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The Forgetting Tree
From The New York Times bestselling author of The Lotus Eaters, a novel of a California ranching family, its complicated matriarch and an 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 enigmatic 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.
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 enigmatic 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.
404 pages, Hardcover
First published September 4, 2012
4 people are currently reading
309 people want to read
About the author
Tatjana Soli
7 books326 followersTatjana Soli is an American novelist and short-story writer. Her first novel, The Lotus Eaters (2010), won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Book Prize, was a New York Times Bestseller, and a New York Times 2010 Notable Book. Her second novel, The Forgetting Tree (2012) was a New York Times Notable Book. Soli's third novel, The Last Good Paradise, was among The Millions "Most Anticipated" Books of 2015. Her fourth novel was published by Sarah Crichton Books in June 2018 and has been chosen as a New York Times Editors' Choice. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications including The New York Times Book Review.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 345 reviews
December 31, 2014
I'd rate this book about a 3.5. (a little less than a 4)....
However, 'until' I got to PART 3 of this book ---I was 'sure' my rating would be a 5. My rating goes down at the start of PART 3 because....
something did not 'feel' right. Too many new characters were introduced (so late in the book: about 10 new characters--which I think is a lot to add towards the last quarter of a book because we just don't have the strong emotional connection to 'any' of them as much as the others). I felt less time could have been written about Minna's ( Maleva's), journey.....and a little more could have been written about claire's ex- husband and two daughters.
However, having finished this book, I think its a GREAT DISCUSSION 'book-club' pick. (much to discuss). The Orchard itself, (talk of the fruit and veggies), the characters, the core story, the mystery, the spiritual 'quirks' --(or were they 'quirks'), healing powers, superstitious?, letting go, forgiveness, 'control'...and the desire to 'protect' others (such as children) ---
And....'The Title of this Book' --- (just what does it mean?) ---GREAT Book club discussion!
My guess is 'many people will love 'many' things about this book (even if --like me ---one gets a little frustrated in 'parts' of the book). At least that means you are 'engaged'! (invested in this story). I know I was!
I did enjoy this story very much -- (but I had physical knots in my belly during PART 3: and 'not' because of the 'heavy' topic which it was). I wanted to know more about Claire ---(more about she and Minna in the 'present') ---know a little more about her ongoing relationship with Gwen, Lucy, and Forster....
not 'detour' from 'Claire' for another 'couple' of chapters. I just think the story of Minna could have been blended better. (yet, I'm not a writer --so I have no idea how this is done).
I have the most respect for Tatjana Soli (I'm a fan, and will read all her books as fast as she writes them). I love many things about her writing --her deep compassion, wisdom, etc. (she makes me think & feel).
I want to quote one of my favorite lines in the book: (for me)....
It was on page 159:
"One always searched for one's own story in a book no matter how exotic it might seem". (this was in the context of when Claire, herself was re-reading the novel Minna gave her) I thought about this 'sentence' for days!!!!!!
and.....from that...
Let me share something 'FUN' and 'PERSONAL' I took away from this book (I won't spoil the plot) ---but once a person reads the entire book ---you'll laugh at this and understand why I might be doing what I am doing. (I was called to 'action')
I took away....
A GAME: (I made a one week promise to myself, to my husband, and to a friend):
My GAME is: EVERY day, I will wear 'something' in my closet that I almost 'never' wear. (those clothes which 'sit'). Those clothes, or special undies, or necklace which I think I must 'save' for some special day .....
I have chosen to 'wear' them NOW. ----'every day' (even if all I want to wear is my same old yoga pants ---heck, all I do is walk the dog, garden, clean, and do house chores) ---but no excuse this coming week --- 'something' 'different' will go on my body every day. I plan to start HAVING a SPECIAL DAY TODAY --and TODAY --and TODAY.... and so on....
The 'game' started 'Sept. 15th (Sat.).
WOW, I had several comments about a top I was wearing Sat. morning. at our book club gathering.
Such as...."GREAT TOP, You going some place 'after' book club? or did you wear that for us"? .... (note: I usually attend in a plain t-shirt and jeans)
My answer as for the 'nice' top: (on the spot fast thinking), "FOR YOU BABY"............(and me)!
I then shared, "I'm reading this great book called "The Forgetting Tree" ....and got inspired to 'clean up my act' (at least for a week)
Congrats to our author!
with love,
elyse
Dec. 31st, 2014.....I still think about the pleasure I got from this book AFTER I read it ---so my rating goes up to a solid 4!!!!
However, 'until' I got to PART 3 of this book ---I was 'sure' my rating would be a 5. My rating goes down at the start of PART 3 because....
something did not 'feel' right. Too many new characters were introduced (so late in the book: about 10 new characters--which I think is a lot to add towards the last quarter of a book because we just don't have the strong emotional connection to 'any' of them as much as the others). I felt less time could have been written about Minna's ( Maleva's), journey.....and a little more could have been written about claire's ex- husband and two daughters.
However, having finished this book, I think its a GREAT DISCUSSION 'book-club' pick. (much to discuss). The Orchard itself, (talk of the fruit and veggies), the characters, the core story, the mystery, the spiritual 'quirks' --(or were they 'quirks'), healing powers, superstitious?, letting go, forgiveness, 'control'...and the desire to 'protect' others (such as children) ---
And....'The Title of this Book' --- (just what does it mean?) ---GREAT Book club discussion!
My guess is 'many people will love 'many' things about this book (even if --like me ---one gets a little frustrated in 'parts' of the book). At least that means you are 'engaged'! (invested in this story). I know I was!
I did enjoy this story very much -- (but I had physical knots in my belly during PART 3: and 'not' because of the 'heavy' topic which it was). I wanted to know more about Claire ---(more about she and Minna in the 'present') ---know a little more about her ongoing relationship with Gwen, Lucy, and Forster....
not 'detour' from 'Claire' for another 'couple' of chapters. I just think the story of Minna could have been blended better. (yet, I'm not a writer --so I have no idea how this is done).
I have the most respect for Tatjana Soli (I'm a fan, and will read all her books as fast as she writes them). I love many things about her writing --her deep compassion, wisdom, etc. (she makes me think & feel).
I want to quote one of my favorite lines in the book: (for me)....
It was on page 159:
"One always searched for one's own story in a book no matter how exotic it might seem". (this was in the context of when Claire, herself was re-reading the novel Minna gave her) I thought about this 'sentence' for days!!!!!!
and.....from that...
Let me share something 'FUN' and 'PERSONAL' I took away from this book (I won't spoil the plot) ---but once a person reads the entire book ---you'll laugh at this and understand why I might be doing what I am doing. (I was called to 'action')
I took away....
A GAME: (I made a one week promise to myself, to my husband, and to a friend):
My GAME is: EVERY day, I will wear 'something' in my closet that I almost 'never' wear. (those clothes which 'sit'). Those clothes, or special undies, or necklace which I think I must 'save' for some special day .....
I have chosen to 'wear' them NOW. ----'every day' (even if all I want to wear is my same old yoga pants ---heck, all I do is walk the dog, garden, clean, and do house chores) ---but no excuse this coming week --- 'something' 'different' will go on my body every day. I plan to start HAVING a SPECIAL DAY TODAY --and TODAY --and TODAY.... and so on....
The 'game' started 'Sept. 15th (Sat.).
