The Flower of Grass

By James E. Robinson

Book Overview

This powerful, romantic novel depicts a prodigal's return to a small town in Tennessee-and the emotions that lay buried there just beneath the surface. An exquisitely written, passionate, and thoughtful novel, this classic love story frames deeper themes of mortality and the passage of time, the true nature of faith, and the delicate balance of human relationships.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 082546286X
• ISBN13: 9780825462863
• Release Date: July 2008
• Publisher: Monarch Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A Moving and Powerful Tale of Love, Hate, and Redemption

This book was my local library's Reading Club selection for September. That's why I read it. That's the only reason I read it. I'll state right up front that I am a recovering alcoholic, and I had an abusive father (though nowhere near the demon of a father you'll discover in these pages). He abandoned my family when I was five then had the audacity to return five years later. We never had anything like a close relationship. Late in his life I thought I was going to have a chance to try and work some things out with him, but he died before that happened. It left me with, oh, a couple of tons of issues. You think I wanted to read a book about a prodigal son who comes home too late to settle things with his own father? No way. I read it, though, against all my will. But, I'll willingly re-read it many times because of the truths and the lessons I discovered, in spite of myself, in it. As it nearly turned out, I almost didn't finish the book. I was openly weeping (and I'm a 58-year old man who's seen his share of bad stuff) by the 2nd page. And that was just the Prologue! Heck, I'm getting a little misty just writing this review. But I held in there, and I'm so glad I did. Robinson has accomplished something of a magic trick, here, a bit of literary slight-of-hand. He gives us a haunting love story (between John and Jessie), but he tells it through the eyes of a 2nd, and haunted, love story (between John and his father), in a novel built around contrast and contradiction. The "hero", John Allen, has his head quite irrevocably planted in the clouds. The "heroine", Jessie Tucker, has her feet just as firmly planted in the soil, in the land that has both nourished her and worn her down her entire life. John's father, who was buried 2 days before John makes it home, but who appears to John in several dreamlike sequences, is a contradiction: an alcoholic, he was kind and loving when sober, but horribly monstrous when drunk. In one particularly wrenching sequence, John sits on the porch with the ghost of his sober father: "'I'm glad you're here, Daddy. I like it when you're like this, when we're together like this.' 'Me, too, son,' the man said, rocking, sober and serene. 'Let's you and me just sit like this a while.' The boy felt wrapped in a kind of comfort he wished would last forever. A warm wind moved in the trees. 'Maybe he won't come back, Daddy," the boy said at last, and he meant it with all his heart. 'The mean one.' 'Maybe not, son.' 'I hate him. I hate that man, Daddy.' The man rocked and watched the woods. His hands lay big but gentle on the gun. 'I hate him, too, son. I hate him, too.'" John Allen, a successful novelist, has come home (to a small Southern town named Tranquility - an ironic name, considering how so few people who live there actually have any) after 16 years away, ostensibly to say goodbye to his father, but he is too late for that. However, he also has hopes, half-hidden even from himself, of re-kindling a love a

Awesome Story!

I have never read a book quite like this one. It extracted emotions from me that I thought were gone. It's an awesome story and very well written. It certainly could be real life! I'm going to reccomend it to my friends! Good Book, well worth your time. I can hardly wait for the sequel!?!

Deep, moving, lush with detail...a debut masterpiece

This is one of the BEST debut novels I've ever read. You'll find hints of Steinbeck with a touch of Zora Neale Hurston. The book's epigraph, by poet Z. Bryan Haislip, sets the lovely pace for this book: The grace of grass growing she has; Of leaves blowing, of daisies bowed Before the rain. Clouds at morning Have such a sweet simplicity. Her feet go laughing everywhere. There are not birds so blithely free, So singing quick, so apt as she. I love her April ways. I pray She may not change. As now she is I have asked heaven to keep her. All in all, James Robinson has established a unique fiction voice for "smart" readers. If you're looking for something light and fluffy, this is NOT the book for you. The Flower of Grass holds sway over you in the forgotten manner of Hemingway and Faulkner. It's deep and wide and goes great with a fireplace and a glass of Merlot. Readers who enjoy Michael Ondaatje and Cormac McCarthy will surely enjoy Jim Robinson.

Captured my heart!

If you have a heart, you'll love this book. Both real-to-life in its subject matter, and artistic in its imagery, you'll be drawn into the lives of Robinson's characters the moment "the man (drives) across the bridge" and will leave their hometown of Tranquility with your heart soaring. If his first fictional offering is any indication, I hope this author will be around for a long time to come.

Beautiful!

This powerful novel deals with themes of bereavement, addiction, and lost love but through them Robinson manages to weave a wonderfully healing story. I was drawn into the drama though the author's poignant prose and imagery and loved the way he allowed me to experience both the pain of existence and the hope of redemption through his characters. Robinson's writing kept me transfixed; I wanted to be in the story, to experience the place and the people. To borrow the words of his character "Miss Ruth," this book "had considerable beauty in it. Considerable beauty." THE FLOWER OF GRASS is both tragic and triumphant. Its surprise ending left me with the assurance that healing of deep soul wounds is possible for all of us; what we need to truly be whole comes from the truth we hold within. --Sharon Fawcett, author of Hope for Wholeness: The Spiritual Path to Freedom from Depression