- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: McClelland & Stewart (Feb 25 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0771046340
- ISBN-13: 978-0771046346
- Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 14.7 x 2.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 363 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#10,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #41 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Authors
- #94 in Books > Home & Garden > Gardening & Horticulture
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"To enter this book is to enter a state of enchantment."
–Alice Munro
“A tour de force that will break your heart and put it back together again.”
–Montreal Gazette
“[A] brave and beautifully written account… The sheer richness and beauty of the language is one of the great pleasures to be found in this book.”
–Edmonton Journal
“Exquisite but terrifying.…There are passages in these chapters to savour like strains of Mozart.”
–Ottawa Citizen
“Lane’s capacity for observing the details of nature on both grand and tiny scales is remarkable, and his highly sensuous descriptions often transport us into haunting regions of imagination.”
–Globe and Mail
“There are many surprises in this book, but the biggest one is that Lane is a nature writer on a level with Annie Dillard, Getel Ehrlich, and Barry Lopez … Lane’s writing is brilliant … This book is going to win many big prizes, and it will reward readers all the way through.”
–Winnipeg Free Press
“His lyric, seemingly effortless observations of living things drenched in light and water are mesmerizing. But like the hidden vodka bottles that surface in his garden like stones in a field, potent memories rupture the serene present.”
–Quill & Quire, starred review
“Patrick Lane is a naturalist, a poet, a fearless man and an honest writer. But this memoir is more than the hard summing up of a life spent half in hell. Lane has gone to his garden and fashioned a field guide to the human heart.”
–Joe Fiorito, author of The Closer We Are to Dying
“Patrick Lane has written one of the finest memoirs ever published in this country – and I suspect in any other.”
–David Adams Richard
Patrick Lane's There Is A Season is the best book I have read in a decade. Lane's profound meditations on gardens and his own hard life are wise and deeply moving. Here is a classic memoir, wrought in prose as beautiful as the natural world that is his obsession and salvation.
–Guy Vanderhaeghe
“There Is a Season is a masterpiece.”
–Maclean’s
“An achingly beautiful journey. . . . A pure gift to the reader.”
–Frances Itani, in the Washington Post
–Alice Munro
“A tour de force that will break your heart and put it back together again.”
–Montreal Gazette
“[A] brave and beautifully written account… The sheer richness and beauty of the language is one of the great pleasures to be found in this book.”
–Edmonton Journal
“Exquisite but terrifying.…There are passages in these chapters to savour like strains of Mozart.”
–Ottawa Citizen
“Lane’s capacity for observing the details of nature on both grand and tiny scales is remarkable, and his highly sensuous descriptions often transport us into haunting regions of imagination.”
–Globe and Mail
“There are many surprises in this book, but the biggest one is that Lane is a nature writer on a level with Annie Dillard, Getel Ehrlich, and Barry Lopez … Lane’s writing is brilliant … This book is going to win many big prizes, and it will reward readers all the way through.”
–Winnipeg Free Press
“His lyric, seemingly effortless observations of living things drenched in light and water are mesmerizing. But like the hidden vodka bottles that surface in his garden like stones in a field, potent memories rupture the serene present.”
–Quill & Quire, starred review
“Patrick Lane is a naturalist, a poet, a fearless man and an honest writer. But this memoir is more than the hard summing up of a life spent half in hell. Lane has gone to his garden and fashioned a field guide to the human heart.”
–Joe Fiorito, author of The Closer We Are to Dying
“Patrick Lane has written one of the finest memoirs ever published in this country – and I suspect in any other.”
–David Adams Richard
Patrick Lane's There Is A Season is the best book I have read in a decade. Lane's profound meditations on gardens and his own hard life are wise and deeply moving. Here is a classic memoir, wrought in prose as beautiful as the natural world that is his obsession and salvation.
–Guy Vanderhaeghe
“There Is a Season is a masterpiece.”
–Maclean’s
“An achingly beautiful journey. . . . A pure gift to the reader.”