WOW, I had several comments about a top I was wearing Sat. morning. at our book club gathering.
Such as...."GREAT TOP, You going some place 'after' book club? or did you wear that for us"? .... (note: I usually attend in a plain t-shirt and jeans)
My answer as for the 'nice' top: (on the spot fast thinking), "FOR YOU BABY"............(and me)!
I then shared, "I'm reading this great book called "The Forgetting Tree" ....and got inspired to 'clean up my act' (at least for a week)
Congrats to our author!
with love,
elyse
Dec. 31st, 2014.....I still think about the pleasure I got from this book AFTER I read it ---so my rating goes up to a solid 4!!!!
July 20, 2012
This complex, mystifying, and terrifying novel begins very simply, with spare prose and a story of tragedy that strikes the family members of a 580-acre citrus ranch--the violent loss of a beloved son and brother.
Claire is a literary intellect from a scholarly family, the daughter of Hungarian immigrants, who falls in love with Forster, the son of German immigrants and a man of the land, a citrus farmer in California. Claire grows to understand the land, and to subsequently love the farm, to feel sewn and hewn to it, especially after the death of their son, Josh. Their daughters, Gwen and Lucy, take different paths, and try to talk their mother into selling the land after the harrowing events that changed their lives forever.
The first part of the book didn't thoroughly draw me in. The tragedy/history was told in a stilted voice that removed me from the emotions and drama of the story at hand. However, once Claire hires an enigmatic and beautiful caregiver, Minna, a Caribbean woman who tells them that she is the great granddaughter of novelist Jean Rhys, both the prose and the plot develop with a stunning complexity, taking on a deeper patina, with a sinister and menacing tug at its center, as well as a profound and intricate force of beautiful narrative expression.
After the prosaic and somewhat sterile first half, the second half demonstrates that Soli's plotting and voice was a stylistic choice--deliberate, measured, finely tuned. The latter 200 pages were exceptionally imaginative, with resinous scenes and psychologically brilliant portrayals and insights. By the end of the story, I was gasping, and my heart was both engorged and impaled by the events, and Soli's writing. By the time I was in section III (out of IV), I knew I was in the hands of a masterful, labyrinthine writer, who combined aspects of gothic, folk, and historical writing into a dramatic and sometimes surreal saga.
How synchronous that I would read two books in a row about the passion and vicissitudes of farming an extensive orchard, the first being THE ORCHARDIST, by Amanda Coplin. Both novels explore themes of reverence and fealty to the land, and both have a middle-aged protagonist who invites an unknowable stranger(s) into his/her life, and grow to love them like daughters, and suffer great torment from the darkness of haunting pasts.
Lyrical and hypnotic, Soli's writing will keep you fastened to the story and characters. The relationship between Minna and Claire is unique and moving--as unforgettable as the "forgetting" lemon tree that is the touchstone of the orchard and the leitmotif of the novel's core paradoxical theme.
"...an unheard of thing happened in the orchard...the leaves on the citrus turned a burnt yellow...clung on for over a month, fresh and pliable and yellowed, then overnight every single one fell to the ground. A gold carpet upon which stood a barren stick forest. The bark turned hard as iron...
"The orchard's shock deeply moved Claire, as if the land itself had turned sentient, mirroring her belief that the only true love is the one tested...the land reached out to her, and she accepted...she'd survived, her son had not."
Claire is a literary intellect from a scholarly family, the daughter of Hungarian immigrants, who falls in love with Forster, the son of German immigrants and a man of the land, a citrus farmer in California. Claire grows to understand the land, and to subsequently love the farm, to feel sewn and hewn to it, especially after the death of their son, Josh. Their daughters, Gwen and Lucy, take different paths, and try to talk their mother into selling the land after the harrowing events that changed their lives forever.
The first part of the book didn't thoroughly draw me in. The tragedy/history was told in a stilted voice that removed me from the emotions and drama of the story at hand. However, once Claire hires an enigmatic and beautiful caregiver, Minna, a Caribbean woman who tells them that she is the great granddaughter of novelist Jean Rhys, both the prose and the plot develop with a stunning complexity, taking on a deeper patina, with a sinister and menacing tug at its center, as well as a profound and intricate force of beautiful narrative expression.
After the prosaic and somewhat sterile first half, the second half demonstrates that Soli's plotting and voice was a stylistic choice--deliberate, measured, finely tuned. The latter 200 pages were exceptionally imaginative, with resinous scenes and psychologically brilliant portrayals and insights. By the end of the story, I was gasping, and my heart was both engorged and impaled by the events, and Soli's writing. By the time I was in section III (out of IV), I knew I was in the hands of a masterful, labyrinthine writer, who combined aspects of gothic, folk, and historical writing into a dramatic and sometimes surreal saga.
How synchronous that I would read two books in a row about the passion and vicissitudes of farming an extensive orchard, the first being THE ORCHARDIST, by Amanda Coplin. Both novels explore themes of reverence and fealty to the land, and both have a middle-aged protagonist who invites an unknowable stranger(s) into his/her life, and grow to love them like daughters, and suffer great torment from the darkness of haunting pasts.
Lyrical and hypnotic, Soli's writing will keep you fastened to the story and characters. The relationship between Minna and Claire is unique and moving--as unforgettable as the "forgetting" lemon tree that is the touchstone of the orchard and the leitmotif of the novel's core paradoxical theme.
"...an unheard of thing happened in the orchard...the leaves on the citrus turned a burnt yellow...clung on for over a month, fresh and pliable and yellowed, then overnight every single one fell to the ground. A gold carpet upon which stood a barren stick forest. The bark turned hard as iron...
"The orchard's shock deeply moved Claire, as if the land itself had turned sentient, mirroring her belief that the only true love is the one tested...the land reached out to her, and she accepted...she'd survived, her son had not."
July 28, 2012
Rating = 2.5 stars
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.
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.
September 29, 2012
Ugh, is easier to open a vein or put your head in an oven. I assume this book will be adapted into a horror movie at some point.
October 9, 2012
I wanted to love The Forgetting Tree, set in California on a ranch, a connection to the environment, home to me. It is beautifully written. But, the character development and plot don’t hold up, there’s a reaching for a philosophical conclusion that just isn’t there. The story shifts about halfway through from a family saga to some kind of odd metaphysical Haitian voodoo theme and the story becomes simply implausible.
One reviewer asked: What kind of still-devoted ex-husband and loving daughters would so easily and totally turn over control of their sick mother to a stranger about whom they had reservations? I had the same reaction. Not believable.
The most implausible character for me was Jean-Alexi, the evil Haitian shaman/con man squatting in the barn. Why the main character didn't call for help the instant she discovered him hiding there simply is not believable. I don’t care if she has cancer and is undergoing chemo. That is simply not an acceptable situation.
And, there were little errors in details that undercut the story's credibility, such as calling eucalyptus trees native to California. They are native to Australia and a scourge to California's native environment, highly flammable and invasive. Meyer lemons are a popular garden tree, a very minor crop not normally grown for the commercial market.
I did like the minor characters of Octavio and Mrs. Garibaldi, but can't understand why they would not have sounded a loud alarm about the evil voodoo going on at the ranch. Anyone could see the disappearance of the furniture, but even her daughter Lucy didn't seem to be concerned about it. Not plausible, not well plotted. Lyrical, yes. Full of narrative possibilities, yes. Maybe a short story in search of a deft editor?
