8/2/2019 The Language of Flowers Review - O Magazine September 2011

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   C   l   o   C   k   w   i   s   e   f   r   o   m

    r   i   g   h   t   :   P   h   i   l   i   P   f   r   i   e   d   m   a   n    /   s   t   u   d   i   o

   d

    (   3    ) .   b   e   o   w   u   l   f   s   h   e   e   h   a   n .

T F everybdy at ftnal

 Wests cllege s png t be sen—by

a prfessnal baseball team (fresman

henry Skrmsander), a prestgus law

sl (team aptan Mke Swartz), r a

lver (henry’s preternaturally alm rm-

mate, owen Dunne; llege presdent Guert

 Affenlgt; s daugter, Pella). But as cad

harba’s astnsngly assured yet seem-

ngly effrtless nvel The Art o fieding (Lttle, Brwn) makes

panfully lear, tere s smply n su tng as a sure tng. Yes,

tere are sme bvusly gd mves—“Puttng henry at srt-

stp…was lke takng a pantng tat ad been sved n a lset

and angng t n te deal spt. Yu nstantly frgt wat te

rm ad lked lke befre”—but sme events an’t be n-

trlled. Baseballs g awry, fr starters; dtt uman expeta-

tns, needs, and passns. Yu’ll regnze sme f harba’s

araters—te bad-grl teaer’s daugter w eventually

mes me t Daddy—and revel n te wnnngly dstntve

nes (owen’s elegant mter, w tnks se’s nterested n

Guert Affenlgt; te dnng all manager w emplys and n-

spres Pella; Mke Swartz, te nt-s-gentle gant). Yes, sprt

s te metapr ere, but t s nly tat; ts s a wnderful tale

f yut, ambtn, lve, and a lttle, unpredtable tng alled

lfe. in ter wrds, t’s a wle ter ballpark. —s.n.

Fu

Boo

 A young woman

blossoms under 

loving care. 

In Vness

Diffenbug’s

fsinting debut

nvel, The language

o fowers 

(Bllntine), jded

18-ye-ld Viti

Jnes stikes ut n

e wn fte

lifetie in fste

es. he esent

is juxtsed wit

ildd senes f 

te yes se lived

wit Elizbet,

vineyd wne w

intdued e t

te Vitin-e

lnguge f flwes.

Tt lnguge, neused by lves t

exess intite

sentients, els

Viti tug e

tubles, until

ne disvey

skes e fgile

sense f id entity.

Diffenbug, eself 

fste te,lely knws bt

te un et nd

e lnts, nd se

kees us ting f

te dged

Viti, w es,

finlly, t undestnd

tt “te

untted, te

unwnted, te

unlved [n] gw

t give lve s lusly

s nyne else.”

—arianna davis

Lessn number ne: Yu an’t wn ’em all.

BcK To cHoo

HArBAcH,

New Yk city, 2011.

 Reading  Room

Down andAlmost OutBracing for the storm.

Esch Batiste is the only female

in the Pit, a hardscrabble patch

of bayou country she has

shared with her father and three

brothers since their mother

died in childbirth. “SometimesI think [Daddy] forgets that I am

a girl,” she muses. But 14-year-

old Esch is obviously on the cusp

of womanhood; she’s pregnant

by Manny, a neighbor. As

Hurricane Katrina gathers

strength in the Gulf of Mexico,

Esch’s besieged, down-on-its-

luck family veers toward

disaster. Daddy, who is rarelyaround, and even more rarely

sober, struggles to prepare for

the storm, which the others

insist will never arrive. Randall,

the eldest, jumps and shoots and

sweats for a basketball

scholarship that hangs

tantalizingly close. And Skeetah

pins his dreams on his beloved

China, a killer pit bull whose

pups he hopes will bring cash.

In the world of Jesmyn Ward’s

Savage the Bones (Bloomsbury

USA), brutality is the way to

success, and tenderness is

found only in memories, which

throb like the “phantom pain”

Esch imagines Daddy feeling in

the missing fingers he lost in

an accident. If Ward’s prose is

occasionally overripe, thenovel’s hugeness of heart and

fierceness of family feeling grip

like Skeetah’s pit bull and do

not let go. —ellen feldman