quickly realize is not sho she says she is.But Claire does not get it and this change in her is hard to swallow in the story and from then on, losses credability with me. Still at interesting read but starts to get too long and then suddenly ends get tidied up and book is over.
The book is lyrical, mystical, yet was to me very difficult to read. In fact, I put the book aside and read about three more before I made myself return and finish. The story centers around Claire, a wife, mother and hard-working farmer in a citrus and avocado farm in California. When her children are grown and gone, and her husband settled with a second wife, she develops cancer. While not really a story focused on her cancer, The Forgetting Tree watches her life develop or degrade during her cancer journey.Because neither of her daughters are willing or easily can provide the daily care and support Claire needs due to her cancer, the younger, flighty daughter produces a young Caribbean woman to provide live-in care. Despite the fact that she has found this person recently fired from a coffee shop, and despite the lack of references, the family lets Claire take Minna into her home and with supervision only from the sick woman, leaves the two of them largely alone. For this reader, this crucial event stretched the imagination.Minna begins as an ideal caregiver, loving, supportive, doing everything Claire might need - and Claire falls a bit in love with the mysteries of Minna. However, with time Minna becomes less grateful and more resentful of the bounty available through Claire and become flightly, unreliable, and perhaps even dangerous. The deft hand of Soli makes us feel we know Claire intimately, but through three-quarters of the book we only see Minna through Claire's eyes, Claire's eyes of chemo fog and perhaps more. The end of the book tells the story of Minna and we come to understand the roundedness of the story and her Minna's motivations. I loved the setting of the orchard and it's rootstock tree, and the insights into the citrus and avocado cultivation were new to me and interesting. Soli helped me to enjoy all the sensory experiences of the orchard, and that was wonderful.I found the climax of the book to be frustrating and unnecessary. Why was there no intervention? Why did things get to the point they did? But it was well-crafted and dramatic, no doubt.So to me, the book was a mixed bag. I found the key relationship of the story unrealistic and the ongoing actions frustrating. On the other hand, I found Claire and Minna to be fascinating women, and their interactions full of wonder and meaning.Meh.