–Frances Itani, in the Washington Post
Book Description
Believed by many to be one of the finest poets of his generation, Patrick Lane is also a passionate gardener. He lives on Vancouver Island, a place of uncommon beauty, where the climate is mild, the air is soft, and the growing season lasts nearly all year long.
Lane has gardened for as long as he can remember, and sees his garden’s life as intertwined with his own. And when he gave up drinking, after years of addiction, he found solace and healing in tending to his yard. In this exquisitely written memoir, he relates stories of his hard early life in the context of the landscape he’s created. As he observes the seasonal changes, a plant or a bird or the way a tree bends in the wind brings to mind an episode from his storied past.
Lane writes evocative descriptions of the animals, birds, insects, and plants that are his garden, and of the relationship he has to them all. Accompany Lane as he wanders his garden, where botanical “madeleines” release in him a flood of memory.
From the Hardcover edition.
Lane has gardened for as long as he can remember, and sees his garden’s life as intertwined with his own. And when he gave up drinking, after years of addiction, he found solace and healing in tending to his yard. In this exquisitely written memoir, he relates stories of his hard early life in the context of the landscape he’s created. As he observes the seasonal changes, a plant or a bird or the way a tree bends in the wind brings to mind an episode from his storied past.
Lane writes evocative descriptions of the animals, birds, insects, and plants that are his garden, and of the relationship he has to them all. Accompany Lane as he wanders his garden, where botanical “madeleines” release in him a flood of memory.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Solace of a Garden,
By Ian Gordon Malcomson (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: There Is A Season: A Memoir (Paperback)
This autobiography is one of those very gripping tales about personal hardship, suffering, and recovery which has the power to draw the reader in as an unwitting partner in the author's torturous journey through life. Read this great book only if you are prepared to re-examine some of the shortcomings in your own life as you join up with Lane in his travels. As a consummate adventurer, novelist and poet, Lane very colorfully and creatively describes the ups and downs of his life in his struggles to break the bonds of alcoholism, stemming from a terrible upbringing. Throw in for good measure an abusive father, a weak-willed mother and a few other misfortunes along the way and you might have with Lane a story of misery but for the fact that author provides a very ameliorating touch in its telling. He describes the acquisition of a very special garden where he personally put to rest the demons of his past as he melded with the wonders of nature. Always a lover of flowers and plants, Lane turned in later life to developing a special refuge where he could go to relate to relative peace and quiet of the natural world. Out there in a coastal setting of south-west Vancouver Island, Lane finally found his bearings after wandering the face of the earth for years in search of answers for all his pent-up hurts. In the book, he returns every so often to this pristine wilderness to reclaim and renew his peace with nature as a way of alleviating the pain of abuse and neglect. From Lane's description of the various flora and fauna found in his secluded garden, the reader is taught the importance of finding that space that affords both forgetfulness and forgiveness. Lane has made it his life desire to know his plants and animals by name in an effort to form a companionship of mutual respect where all and sundry live in the here and now. This does not mean that such a retreat offers a permanent solution for dealing with the hauntings of the past, but at least they can be sidelined for a time while the soul is refreshened and restored for the next go around with the past.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews) 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
brilliant... haunting,
By L. Irwin - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: There Is A Season: A Memoir (Paperback)
A previous reviewer writes that this is a "man's book." I have absolutely no idea what this means and really don't think that it does the book justice. The book, if anything, is work of pure poetry. It is a book of love, love for life and for beauty. If is a book of memory and of tragedy and of hope. If there is any book I recommend for both men and women, it is this book!
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is a Real Man's Book,
By George Longden - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: There Is A Season: A Memoir (Paperback)
“There is a Season” is most definitely a Man’s book. It is an autobiography that is written with such a gut-wrenching honesty, it will provide catharsis for all who read it. The book follows the author through a year in the life of his garden, and through flashbacks we learn of his battles with alcohol and drug abuse, along with the inevitable demons that haunt us all. If you read no other work by Patrick Lane, read this one – twice.
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