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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1083310 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-28
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .85" h x 5.17" w x 8.02" l, .91 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Amazon.com
Addictive tales from a rediscovered mid-century master. Or maybe the more appropriate word would be mistress, since The Rose Garden is crammed to the rafters with maids and their mistresses. Maeve Brennan, a longtime staff writer at The New Yorker, shows herself thoroughly in control of her fictive house in this posthumous reissue of stories from the 1950s through the '70s. Each is a witty, mean little miracle of lost chances and bruised egos. The first five stories are set in the town of Herbert's Retreat, an arty, expensive enclave on the Hudson, based on Sneden's Landing where Brennan lived for several years with her husband, New Yorker managing editor St. Clair McKelway. The Herbert's Retreat stories are linked entertainments, compulsively readable, and worthy of the adoration inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Basil and Josephine" stories. Like Fitzgerald, Brennan limns shattering loss and hilariously sends up middle-class pretentions--sometimes within the space of the same sentence. A pompous New York critic imposes his finicky will on the good wives of the community; a favorite son returns a broken man and finds that only the maids will dance with him; a bum passing through leaves his rather stinky mark.

Every character, above stairs and below, lives for the delight of recounting the disasters and drunks of the night before. The afternoon before the servants' annual dance, "jaded with talking about the dance, anxious now only to get on with it, willing even to have it past, so that they could start enjoying the discussion of it, most of the maids at Herbert's Retreat lay down on their beds for an unaccustomed ceremonial nap before getting dressed for the evening." The closed community and its inhabitants' transparent attempts to dominate each other recall E.F. Benson's utterly delightful Lucia series.

The Rose Garden is rounded out with several of Brennan's acclaimed stories of bereft Dublin life, a couple of experimental, stream-of-consciousness pieces, and, of all things, a handful of dog stories. Her forays into the interior life of her Labrador, Bluebell, might read as twee indulgences, except they're so rife with breathtaking, careful observation:

That was an unearthly morning--one mislaid at the beginning of the world and recovered in East Hampton under a high and massive sky of Mediterranean blue.... The wind was so new that it blew cold, in its first rush across the world, but the air was soft. The pheasant's head and body were almost buried in the powdery sand, but he had fallen with his wings wide open, and one of them slanted up to make a wedge of color in the air.

Such quiet, perfect sentences stud Maeve Brennan's stories. This is a book full of intelligent diversions, a book that makes a good, lasting sound. --Claire Dederer

From Publishers Weekly
A New Yorker writer from 1949 to 1981, the late Brennan also wrote many short stories, some published in 1997's The Springs of Affection. Six of the 20 stories in this volume are collected for the first time. Set in and around New York and Dublin, Brennan's carefully crafted scenes are reminiscent of James Joyce's Dubliners for their subtle epiphanies of anesthetized life. "The Bride" is typical, concerning Margaret, a vulnerable Irish immigrant maid who is trapped by a bullying plumber into a loveless marriage. The stories set in Herbert's Retreat fictionalize Snedens Landing on the Hudson River, where Brennan and her second husband, New Yorker managing editor St. Clair McKelway. lived. Four of them feature Charles Runyon, noted man of letters and theater critic (nicknamed "Mr. God"). In "The View from the Kitchen," the maids critique the lady of the house, Leona Harkey, and her fascination with "Mr. God." Another narrative is an ironic sketch of good taste becoming absurd, centered on Runyon's pink-and-white striped shirt and Leona's adoring copy. In "The Stone Hot-Water Bottle," a social absurdity finally pushes Leona into a nuanced but distinct rebellion against her idol. The title tale is set in Dublin, where a 39-year-old shopkeeper with two young children watches her husband slowly die, her memory searching for meaning in the rose garden of a local convent. Unable to translate her exploration into terms others can understand, she is perceived as being wretchedly selfish. Although Brennan's approach includes humor and social commentary, these stories are too dark to be called comedies of manners. Rather her focus centers on the tragedy produced when an individual's need for expression is countered and restricted by the need for societal acceptance. Readers moved by this veteran writer's storytelling skill will welcome the reemergence of the late Brennan's perspectives. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Many of the characters in Brennan's Rose Garden do not get enough sunlight, and most of them die before they ever bloom. In this companion volume to 1997's The Springs of Affection, which includes six previously unpublished pieces, the former New Yorker writer dissects malicious, martini-swilling New York suburbanites, the Irish maids who rip their airs to shreds, a self-conscious Dublin housewife, and other emotional transients with a meticulous hand. Her tepid-tea tone and crisp descriptions may make readers think that she does not care about their lot. Theater critic Charles Runyon and his partner-in-party-crimes Leona Harkey--the subjects of most of the stories--don't deserve a kick in the arse. Empathy in Brennan's canon is a precious emotion, and she only awards it when the oppressed overpower the cruel elite with more cruelty. The closing stories, which honor her beloved cats, black Lab, and Long Island beach cottage, further reveal her mistrust of human nature and love of solitude and innocence. Recommended for larger collections.
-Heather McCormack, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.