According to the blurb, “The story of [where’s the ‘the’?] clandestine love of Julien’s mother breaks through Violette’s carefully constructed defences to reveal the tragic loss of her daughter, and her steely determination to find out the truth.”
No. Julien’s arrival quickens the pace of the revelations but Violette didn’t quite live behind “carefully constructed defences” nor shy away from the truth. Through these revelations, we know that she conducted her own investigations before she even meets Julien.
One reviewer says, “An intriguing mystery about a long-disappeared husband and a lost child…”
No, too. Intriguing yes, but the story is not largely about Philippe’s disappearance. It is about Violette and the main mystery is about how/why Leonine and her friends died in the fire. Also, do you call a dead girl a “lost child”?
The blurb tells us, “Her daily life [as “caretaker at a cemetery”] is lived to the rhythms of the hilarious and touching confidences of random visitors and her colleagues… story of a woman who believes obstinately in happiness.” In addition, a review says, “A funny and moving story of one woman’s belief that everything will turn out right.”
Aiyoh, how inaccurate. This is not a humorous story. There are funny bits here and there (it’s bits), and lots of wit, but overall, it is a sad tale. I do not see Violette showing she “believes obstinately in happiness” or that she believes “everything will turn out right”. Rather, she slumps into deep holes but she finds her way with the support of her fantastic friends, admirably picking herself up each time. I would say, then, that this is a story of a woman who learns that there is happiness in this world and surfaces from a life of profound sadness, thankful for each fresh start she gets.
Do the people who write blurbs and reviews get paid handsomely, I wonder. Feels like they didn’t read the whole book.
Violette is a very likable heroine. Lacking and yearning for belonging, love and the chance to love, she finds these in motherhood, only to have Leonine tragically taken away from her. She is also a very inspiring character, always trying to stay afloat, to learn, to make something of her life. Hence, she rises above her poor start as an unwanted child, her poor choice of husband, the pain of her child’s death, and fashions a meaningful life among the flowers, colleagues, visitors and tombs of the cemetery.
Philippe, on the other hand, has an advantageous start growing up in a well-to-do family but ends up confused and damaged due to poor parenting and so, makes terrible decisions. We realise late in the book that Violette and Philippe are both very good-looking. Leonine would have been a beautiful child. If only Philippe had matured a little at the right time… One of the saddest parts for me was when he realises that he loves Violette but it is too late to mend their lives.
Finally, there are all those pithy, sad, uplifting, meaningful lines at the start of each chapter. I’m not sure if they are quotations from somewhere or Perrin crafted them (excerpts of Violette’s notes from funerals, maybe?). I don’t have any favourites; I liked them all and here are some examples.
!
If life is but a passage, let us at least scatter flowers on that passage.
!
Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
[Of course this is Mu-yeon (Kim Jae-young) of 100 Days!
“I once told you that I never wish to be reborn.
That was a lie. I will find you.
Whether I am born as a flower or as a tree in my next life,
I will become the wind and find you,
no matter where you are.”]
!
Jesu, joy of man’s desiring.
May the inventor of birds make a hero of me.
!
From where I am, I smile, because my life was good and, above all, I loved.
I read this book because I saw it mentioned here.
Fresh Water for Flowers
by Valerie Perrin
translated from French by Hildegarde Serle
(Europa, 2022)
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