The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman

Official Summary
The Red Garden introduces us to the luminous and haunting world of Blackwell, Massachusetts, capturing the unexpected turns in its history and in our own lives.

In exquisite prose, Hoffman offers a transforming glimpse of small-town America, presenting us with some three hundred years of passion, dark secrets, loyalty, and redemption in a web of tales where characters' lives are intertwined by fate and by their own actions.

From the town's founder, a brave young woman from England who has no fear of blizzards or bears, to the young man who runs away to New York City with only his dog for company, the characters in The Red Garden are extraordinary and vivid: a young wounded Civil War soldier who is saved by a passionate neighbor, a woman who meets a fiercely human historical character, a poet who falls in love with a blind man, a mysterious traveler who comes to town in the year when summer never arrives.

At the center of everyone’s life is a mysterious garden where only red plants can grow, and where the truth can be found by those who dare to look.

Beautifully crafted, shimmering with magic, The Red Garden is as unforgettable as it is moving.

My Two Cents
I found this book to be imminently readable. I honestly thought it was really well written and brilliant in its character stories and connections through time. However, I found I could very easily put it down. This is probably due to the fact that each chapter was pretty much a contained short story that had its own closure. And for all of the "lushly written" and "mystical mixed with logical" prose, I found it got a little dull in certain places. But not terribly so - it was definitely worth picking up and reading. Just not an "edge of your seat" kind of book is all.

P.S. - I had the feeling that there was some serious literary symbolism and metaphors and whatnot that I was just not getting. While I don't consider myself unintelligent, I will admit to being a "lazy" reader. I don't want to think and ponder and contemplate. I just want the author to spin me a good yarn.