While lovely in a number of aspects, not a particularly good read.
One reviewer asked: What kind of still-devoted ex-husband and loving daughters would so easily and totally turn over control of their sick mother to a stranger about whom they had reservations? I had the same reaction. Not believable.
The most implausible character for me was Jean-Alexi, the evil Haitian shaman/con man squatting in the barn. Why the main character didn't call for help the instant she discovered him hiding there simply is not believable. I don’t care if she has cancer and is undergoing chemo. That is simply not an acceptable situation.
And, there were little errors in details that undercut the story's credibility, such as calling eucalyptus trees native to California. They are native to Australia and a scourge to California's native environment, highly flammable and invasive. Meyer lemons are a popular garden tree, a very minor crop not normally grown for the commercial market.
I did like the minor characters of Octavio and Mrs. Garibaldi, but can't understand why they would not have sounded a loud alarm about the evil voodoo going on at the ranch. Anyone could see the disappearance of the furniture, but even her daughter Lucy didn't seem to be concerned about it. Not plausible, not well plotted. Lyrical, yes. Full of narrative possibilities, yes. Maybe a short story in search of a deft editor?
While lovely in a number of aspects, not a particularly good read.
November 29, 2015
I've had a day to digest what I've read. I am still trying to come to terms with the hijacking that took place in the latter half of the book.I had looked forward to this read.It had languished on my to-read list too long. I started it with high hopes.
The story follows Claire Baunsarg as she marries into a citrus farming family and follows her as she slowly bonds with the land as she raises her children and lives her life. Tragedy strikes and tests her beyond her limit. Her marriage suffers as does her relationship with her daughters. And tragedy strikes again as she is diagnosed with breast cancer.
Knocked down but not out, she falls under the spell of a young woman who she hires to help her as she struggles through chemo and radiation. The young woman soon has Claire under her control, feeding Claire's need for someone to lean on and care for her.And this is where the story line is hijacked.
All of a sudden we are knee deep in learning what makes this selfish controlling creature tick. All the while, I kept wondering how Claire's family allows the complete ruination of the family legacy and income. And wondering why the author allows this family of women to so totally abandon one another.
By the last quarter of the story, the plot had devolved into such a depressing mess, I truly struggled to finish it. But I slogged through to a completely unbelievable denouement. My expectations were so much higher for this story. It left me sad.
The story follows Claire Baunsarg as she marries into a citrus farming family and follows her as she slowly bonds with the land as she raises her children and lives her life. Tragedy strikes and tests her beyond her limit. Her marriage suffers as does her relationship with her daughters. And tragedy strikes again as she is diagnosed with breast cancer.
Knocked down but not out, she falls under the spell of a young woman who she hires to help her as she struggles through chemo and radiation. The young woman soon has Claire under her control, feeding Claire's need for someone to lean on and care for her.And this is where the story line is hijacked.
All of a sudden we are knee deep in learning what makes this selfish controlling creature tick. All the while, I kept wondering how Claire's family allows the complete ruination of the family legacy and income. And wondering why the author allows this family of women to so totally abandon one another.
By the last quarter of the story, the plot had devolved into such a depressing mess, I truly struggled to finish it. But I slogged through to a completely unbelievable denouement. My expectations were so much higher for this story. It left me sad.
September 26, 2012
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. I think there are people out there who will love this book, I'm just not one of them.
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. I think there are people out there who will love this book, I'm just not one of them.
October 17, 2012
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.
February 12, 2013
The Forgetting Tree is one of those novels that I almost gave up reading, but continued in hopes that I would like it more, or that it would get better, or that I would appreciate the critics' positive reviews. That, however, didn't really happen. When I first started reading Tree, I was annoyed by Soli's writing style--I found the sentences to be short, choppy, incomplete and distracting. I did not feel that I was inside the head of the protagonist and privy to her thoughts, I just felt that the writing was awkward. I did find that this either changed halfway through the book, or I became so used to it that it was less noticeable. I also did not really like the protagonist, Claire, because I thought that she was selfish, delusional and the kind of mother that I do not want to be--her desire to "protect" her daughters from her sickness or other things was not noble, it was ridiculous and condescending. When another character, Minna, comes into the picture, I was interested in her only in the smallest degree, but annoyed also that no one raised any red flags and just left an older, sick woman (Claire) in her care, unsupervised. I'm thinking that maybe I thought that the whole situation seemed so unrealistic, far-fetched, that I just couldn't get into it.
September 6, 2012
This is a novel of love for the land and loss of a child. I found the parts about citrus farming to be fascinating. The parts of the story at the beginning when it involved Claire and her marriage to Forster and their life as Claire adjusted to being a farmer's wife and then her falling in love with the farm were truly readable and I fell in the love with the farm too. The passages written after the loss of their son were heartbreaking. Ms. Soli knows how to set a mood with her words and she can really do somber. But as Claire entered life on her own and Minna entered I lost all interest in the book and lost all understanding of what was going on.
I got totally confused. I didn't understand this Claire. I didn't understand anything. I found I didn't even care any longer and had to force myself to finish the book. The way Claire acted with this woman in her life made no sense to me and I therefore lost all respect for the character and therefore the book. I realize from looking at other reviews that I am alone in these feelings but this is my review and therefore my thoughts. I found the last third of the book to be completely unreadable.
I got totally confused. I didn't understand this Claire. I didn't understand anything. I found I didn't even care any longer and had to force myself to finish the book. The way Claire acted with this woman in her life made no sense to me and I therefore lost all respect for the character and therefore the book. I realize from looking at other reviews that I am alone in these feelings but this is my review and therefore my thoughts. I found the last third of the book to be completely unreadable.
March 5, 2012
Since it appears that I am the first to review this book, I feel a heavy burden on my shoulders! It’s a good thing I have nothing but positive to say!:)
First, I’d like to describe the book for you in Tatjana Soli’s words (based off of a Q&A in a GR’s forum) since there is no blurb on the GR book page yet:
” It's a very different book than The Lotus Eaters, but many of the same themes run through it.
It's about a woman who is running a large citrus farm in contemporary Southern California. I have some photos and a few teaser lines from the book here on my website [now an excerpt]:
http://www.tatjanasoli.com/Future_Pro...
...
I like to joke that it's about two dangerous women, oranges, and a little voudou thrown in. Seriously the new book deals with power/powerlessness, racism, dislocation — many of the same issues that were in Lotus Eaters.”
For me, Soli’s debut book, The Lotus Eaters, was an incredible eyeopener. I felt such a strong emotional connection to the novel and its inhabitants. I don’t remember the last time a book made me feel that way before. Rather than copying and pasting my entire review, I suggest you take a glance here:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Nevertheless, my devotion to The Lotus Eaters had me eager to pick up anything else Soli could gift us (because her writing truly is a gift.)
The Forgetting Tree is a novel about tragedy in all its forms. The book is divided into four parts, each of which is a novel is its own right. Going into this novel with no idea what it was about, I read through Part 1 and completed it thinking, “THIS. THIS is the tragedy that will define the rest of the book.” But throughout the book, we begin to understand how tragedy affects those it touches in a variety of ways. There are those who dwell on it, those who ignore it, and those who hide it. It is how one learns to LIVE with tragedy that defines how we are able to cope and survive as a person. As I read, I understood more and more how tragedy can define a person and how... well how it cannot.
