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Summary: Total snooze fest
Review: I couldn't even finish this book, it was so boring! The author's descriptions were so laden with "images" that it was very distracting, resulting in a heavy narrative that was not in the least bit entertaining. It was also quite annoying the way she bounced back and forth between past and present. Maybe if she had injected some humor and lightness in the story I could have related more. I really don't get why this was even published.
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Summary: I could not have been more bored!
Review: I didn't expect an action novel, but if I wanted to read about flowers, I would have bought a garden manual! Nothing happens in this story--there is no story! There are so many holes in the exposition that the author leads you to believe will be filled, but never are. The plot is stale: old man is sad...oh wait, he's getting sadder...he's near death and wishes he'd die...gee that's sad. It takes more to move my heart than a one sentence idea stretched into 300 pages!
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Summary: You must read this book!
Review: I felt this book come alive for me. Carrie Brown's mastery of words and the characters she has created have stirred my emotions, and left me with a warm and wonderful feeling. I highly recommend it!
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Summary: Ms Brown shows we are not old dogs and we can change.
Review: I thought this was a very spiritual book. It was a gentle, loving story about a man's love affair with his wife and what he learns about her and himself after her death. I smiled and some times cried through the whole book. At the end I felt renewed. I plan to give copies to friends and family.
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Summary: Carrie Brown's book "Rose's Garden" is magical.
Review: I was mesmerized by the lyrical quality of Carrie Brown's writing. The beauty of the book is not so much in the substance of the story -- though that's good -- but in the way the text lifts you away to a dearer, purer place. The soaring doves and the verdant garden transported me. I kept thinking how wondrous the book would be as a movie, with Paul Neuman as Conrad Morrisey, the widower. It would take great skill, however, to convey visually the mystical and moving quality of this work. I loved it!
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Summary: A Startlingly Beautiful Debut Novel
Review: It's always a joy to discover a writer new to you - doubly joyful if the book is as beautiful as ROSE'S GARDEN. This incredibly moving and sensitive story revolves around Conrad, a 75-year- old man, who is trying to adjust to the death of his wife, Rose. Conrad, an engineer, a professional gilder and a raiser of homing pigeons, has been thrust into numbing despair, and the book describes his circumstances with some of the loveliest prose I've read in ages. Brown weaves between the young Conrad and his meeting with and "adoption" by Rose and her family, and the present, as he copes with his heart-shattering loss. In between, there are "ghosts," a flood of biblical proportions as the town's dam breaks and the sweet care of Conrad by one of Rose's many lost souls whom she befriended. - An absolute pleasure to read -
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Summary: Carrie Brown
Review: Once in a great while a writer with the talent and eloquence of a Carrie Brown graces us with her work. As a reader, I knew on page one I was in for a special treat. As a writer, I am in awe of the manner in which Brown crafts each phrase, describes each scene, wrenches your heart as you feel the emotions of each character. "Rose's garden" is the story of a older man struggling to deal with the loss of his life partner. It is the simple, beautiful story of a life-long love--and how one chooses to go on once that love is torn away. Brown deals with a most difficult subject while pulling us into the lives of these two people and the other colorful characters in the small town where they live. If you like novels with contrived plots and hip 90's slang, "Rose's Garden" isn't for you. If, however, you long for novels written with love and care, crafted to make you think and feel, then give Carrie Brown a try. You won't be disappointed.
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Summary: Boy was this a tedious read!!
Review: Our book club decided to read this book based on the Barnes & Noble Discover New Writers selection as well as the 5 star reviews posted here. We like to find books around 300 pages and had high hopes for this one. What a disappointment this book was!! I couldn't get past page 185!! Although I am sure this author shows promise in her writing, this story didn't do it. It wasn't the angel or the magical" part that was the problem, but some of the everyday happenings that were just way off base. I want a book that beckons my attention, one that I hate to put down, but this was just the opposite - I had to make myself pick it up each day and finally said enough!! I just couldn't make it to the end!!
Rating: 
Summary: Bogged down in excess imagery, story sinks
Review: Powerful imagery of nature, no matter how well worked or oft repeated (excessively so, here) carries a thin plot and superficial characterizations only so far. This book has the 'spirit' of a strong short story at its heart, but the sometimes tortuous stretching of the raw material, with the repeated and eventually excessive and ultimately numbing imagery is finally very unsatisfying, like the aroma of a meal that doesn't really exist. Plot inconsistencies, pidgeons with profound symbolic importance who just 'disappear' from the story, and annoying lapses (Rose and Conrad meet as 11 yr olds and yet Rose's headstone proclaims her 5 yrs Conrad's junior at her death) ultimately drown the waterlogged prose of beautiful imagery overgrowing itself like Rose's untended garden.
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Summary: Chagall influences Carrie Brown
Review: The words "...in her dress of shifting white, threatened to rise from the roof, float away like Chagall's airborne bride." (p.107) impressed me. The imagery references are, I feel, painterly, poetic and artistically symbolic. Just how much did Chagall influence Brown's inspiration? Her novel seems to unfold its story as does one of Chagall's paintings. Chagall is considered a great "poet-painter"; his images are filled with floating lovers, blue air, love, birds and flowers. Similar to Rose's Garden, his paintings are mystical, transforming, intimate, celestial, and symbolic. In my imagination, Brown's written images even seem to create the same color palette as Chagall's bridal paintings. After much research, I could not find one particular painting called "Airborne Bride," however, many of his paintings actually have his bride as a universal theme. Brown's reference to Chagall and her book's character lead me to believe she had a deep inspirational awareness of Chagall's work. Further evidence includes that Chagall was very much in love with his wife, Bella, who, like Rose, became quite sick and then died. And like Conrad's character, for several months after the death of his wife, Chagall was unable to work. Once he regained his inspiration, Chagall changed a lighthearted circus painting to creat "Around Her." Similar to Conrad's quest to share his angel, Chagall shares the "memory of their long and loving relationship" through this haunting painting. (Quote taken from Chagall by Gill Polonsky.) I would like to know if and to what extent Brown was inspired by Chagall's paintings and life. How much influence did Chagall's airborne bride actually have in Rose's Garden?
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