Friday, November 4, 2011

Book Review - The Language of Flowers

Book Review
The Language of Flowers
Vanessa Diffenbaugh


How does one begin to trust after a lifetime of betrayals?  Is it possible for one to be trusted after a lifetime of one’s own lies and deceit?  These are the questions that Victoria Jones struggles to answer in The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh.


Orphaned at birth and processed through the foster care system her entire life, Victoria has finally reached the age of majority and has aged out of the foster care system.  Completely on her own for the first time, she must learn to land on her feet and make it on her own, or face certain homelessness and starvation.   At a time when most young women are just discovering who they are or who they want to be, Victoria must make these discoveries while simultaneously shouldering the burden of her own success or failure in a world that has thus far shown more cruelty than kindness.

With no money, no education and no support system in place to help her, Victoria turns to the only good thing she’s ever known:  The nearly forgotten language of flowers -- a language created by the Victorians as a means to express their emotions through flowers.

Is it true that “A rose is a rose is a rose” as Gertrude Stein once argued? Are things really exactly as they seem to be, or might there be more to be discovered below the surface?  As Victoria struggles to answer these questions for herself, she is forced to admit to her own culpability in the trail of youthful destruction she has left behind.

The Language of Flowers is a beautiful story that intertwines Victoria’s past with her present, and teaches us all the important lesson that we sometimes must make peace with our past in order to look forward to a bright future.

This title is available in standard and e-book format at the library.  For more information on this first novel by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, visit the Random House website dedicated to this book by following this link.


~ Catherine H. Armstrong

No comments:

Post a Comment