What I love most about Soli’s writing is her ability to create characters. Every character in a Soli novel (if having read her only two books allow me to generalize :) ) is incredibly complex. She really knows how to create a beautiful in-depth look into the human soul. Both books had a strong female lead character, narrated in the third person, through which the reader connects SO strongly that, personally, I felt like I was in her shoes. I understand her thoughts, felt her pain, understood her mistakes, her faults, and journeyed through her story as if it was my own. This is a story about life and the cards it deals you – and how you decide to play them.
I don’t want to spoil anything about the book so I hope you forgive my obvious omission regarding the story’s plotline. Hopefully, I’ve made it clear how much this novel (actually - both of her works) are worth your time. However, I’m happy to discuss the novel once everyone else gets a chance to read it!
First, I’d like to describe the book for you in Tatjana Soli’s words (based off of a Q&A in a GR’s forum) since there is no blurb on the GR book page yet:
” It's a very different book than The Lotus Eaters, but many of the same themes run through it.
It's about a woman who is running a large citrus farm in contemporary Southern California. I have some photos and a few teaser lines from the book here on my website [now an excerpt]:
http://www.tatjanasoli.com/Future_Pro...
...
I like to joke that it's about two dangerous women, oranges, and a little voudou thrown in. Seriously the new book deals with power/powerlessness, racism, dislocation — many of the same issues that were in Lotus Eaters.”
For me, Soli’s debut book, The Lotus Eaters, was an incredible eyeopener. I felt such a strong emotional connection to the novel and its inhabitants. I don’t remember the last time a book made me feel that way before. Rather than copying and pasting my entire review, I suggest you take a glance here:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Nevertheless, my devotion to The Lotus Eaters had me eager to pick up anything else Soli could gift us (because her writing truly is a gift.)
The Forgetting Tree is a novel about tragedy in all its forms. The book is divided into four parts, each of which is a novel is its own right. Going into this novel with no idea what it was about, I read through Part 1 and completed it thinking, “THIS. THIS is the tragedy that will define the rest of the book.” But throughout the book, we begin to understand how tragedy affects those it touches in a variety of ways. There are those who dwell on it, those who ignore it, and those who hide it. It is how one learns to LIVE with tragedy that defines how we are able to cope and survive as a person. As I read, I understood more and more how tragedy can define a person and how... well how it cannot.
What I love most about Soli’s writing is her ability to create characters. Every character in a Soli novel (if having read her only two books allow me to generalize :) ) is incredibly complex. She really knows how to create a beautiful in-depth look into the human soul. Both books had a strong female lead character, narrated in the third person, through which the reader connects SO strongly that, personally, I felt like I was in her shoes. I understand her thoughts, felt her pain, understood her mistakes, her faults, and journeyed through her story as if it was my own. This is a story about life and the cards it deals you – and how you decide to play them.
I don’t want to spoil anything about the book so I hope you forgive my obvious omission regarding the story’s plotline. Hopefully, I’ve made it clear how much this novel (actually - both of her works) are worth your time. However, I’m happy to discuss the novel once everyone else gets a chance to read it!
July 22, 2012
In this intensely spellbinding novel, Tatjana Soli delivers an incredibly complex story that – at its core – focuses on two women, one white, one black, who are seeking forgiveness and rejuvenation. It’s a true stunner.
The premise is telegraphed in an opening quote from Marilynne Robinson: “In destitution, even of feeling or purpose, a human being is more hauntingly human and vulnerable to kindness knowing there is a sense that things should be otherwise…”
Claire is a literary woman who marries for love and finds herself enamored of her new husband’s farm – a place of connection and belonging and family. In the very first sentence, we learn that Claire will undergo “a small, domestic evil, as random as lightning, as devastating to those touched by it.” Very early on, we discover that that evil is a mother’s worst nightmare – the death of her only son near the orchard’s lemon tree.
The novel meanders into back story – how Claire ended up at the farm, the difficulty in keeping it – in rather prosaic passages. But hold on tight, because the novel soon begins to gather steam with the introduction of Minna, an exotic and devastatingly beautiful woman who ends up becoming Claire’s caregiver. Minna claims to be the great-granddaughter of the Dominica-born author Jean Rhys, who wrote Wide Sargasso Sea – a a prequel to Charlotte Bronte’s famous Jane Eyre, focusing on the “crazy woman in the attic”, Antoinette (known as Rochester’s first wife, Berta Mason in Jane Eyre).
Wide Sargasso Sea’s many themes – disintegrating relationships, precarious mental states, empty promises, and unwavering belief – are all integrated into The Forgetting Tree. Claire and Mina gradually twin to a point where Claire “could no longer tell the difference between her white and Minna’s black.” To say much more would be to give spoilers, but I found the relationship between these two damaged women to be as engrossing as I’ve read this year.
Can one’s soul grow anew after a tragedy? Is it possible that a “forgetting tree” could provide solace? Or, as Minna’s mother tells her: “The tree is where you leave the bad memory behind so that it doesn’t poison your life.” Can a person realign with the natural world after unspeakable loss? This book – in turns, gothic, mysterious, poignant, and haunting – is not soon to be forgotten.
The premise is telegraphed in an opening quote from Marilynne Robinson: “In destitution, even of feeling or purpose, a human being is more hauntingly human and vulnerable to kindness knowing there is a sense that things should be otherwise…”
Claire is a literary woman who marries for love and finds herself enamored of her new husband’s farm – a place of connection and belonging and family. In the very first sentence, we learn that Claire will undergo “a small, domestic evil, as random as lightning, as devastating to those touched by it.” Very early on, we discover that that evil is a mother’s worst nightmare – the death of her only son near the orchard’s lemon tree.
The novel meanders into back story – how Claire ended up at the farm, the difficulty in keeping it – in rather prosaic passages. But hold on tight, because the novel soon begins to gather steam with the introduction of Minna, an exotic and devastatingly beautiful woman who ends up becoming Claire’s caregiver. Minna claims to be the great-granddaughter of the Dominica-born author Jean Rhys, who wrote Wide Sargasso Sea – a a prequel to Charlotte Bronte’s famous Jane Eyre, focusing on the “crazy woman in the attic”, Antoinette (known as Rochester’s first wife, Berta Mason in Jane Eyre).
Wide Sargasso Sea’s many themes – disintegrating relationships, precarious mental states, empty promises, and unwavering belief – are all integrated into The Forgetting Tree. Claire and Mina gradually twin to a point where Claire “could no longer tell the difference between her white and Minna’s black.” To say much more would be to give spoilers, but I found the relationship between these two damaged women to be as engrossing as I’ve read this year.
Can one’s soul grow anew after a tragedy? Is it possible that a “forgetting tree” could provide solace? Or, as Minna’s mother tells her: “The tree is where you leave the bad memory behind so that it doesn’t poison your life.” Can a person realign with the natural world after unspeakable loss? This book – in turns, gothic, mysterious, poignant, and haunting – is not soon to be forgotten.
December 5, 2015
This book started out strong, but lost all semblance of being coherent by about Chapter 6. I gave up, read the last 10 pages to see if I was wrong about where this was going (and I wasn't), and called it quits. This book is a prime example of a potboiler, as far as I'm concerned. (here's the definition of potboiler if you are not familiar with the phrase - from the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language - A literary or artistic work of poor quality, produced quickly for profit.)
