⋙ PDF Free The Garden of the World West Word Fiction Lawrence Coates 9780874178708 Books

The Garden of the World West Word Fiction Lawrence Coates 9780874178708 Books

Download As PDF : The Garden of the World West Word Fiction Lawrence Coates 9780874178708 Books

The Garden of the World West Word Fiction Lawrence Coates 9780874178708 Books

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"Louis suddenly saw the entire vineyard in motion, all at the same time; pickers on their knees in the fields, cutting clusters into buckets and pouring the buckets into boxes. His grandfather, standing with the reins in his hands while Prince walked serenely up and down the allées and boxes were slapped onto the wagon bed. John and Angelo, emptying box after box onto the wire mesh above the crusher, himself using the paddle to separate the berries from their stems, and the juice and must falling in the gravity-flow design down into the basket press. For this moment, changing the living fruit into living wine." (163-164)

The Garden of the World is not a long novel (exactly two hundred pages), but it is rich. The basic structure of the plot is fairly simple, held to two major p-o-v characters, and all the characters have that Shakespearean quality of being complex enough to breathe while simple enough to be mere cog in the tragedy.

Lawrence Coates is an alumnus of the high school where I work and he came back last spring to visit some classes. Then he was good enough to stick around during lunch and let me pick his brain re MFAs (he runs Bowling Green's). And basically he talked me out of it. Which is good because I've been waffling. I feel better having made my decision. For now at least. And hey! Buy Byuck! Coming out later this year! From nonMFA Theric!

Anyway, he sent me a pdf of the Garden's first chapter and my AP class discussed it with him. The chapter is rich and compelling, and I'm happy to say you can read it on Amazon (but nowhere else, best I can tell).

The story is taps many archetypal wells. It's a Prodigal Son story! It's a vaguely Oedipal story! With strong Antigonal undertones! It's a number of things.

Perhaps my favorite element of the story is its pastoralism. I loved the look it offers at vineyards and winemaking.

As a kid, I worked at a welfare vineyard outside Fresno a couple times a year---once to prune, once to harvest. Obviously, these weren't wine grapes (we are Mormon and they were raisins), and it was only a handful of days total, but I thus have an appreciation for grapes that perhaps most people don't. But I think reading this novel will provide an excellent approximation. Any vineyard with a tasting room and a gift shop that does not stock this book is missing a prime opportunity to get their fans even more excited about all that goes into winemaking. Srsly, vineyards. Stock this book.

Back to my Shakespeare comment above (and no, this post does not have any firm structure, thank you for noticing), when I made that comment I was specifically thinking of the man of the vineyard and his wife. Both are complex characters, but both block off their complexity from themselves, thus becoming unable to prevent the novel's final tragic sequence. At first, I thought the wife's brightness and positivity would be innocent, even if it failed. But in the end, I see that her panglossiness is as guilty as the father's bullheadedness in damning the brothers to limited lives.

Nothing in this novel is throwaway, even if left less developed than might be expected of a novel twice its length. Consider:

The town journalist reports only the good, overlooks the bad. This novel could be seen as a restorative with its elements of darkness, but the novel is also filled with moments of joy. And so the question left at the end is: Who is at fault if joy dies? Are all equally to blame? Is there a hierarchy of blame? Is there an ultimate blame?

But I ramble.

Good book.

Let's just leave it at that.


Tags : The Garden of the World (West Word Fiction) [Lawrence Coates] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <DIV><P>California’s Santa Clara Valley was once home to a vigorous wine industry. <I>The Garden of the World</I> is the tale of a pioneer winemaking family headed by Paul Tourneau,Lawrence Coates,The Garden of the World (West Word Fiction),University of Nevada Press,0874178703,Conflict of generations,Fathers and sons,Fathers and sons;Fiction.,Vineyards;California;Fiction.,Wine and wine making - California,Wine and wine making;California;Fiction.,California,FICTION General,Fiction,Fiction - Coming of Age,Fiction - General,General,General Adult,UNIVERSITY PRESS,United States,Vineyards,Wine and wine making

The Garden of the World West Word Fiction Lawrence Coates 9780874178708 Books Reviews

NIce to learn about wine techniques through a story. I wished it had a bit more of a climax to it though.
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"Louis suddenly saw the entire vineyard in motion, all at the same time; pickers on their knees in the fields, cutting clusters into buckets and pouring the buckets into boxes. His grandfather, standing with the reins in his hands while Prince walked serenely up and down the allées and boxes were slapped onto the wagon bed. John and Angelo, emptying box after box onto the wire mesh above the crusher, himself using the paddle to separate the berries from their stems, and the juice and must falling in the gravity-flow design down into the basket press. For this moment, changing the living fruit into living wine." (163-164)

The Garden of the World is not a long novel (exactly two hundred pages), but it is rich. The basic structure of the plot is fairly simple, held to two major p-o-v characters, and all the characters have that Shakespearean quality of being complex enough to breathe while simple enough to be mere cog in the tragedy.

Lawrence Coates is an alumnus of the high school where I work and he came back last spring to visit some classes. Then he was good enough to stick around during lunch and let me pick his brain re MFAs (he runs Bowling Green's). And basically he talked me out of it. Which is good because I've been waffling. I feel better having made my decision. For now at least. And hey! Buy Byuck! Coming out later this year! From nonMFA Theric!

Anyway, he sent me a pdf of the Garden's first chapter and my AP class discussed it with him. The chapter is rich and compelling, and I'm happy to say you can read it on (but nowhere else, best I can tell).

The story is taps many archetypal wells. It's a Prodigal Son story! It's a vaguely Oedipal story! With strong Antigonal undertones! It's a number of things.

Perhaps my favorite element of the story is its pastoralism. I loved the look it offers at vineyards and winemaking.

As a kid, I worked at a welfare vineyard outside Fresno a couple times a year---once to prune, once to harvest. Obviously, these weren't wine grapes (we are Mormon and they were raisins), and it was only a handful of days total, but I thus have an appreciation for grapes that perhaps most people don't. But I think reading this novel will provide an excellent approximation. Any vineyard with a tasting room and a gift shop that does not stock this book is missing a prime opportunity to get their fans even more excited about all that goes into winemaking. Srsly, vineyards. Stock this book.

Back to my Shakespeare comment above (and no, this post does not have any firm structure, thank you for noticing), when I made that comment I was specifically thinking of the man of the vineyard and his wife. Both are complex characters, but both block off their complexity from themselves, thus becoming unable to prevent the novel's final tragic sequence. At first, I thought the wife's brightness and positivity would be innocent, even if it failed. But in the end, I see that her panglossiness is as guilty as the father's bullheadedness in damning the brothers to limited lives.

Nothing in this novel is throwaway, even if left less developed than might be expected of a novel twice its length. Consider

The town journalist reports only the good, overlooks the bad. This novel could be seen as a restorative with its elements of darkness, but the novel is also filled with moments of joy. And so the question left at the end is Who is at fault if joy dies? Are all equally to blame? Is there a hierarchy of blame? Is there an ultimate blame?

But I ramble.

Good book.

Let's just leave it at that.