The Florist's Daughter

by Patricia Hampl

Book Overview

During the long farewell of her mother's dying, Patricia Hampl revisits her midwestern girlhood.Daughter of a debonair Czech father, whose floral work gave him entr?e to St. Paul society, and a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0151012571
• ISBN13: 9780151012572
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A Touching Memory Story

This is a book you will immediately pick up to Re-Read. You will be touched as Ms. Hampl shares her innermost memories of her handsome, warm and wonderful Father, his artistry, unusual ability to relate to people, and who took every opportunity to forgive and forget. Her Mother, an unusual artist herself, took every opportunity to add to the author's life from childhood to the time of her passing in her 80's. It's setting is in St. Paul, Minnesota. I felt I was walking the shopping areas of the city in the 40's and 50's as they are so well documented. This is a beautifully written book. A book you would enjoy reading and also owning. Pearl L. Slifer

Wonderful Memoir

Patricia Hampl's book,The Florist's Daughter, reveals so much of Midwestern life as she describes, as her mother is dying, the life and decline of both her mother and father. Her deft use of language and pretty prose make for an engrossing read.

Elegance and Insight

If you are as enamored of Patricia Hampl's writing as I am, this book is one not to miss--up there with _Virgin Time_, an earlier memoir. Elegant prose, filled with insight. Even events and people about which Hampl is ambivalent are clearly limned.

Spectacular Memoir, So Vivid and Well-Written

Gosh, I absolutely loved this memoir--the writing is superb and the life of St. Paul, Minnesota from the 1930s and beyond is so vivid, but with lean language--just perfect. The provincialism of the Minnesota Irish Catholics contrasted with the Minnesota Czechs/Bohemians--and each of their neighborhoods in the pecking order, is so well drawn. The contrast too between parents, one who sees life's beauty and one who sees life with suspicion. I am giving copies of this as gifts to three writers I know.

Lovely and lyrical

I really liked this book and it was a quick and pleasant read. Hampl is a talented writer who chooses words for their beauty as well as their weight. The memoir opens with the impending death of her mother, a difficult but independent minded woman of Irish descent. She muses on the immigrant world of "old St Paul," a place that is described as somewhat ordinary and a world away from the booming city of Minneapolis. She and her parents are decent, hardworking and ultimately likable people (unlike the characters in Sebold's latest) with the kinds of stories, flaws and challenges that we all might encounter in our family tree.