December 9, 2019
4.5 rounding up because it really pulled me in. As a native Californian I really enjoyed the heart and soul of the farm, gorgeous writing, on the flip side she wrote the horrific parts to well too! All of her books have been excellent reads for me.
January 30, 2015
I debated on giving this one a three or a two, but in the end it's a one star book.
tl;dr; Review: Badly plotted. Racial stereotyping (according to me). Not recommended.
tl;dr; Review: Badly plotted. Racial stereotyping (according to me). Not recommended.
September 6, 2012
The Forgetting Tree by Tatjana Soli isn't my normal reading fare - tragedy, death of a child, cancer - I mean, UGH, how joyless. These subjects have the makings of a book I usually wouldn't even consider reading. But something made me take a second look. Perhaps it was the setting - a California citrus farm - coupled with the fact that I'd meant to read Soli's other novel - The Lotus Eaters - for quite a while. Whatever the case, I'm happy I had the opportunity to read this strange, melancholy tale.
The story opens with the events surrounding the death of Claire's eleven-year-old son, juxtaposed against her birthday party only the day before, during which everything in her family's life seemed to be falling into place, finally. Such contentment never lasting long, the family is shattered after Josh's senseless killing, and Claire's marriage ultimately cannot weather the grief, though they'll always remain connected by the pain they shared:
The Forgetting Tree is an imaginative and unique take on the reconstructing of ourselves that must occur after tragedy, belated or not. Claire's blind acceptance of Minna's obvious nonsense could become irritating at times, but irritating the way a parent's insistence on giving his or her child a 173rd chance is irritating. But both Claire and Minna manage to rebuild themselves inside-out as they only could in the presence of an outsider, a compassionate stranger.
*I read this book courtesy of TLC Book Tours and St. Martin's Press.
The story opens with the events surrounding the death of Claire's eleven-year-old son, juxtaposed against her birthday party only the day before, during which everything in her family's life seemed to be falling into place, finally. Such contentment never lasting long, the family is shattered after Josh's senseless killing, and Claire's marriage ultimately cannot weather the grief, though they'll always remain connected by the pain they shared:
How to explain that after twenty or more years, a marriage, if it had ever been real, could no longer by sundered by a piece of paper. In two decades--the same time it took to raise a human being--a marriage became its own entity. Life intervened, yes, a decision was made that life together was too painful, but the marriage itself lived on, a kind of radiological half-life.We rejoin the family many years later, just as Claire is diagnosed with breast cancer, and her family has moved on, moved away, only Claire remains doggedly attached to the citrus farm. Neither of her daughters is willing to move back to the ranch to care for Claire, nor is Claire willing to leave the ranch. And so a caretaker must be hired. Enter: Minna, a gorgeous, mysterious force from the Caribbean, a spinner of fanciful tales that all seem willfully to believe against their better judgment. After all the family had been through, Claire preferred the comfort of a stranger:
It was impossible to be in [her family's] presence--the undertow of the past was too strong, a constant replaying of some infatuation, some slight. Only with strangers, new acquaintances, could one gage who one was in the present, try on whom one might become.Minna proves to be both lovable and despicable, showing great warmth and insight mixed with manipulative spitefulness. Only later do we get Minna's backstory, which, though certainly horrific, only partially explains her less noble behaviors and her attachment to the mystery man on other end of her late-night phone calls.
The Forgetting Tree is an imaginative and unique take on the reconstructing of ourselves that must occur after tragedy, belated or not. Claire's blind acceptance of Minna's obvious nonsense could become irritating at times, but irritating the way a parent's insistence on giving his or her child a 173rd chance is irritating. But both Claire and Minna manage to rebuild themselves inside-out as they only could in the presence of an outsider, a compassionate stranger.
*I read this book courtesy of TLC Book Tours and St. Martin's Press.
January 18, 2016
Strange book. I'm not really sure what to say about it. I thought the writing was really good (unlike other reviewers, who said that the writing was "choppy, with too many commas"). I didn't see that myself and I happen to like commas... but the characters themselves, YUCK.
You know from the beginning of the book that the family endures an unspeakable tragedy, the loss of the youngest child. All that occurs in the first quarter of the book, then we jump ahead about 20 years. As the mother, Claire, undergoes cancer treatments we learn a little about what happened in the ensuing years-- the girls grow up to be people that Claire doesn't seem to like much, Claire and her husband get divorced and he remarries, and Claire continues to work the ranch until she gets sick.
At this point Mina appears, hired to be Claire's caregiver, and they seem to drift through the house and the ranch for way too many pages, eating, not eating, cleaning, not cleaning, reading, sleeping, not sleeping, seeing ghosts, dabbling in voodoo, yada yada yada. This section of the book is incredibly dull, along the lines of watching paint dry. Claire begins to believe that everything in her life has been pretense, i.e. all the time that she devoted to working the farm, raising her family, etc. was all "pretend." She "pretended and smiled, smiled and pretended." In other words, the only thing real were her thoughts, that she denied her real self for all those years, and now she is being stripped down to her elemental core, or something like what.
What hogwash! At this point, Claire moved from being annoying to being insufferable. It's hard to read 400 pages when the main character is someone that you dislike so intensely. I understood why Forster left her; the only question was, why it took so long. I wanted to shake her and tell her to grown up. Cancer doesn't give one the right to act like a twit. (And to forestall any argument that I don't know how I'd act, actually, yes, I DO know and it wasn't like this self-absorbed narcissist. I liked my life and I wanted it back.)
The last quarter of the book, we finally learn Mina's story. This was clearly the strongest part of the book. If Mina had been the main character, I think it would have been a stronger book. Although I didn't actually like her, you could understand her motivation, which could not be said for Claire.
The other thing about the book is that you have to accept the idea that Claire's children and ex-husband, who still owned the ranch with her, would allow her to be completely isolated in the farm with Mina and not do anything about it until it was too late. It's hard to believe that the children, especially the oldest daughter who was a lawyer, wouldn't have figured out that something was wrong when they hadn't seen or spoken to their mother in months, while she was going through cancer treatments.
You know from the beginning of the book that the family endures an unspeakable tragedy, the loss of the youngest child. All that occurs in the first quarter of the book, then we jump ahead about 20 years. As the mother, Claire, undergoes cancer treatments we learn a little about what happened in the ensuing years-- the girls grow up to be people that Claire doesn't seem to like much, Claire and her husband get divorced and he remarries, and Claire continues to work the ranch until she gets sick.
At this point Mina appears, hired to be Claire's caregiver, and they seem to drift through the house and the ranch for way too many pages, eating, not eating, cleaning, not cleaning, reading, sleeping, not sleeping, seeing ghosts, dabbling in voodoo, yada yada yada. This section of the book is incredibly dull, along the lines of watching paint dry. Claire begins to believe that everything in her life has been pretense, i.e. all the time that she devoted to working the farm, raising her family, etc. was all "pretend." She "pretended and smiled, smiled and pretended." In other words, the only thing real were her thoughts, that she denied her real self for all those years, and now she is being stripped down to her elemental core, or something like what.
What hogwash! At this point, Claire moved from being annoying to being insufferable. It's hard to read 400 pages when the main character is someone that you dislike so intensely. I understood why Forster left her; the only question was, why it took so long. I wanted to shake her and tell her to grown up. Cancer doesn't give one the right to act like a twit. (And to forestall any argument that I don't know how I'd act, actually, yes, I DO know and it wasn't like this self-absorbed narcissist. I liked my life and I wanted it back.)
The last quarter of the book, we finally learn Mina's story. This was clearly the strongest part of the book. If Mina had been the main character, I think it would have been a stronger book. Although I didn't actually like her, you could understand her motivation, which could not be said for Claire.
The other thing about the book is that you have to accept the idea that Claire's children and ex-husband, who still owned the ranch with her, would allow her to be completely isolated in the farm with Mina and not do anything about it until it was too late. It's hard to believe that the children, especially the oldest daughter who was a lawyer, wouldn't have figured out that something was wrong when they hadn't seen or spoken to their mother in months, while she was going through cancer treatments.
February 1, 2016
This book had so much promise. I fell in love with the beginning of the book, and then it all fell flat. And then, it got weird. This was truly more like two separate books, and oh how I wish the author had abandoned the second to continue the first. I kept trudging through, waiting for the beauty and promise of the beginning of the book to come shining through, but sadly, it never did. It morphed from what could (and should) have been a beautiful family saga, to a weird, science-fiction-esque tale of what was essentially elder abuse. Very strange, and most disappointing. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.
August 18, 2021
3.5 in actuality ...
The writing is beautiful, the characters complex and the plot keeps you wanting to turn the page as you become invested in finding out more about Minna and Claire. The story becomes so much better about one-third of the way through. I would have given this 4 stars, but I found the opening chapters did match with the remainder of the book. I am glad I pushed on in reading this.
This is my first time reading a book by Tatjana Soli. I am not sure how I have not discovered her before now, but I am going to follow up by reading The Lotus Eaters as soon as my TBR pile diminishes a bit.
The writing is beautiful, the characters complex and the plot keeps you wanting to turn the page as you become invested in finding out more about Minna and Claire. The story becomes so much better about one-third of the way through. I would have given this 4 stars, but I found the opening chapters did match with the remainder of the book. I am glad I pushed on in reading this.
This is my first time reading a book by Tatjana Soli. I am not sure how I have not discovered her before now, but I am going to follow up by reading The Lotus Eaters as soon as my TBR pile diminishes a bit.
September 7, 2012
Claire is the matriarch of a citrus ranch in southern California. She is the daughter of Hungarian immigrants who fled Hungary during the second World War. Claire married into the German Baumsarg family, who owned the ranch for 3 generations, and bore three children with her husband Forster. The orchard becomes all encompassing for Claire as she takes it upon herself to make it succeed. Just as she is about to pay off all of their debt, something unforeseen happens to rock the foundation of their lives. Their beloved son dies.
Claire is torn between her extreme grief and the struggle to keep her family and orchard intact. Her marriage fails and everyone escapes the ranch but Claire. Now as she fights the battle of her life against breast cancer, her family is trying to get her to sell.
In her illness, Claire refuses to the leave the ranch and hires a personal assistant named Minna. Minna is the great granddaughter of Jean Rhys (author of Wide Sargasso Sea) Claire and Minna are drawn to one another but are polar opposites, dark and light, young and old, healthy and sick. The majority of The Forgetting Tree focuses on the relationship of Claire and Minna. What you see is not necessarily what you understand and Soli capitalizes on this.
So much of The Forgetting Tree is immersed in the senses. Soli captures the sense of place with mesmerizing detail. The orchard fruit of oranges, lemons, and avocados is a enticing backdrop with food being the staple of our lives. I could literally taste and smell the oranges from Soli's description and wanted to bite into one. The descriptions of lemons made my mouth water.
The Forgetting Tree is a family saga that questions the meaning of home and finding one's place of belonging in the world. It is complex novel with vivid characters that Soli paints with dark colors, dripping with stymied emotion. Tragedy holds many characters back from truly living.
The Forgetting Tree would make a great book for people in a book club where it can be discussed and treasured for it's complexity. Pair it with Jane Eyre or Wide Sargasso Sea. While I was reading I thought of multiple women in my life who would enjoy this book and relate to the main character. Claire is a version of every woman.
Experience The Forgetting Tree, "a place where you leave your bad memories behind so they don't poison your life". (pg 296) "Listen to my words. My words are all you will have someday."
Claire is torn between her extreme grief and the struggle to keep her family and orchard intact. Her marriage fails and everyone escapes the ranch but Claire. Now as she fights the battle of her life against breast cancer, her family is trying to get her to sell.
In her illness, Claire refuses to the leave the ranch and hires a personal assistant named Minna. Minna is the great granddaughter of Jean Rhys (author of Wide Sargasso Sea) Claire and Minna are drawn to one another but are polar opposites, dark and light, young and old, healthy and sick. The majority of The Forgetting Tree focuses on the relationship of Claire and Minna. What you see is not necessarily what you understand and Soli capitalizes on this.
So much of The Forgetting Tree is immersed in the senses. Soli captures the sense of place with mesmerizing detail. The orchard fruit of oranges, lemons, and avocados is a enticing backdrop with food being the staple of our lives. I could literally taste and smell the oranges from Soli's description and wanted to bite into one. The descriptions of lemons made my mouth water.
The Forgetting Tree is a family saga that questions the meaning of home and finding one's place of belonging in the world. It is complex novel with vivid characters that Soli paints with dark colors, dripping with stymied emotion. Tragedy holds many characters back from truly living.
The Forgetting Tree would make a great book for people in a book club where it can be discussed and treasured for it's complexity. Pair it with Jane Eyre or Wide Sargasso Sea. While I was reading I thought of multiple women in my life who would enjoy this book and relate to the main character. Claire is a version of every woman.
Experience The Forgetting Tree, "a place where you leave your bad memories behind so they don't poison your life". (pg 296) "Listen to my words. My words are all you will have someday."
September 25, 2012
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.
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.
September 1, 2012
The Forgetting Tree
by
Tatiana Soli
My"in a nutshell"summary...
A California citrus farming family suffers a huge personal loss. This book is their story...both before and after.
My thoughts after reading this book...
Wow...I love a long lovely lingering family saga and that is exactly what this is and then some! The Baumsarg family suffers an incredible loss and this book is what happens as they struggle to survive the effects of this horribly sad tragedy. The life of this family revolves around the fruits that they grow...lemons and oranges and avocados. Bank loans and celebrations and everything that they do...stems from their love of this land... along with their foreman...they groom it and work it and worry over it...until they don't any more. Claire...who married into the family...now cares more for the land than anyone and tries to hold everything together until she can't any more.
The story unfolds almost like a mystery...I hesitate to share any details but I will say that things happen as though a house of cards is falling apart. And then in order to save Claire...Minna is brought in...and that is when many freaky other worldly things happen...until the amazing ending.
What I loved most about this book...
I loved the grandmothers. I loved the images of the fruits and the trees. I could almost smell the orange peels and the lemon rinds as they were peeled from their fruits. I loved Claire's love of reading and books and her children. How whole Claire was and then later how fragmented she was...and sad and sick and lost.
What I did not love...
Ok...I was suspicious of Minna from the moment she came to work for Claire...she was the character I loved to not love!
Final thoughts...
This is not an ordinary run of the mill family saga. I read it breathlessly...I could not put my lovely book down!
I am quite certain it will have the same effect on you!
by
Tatiana Soli
My"in a nutshell"summary...
A California citrus farming family suffers a huge personal loss. This book is their story...both before and after.
My thoughts after reading this book...
Wow...I love a long lovely lingering family saga and that is exactly what this is and then some! The Baumsarg family suffers an incredible loss and this book is what happens as they struggle to survive the effects of this horribly sad tragedy. The life of this family revolves around the fruits that they grow...lemons and oranges and avocados. Bank loans and celebrations and everything that they do...stems from their love of this land... along with their foreman...they groom it and work it and worry over it...until they don't any more. Claire...who married into the family...now cares more for the land than anyone and tries to hold everything together until she can't any more.
The story unfolds almost like a mystery...I hesitate to share any details but I will say that things happen as though a house of cards is falling apart. And then in order to save Claire...Minna is brought in...and that is when many freaky other worldly things happen...until the amazing ending.
What I loved most about this book...
I loved the grandmothers. I loved the images of the fruits and the trees. I could almost smell the orange peels and the lemon rinds as they were peeled from their fruits. I loved Claire's love of reading and books and her children. How whole Claire was and then later how fragmented she was...and sad and sick and lost.
What I did not love...
Ok...I was suspicious of Minna from the moment she came to work for Claire...she was the character I loved to not love!
Final thoughts...
This is not an ordinary run of the mill family saga. I read it breathlessly...I could not put my lovely book down!
I am quite certain it will have the same effect on you!
September 28, 2012
I give this a reluctant 4 stars. Good and evil do battle in this novel, set on a doomed California citrus ranch. For the first third of the book I was bored with the plot, predictable as it was about Claire, a mother who never gets over the loss of her only son. So much of modern fiction seems to center around loss of a family member, and although we all have much to learn about death the older we get, and although I too have lost family members, I was not feeling enlightened by the author's plot or the characters' sensibilities related to grief and loss.
Anyway, Claire's two daughters have grown and gone. She is divorced from their father. Only she and the ranch foreman cling to the ranch. And then she learns she has breast cancer. And then the book picks up with the colorful appearance of a Caribbean gal named Minna, who will nurse Claire through her illness. With no one but Minna to rely on, Claire falls under her spell. Minna makes potions, creates ceremonies and voodoo-istic art, supposedly all to help Claire. But is Minna who she says she is? Could she possibly be related to Jean Rhys? Does she have a sister who is a model in Paris? Could she really be a PHD student? We start to wonder at her changeling nature. I'm not into spoilers, so no more plot elements, but I will say that for me, the last fourth of the book (including a dramatic change of the setting) goes over the top and beyond with things Minna does. She HAS helped Claire. They do create some magic together. Healing happens. When Minna's dark side is revealed, does Claire still adore her? Do we? Such drama, especially in the last few pages.... Not sure I buy it, but so it goes... Good writing and very citrus orchard-atmospheric, but for me, at the end I felt both doubt and discomfort. Where had the magic gone?
Anyway, Claire's two daughters have grown and gone. She is divorced from their father. Only she and the ranch foreman cling to the ranch. And then she learns she has breast cancer. And then the book picks up with the colorful appearance of a Caribbean gal named Minna, who will nurse Claire through her illness. With no one but Minna to rely on, Claire falls under her spell. Minna makes potions, creates ceremonies and voodoo-istic art, supposedly all to help Claire. But is Minna who she says she is? Could she possibly be related to Jean Rhys? Does she have a sister who is a model in Paris? Could she really be a PHD student? We start to wonder at her changeling nature. I'm not into spoilers, so no more plot elements, but I will say that for me, the last fourth of the book (including a dramatic change of the setting) goes over the top and beyond with things Minna does. She HAS helped Claire. They do create some magic together. Healing happens. When Minna's dark side is revealed, does Claire still adore her? Do we? Such drama, especially in the last few pages.... Not sure I buy it, but so it goes... Good writing and very citrus orchard-atmospheric, but for me, at the end I felt both doubt and discomfort. Where had the magic gone?
November 9, 2013
“The neglected lemon tree had grown to a monstrous height, almost even to the pitch of a barn roof, and the unpicked fruit had grown obscene – globular, swollen lemons the shape of footballs, hydrocephalic tennis balls, or further deformed into bizarre shapes resembling gourds, or small ghoulish animals.”
This early paragraph of The Forgetting Tree is a apt opening to the world you are about to be drawn into. When we imagine a lemon tree, we picture the good possibilities – the outstreched branches, the rich green leaves, the plump fruit and the heady citrus scent. But instead, we see something we didn’t expect – ugly, haunting, strangeness.
Claire Baumsarg and her estranged husband own their Calfornia citrus ranch together, but it is Claire who lives on the property. The land and Claire are part of each other and they expect to grow old together. When Claire is diagnosed with breast cancer, she insists that she remain on the ranch, working while undergoing treatment. It becomes clear that she cannot manage on her own, so with her family’s approval, a caregiver is hired, and what seems to be a perfect solution becomes a dark, disturbing journey.
I know I was supposed to care about Minna’s (the caregiver’s) troubled past, but I just couldn’t get past her heinous actions. I like this author, I really do. I absolutely loved The Lotus Eaters, but this book opens you up and exposes you to an ugliness. And it’s not distant – you can identify with Claire and her family, and know that these things could happen to you. So I did not particularly enjoy this book. I’m sure others would, but it just wasn’t for me.
This early paragraph of The Forgetting Tree is a apt opening to the world you are about to be drawn into. When we imagine a lemon tree, we picture the good possibilities – the outstreched branches, the rich green leaves, the plump fruit and the heady citrus scent. But instead, we see something we didn’t expect – ugly, haunting, strangeness.
Claire Baumsarg and her estranged husband own their Calfornia citrus ranch together, but it is Claire who lives on the property. The land and Claire are part of each other and they expect to grow old together. When Claire is diagnosed with breast cancer, she insists that she remain on the ranch, working while undergoing treatment. It becomes clear that she cannot manage on her own, so with her family’s approval, a caregiver is hired, and what seems to be a perfect solution becomes a dark, disturbing journey.
I know I was supposed to care about Minna’s (the caregiver’s) troubled past, but I just couldn’t get past her heinous actions. I like this author, I really do. I absolutely loved The Lotus Eaters, but this book opens you up and exposes you to an ugliness. And it’s not distant – you can identify with Claire and her family, and know that these things could happen to you. So I did not particularly enjoy this book. I’m sure others would, but it just wasn’t for me.
September 13, 2012
A terribly sad event happens near the beginning and it overshadows the rest of the story. I shed tears. To lose a child is the saddest of events and the manner in which Claire and Forster lose young Josh is so awful and senseless. It is a natural tendency to be protective of our children but these circumstances made Claire over-protective to the point of the children feeling imprisoned and eventually drove her husband away. Then, alone, Claire is told she has cancer. At the insistence of her two daughters, Claire hires an assistant, Minna, who at first seems to be an answer to prayers. Time divulges one another's secrets and sadness, drawing these two together. Yet Minna is as mysterious as ever, as if knowing all there was to know, should that be possible, wasn't enough.
"Clare would be loyal to that mystery to the end of her days, because it was identical to the mystery of life, which one loved without ever fully comprehending it."
They learned much from each other but the lesson the most well-learned was there is "beauty in rootedness but Minna taught Claire that another kind of beauty lay in being free." (page 403) Freedom comes in stages for Claire, as in page 227, when Claire finds she doesn't have to please anyone. She found a bit of her freedom here.
Because The Forgetting Tree reached out and touched my very soul, pulling out the sentimentalisms, I shall not easily forget this memorable tale. Tatjana Soli brought her characters to life, beyond the words upon the page, reaching into my heart and leaving a lingering trace upon my mind I shall not forget.
"Clare would be loyal to that mystery to the end of her days, because it was identical to the mystery of life, which one loved without ever fully comprehending it."
They learned much from each other but the lesson the most well-learned was there is "beauty in rootedness but Minna taught Claire that another kind of beauty lay in being free." (page 403) Freedom comes in stages for Claire, as in page 227, when Claire finds she doesn't have to please anyone. She found a bit of her freedom here.
Because The Forgetting Tree reached out and touched my very soul, pulling out the sentimentalisms, I shall not easily forget this memorable tale. Tatjana Soli brought her characters to life, beyond the words upon the page, reaching into my heart and leaving a lingering trace upon my mind I shall not forget.
October 7, 2012
Actually it is probably a 3.5. The book is separated into four parts.
The first part was well written and tells the story of a family torn apart by and unspeakable tragedy.
In the second part, the family is separated as the children grow up and the parents divorce. Then the wife gets cancer and hires a care-taker with great charm, but no references. As the wife gets sicker and needier, the caretaker gets stranger and her actions take on an increasingly sinister tone.
In the 3rd part, the caretaker's real story is revealed. Of course, it is nothing like the story she told the family when she was hired. Then, a friend of the caretaker arrives and he is a really scary character.
The ending is so bizarre that I felt like the author was just trying to finish the story quickly.
The plot was good enough that it should have been told from more than one point of view. It would have benefited from intertwining stories. I never really understood why the family did not intervene as they saw things deteriorate. The excuse was that the mom loved country living and the rest of the family needed to escape from the scene of the tragedy and the tedium of running a ranch. But, I don't buy it. I kept waiting for the family to stage an intervention.
The first part was well written and tells the story of a family torn apart by and unspeakable tragedy.
In the second part, the family is separated as the children grow up and the parents divorce. Then the wife gets cancer and hires a care-taker with great charm, but no references. As the wife gets sicker and needier, the caretaker gets stranger and her actions take on an increasingly sinister tone.
In the 3rd part, the caretaker's real story is revealed. Of course, it is nothing like the story she told the family when she was hired. Then, a friend of the caretaker arrives and he is a really scary character.
The ending is so bizarre that I felt like the author was just trying to finish the story quickly.
The plot was good enough that it should have been told from more than one point of view. It would have benefited from intertwining stories. I never really understood why the family did not intervene as they saw things deteriorate. The excuse was that the mom loved country living and the rest of the family needed to escape from the scene of the tragedy and the tedium of running a ranch. But, I don't buy it. I kept waiting for the family to stage an intervention.
February 28, 2019
This book would have received a higher rating for its first 2/3 than the closing portion. In fact, it starts out strong, telling the story of life on a California farm in often elegiac writing. The main characters-Claire, her daughters, and eventually Minna-seem to really begin to grow on the reader as it starts out. I could feel the atmosphere that was being created through the first 2/3 of the book, and Soli deserves credit for this strong beginning.
But it is undone in the latter portion, going off the rails in a sudden change of theme. The veering off into a story about Haitian voodoo overwhelms the novel's strong first portion, turning The Forgetting Tree into a novel it would be better to forget.
It had potential as it started out, but the final acts are more than enough to knock done my appraisal of this novel. I understand Soli wanted to make a broader point than she initially started out formulating, but it was clumsily executed and done in a manner that lacked believably. Overall, The Forgetting Tree is a disappointment, all the more so due to the potential it held at the outset.
-Andrew Canfield, Shreveport, La.
But it is undone in the latter portion, going off the rails in a sudden change of theme. The veering off into a story about Haitian voodoo overwhelms the novel's strong first portion, turning The Forgetting Tree into a novel it would be better to forget.
It had potential as it started out, but the final acts are more than enough to knock done my appraisal of this novel. I understand Soli wanted to make a broader point than she initially started out formulating, but it was clumsily executed and done in a manner that lacked believably. Overall, The Forgetting Tree is a disappointment, all the more so due to the potential it held at the outset.
-Andrew Canfield, Shreveport, La.
July 7, 2012
I got this book through Goodreads. I read it but gave to my cousin for her to review. Here is her review:
The Forgetting Tree is a dark, gothic novel set in sunny California on a citrus farm. It is the emotional story of Claire, a mother who is dealing with the loss of her son, and diagnosis of breast cancer. Claire tries to protect and shield her adult daughters from having to experience the cruelty of her cancer and the burden of her cared. She hires a mysterious young woman, Minna, to be her caretaker. Minna becomes a surrogate daughter to Claire and Claire comes to depend completely on her with chilling results. It is a story of the struggle for survival: survival from cancer, survival of the farm, and survival from poverty. It is a story of motherhood and unconditional love and a mother's fight to protect her children and her home.
The Forgetting Tree is full of unexpected plot twists. The story is emotionally wrenching. The relationship between the two women, Claire and Minna, is tender and terrifying.
The Forgetting Tree is a dark, gothic novel set in sunny California on a citrus farm. It is the emotional story of Claire, a mother who is dealing with the loss of her son, and diagnosis of breast cancer. Claire tries to protect and shield her adult daughters from having to experience the cruelty of her cancer and the burden of her cared. She hires a mysterious young woman, Minna, to be her caretaker. Minna becomes a surrogate daughter to Claire and Claire comes to depend completely on her with chilling results. It is a story of the struggle for survival: survival from cancer, survival of the farm, and survival from poverty. It is a story of motherhood and unconditional love and a mother's fight to protect her children and her home.
The Forgetting Tree is full of unexpected plot twists. The story is emotionally wrenching. The relationship between the two women, Claire and Minna, is tender and terrifying.
October 30, 2012
A strange, strange book, Soli take co-dependence to a whole new level. I wanted to love this book as much as I loved The Lotus Eaters, but I never connected to the characters. It's not that they're under-developed. Both Claire and Minna stand out as complex, broken souls. It's just that I never really liked either of them and I just could not believe anyone in the book would have accepted Claire's "living arrangement" with Minna. It was too far-fetched even for my suspension of disbelief.
That said, Soli writes beautifully. It was the quality of this writing that carried me through this very long novel. (and also what raises my rating to 3 stars)
That said, Soli writes beautifully. It was the quality of this writing that carried me through this very long novel. (and also what raises my rating to 3 stars)
September 16, 2012
The following quote is stuck in my brain and I find myself thinking about it again and again. "In America she would never get over how many things each person had. The same dress served a woman at home to marry, christen her children, & then be buried in. Here one person owned more plates & cuts, more knives, fork and spoons, more dresses & oranges and books, more shoes, than the person would ever know or miss. Cleaning, wiping, worrying over Claire's things, made her dizzy -so Marie took them. Claire would never know or care."
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