Fiction Book Club Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z by Debra Weinstein Buy book: $16.06 In a wickedly funny first novel, Weinstein writes about an aspiring young poet and the celebrated mentor who tries to hold her back.
Sorry - this one sounds too much like a book from a while back "The Devil Wears Prada" - that was not my cup of tea either -
Oh well - can't win 'em all -
This is a great book, the first I've made through 5 dazys
August 20 2004, 11:18 AM
I don't know Prada, but I saw a stage play that sounded similar about 5 years ago, but that doesn't matter. There are only 29 plots TOTAL, and they all get reworked. I am a chemical engineer/ software developer, but I am intriquged by the story. Live vicariously in New York as an aspiring poet and gofer. The insights and ovservations are well worth it. Although it is ficitino, it is a fascinating glimpse into the world of poetry. Debra has the experience to back it up. I sent an email to a poet I know, and she loves it. I will send it to another as hardcopy. I already went to Waldenbooks (they didn't have it), so I am on hold at two libraries for it. It is amzaing how so many people got sucked in and sucked down by D>'s negativity. I suspect the root of it is jealousy. This is so good, it transcends my jealousy of Debra's success. I look forward to reading the novels of the pooh-poohers on the club.
I hadn't thought about what Doris mentioned, until she mentioned it...(I like Devil Wears Prada, myself), but it does kind of sound like it'll be like this.
However, it doesn't sound like Z is a maniac, self-centered, do everything for me or else type. She seems more eccentric (more along the stereotype of a poet) than Miranda did in Devil.
I enjoyed this first read. I want to know more about what she's going to have to do for Ms. Z. throughout the course of the book and if this experience will actually help her own poetry or send her off on another tangent.
I'll stick this one out and see where it goes.
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"What wild desires, what restless torments seize
The hapless man, who feels the book-disease..."
- Dr. John Ferriar (from the poem Bibliomania, 1863)
This seems like it is jumping all over the place, with all the references to poems, and the notes. I will keep reading, but so far I don't like the style of storytelling.
(Doris it does remind me of the Devil wears Prada book too!)
I really enjoyed this first read. I myself am a junior in college this year, as well as a marketing intern, so I really related to this first read...funny as it sounds. It was somewhat a breath of fresh air compared to the other books we've been reading. I'll have to stay with this one until Friday!
I hadn't thought of it but I agree with all who said this is like "The Devil Wears Prada". However, I DO like this book because I like poetry am interested in that aspect of it. Don't think I've read a (contemporary) novel about poets before. The humor is OK, I can take it in small doses...but I'm not sure I'll get this book...will know by Friday.
I, too, am interested in poetry as a subject in itself.
It is nice to have a read dealing (somewhat?) with the subject that is contemporary.
I am liking it so far.......
Yes, I did read today's read - and sounds to me if I am understanding it right, that the young girl is going to be used and thrown on the trash heap while if there is any benefit to be reaped will be reaped by Z - just my take on what I've read so far -
hhhmmm, let me think about that for a bit (lol). Yes, I love the "standards" but let me think who else I like :) Meanwhile I am really starting to enjoy this book....think I will get it.I like to write and so am enjoying it.
(Tooting my own horn:
"a yellow summer's bloom
coaxing the murmur of a bee
beneath her sweet morning bouquet."
I'm not all that crazy about this book so far. I don't like the style it's written in and I do have a hard time following it. I'll continue reading...hopefully it'll get a little better.
I too see the simularity between'Flower Poet' and 'Prada'.The different here being that i have very little interest in the fashion industry, and that I do appreciate good poetry -a lot. I espescially like how Weinstein delineates the celebrated person from the real person: ' The voice in the poem was lyrical and unassuming...But at home the poet yelled from one end of her apartment to the other.' Along the way not only are we being shown the dual personality of some artist,but we are also being taught a lot about plants and poetry. GREAT SELECTION!
I couldn't agree with you more. This book is a lot less harsh than Devil Wears Prada was. In Devil, the antagonist was just plain harsh. In this, the antagonist just seems manipulative.
I don't think this would go on my list of books to buy, but it's intriguing enough to be one to finish reading.
Angie
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"What wild desires, what restless torments seize
The hapless man, who feels the book-disease..."
- Dr. John Ferriar (from the poem Bibliomania, 1863)
I've never read "Prada" but from your messages, sounds like it's a spoof on the fashion industry. I would like to read it and thanks to those who have seen similarities between it and this book.
As a plant and poetry lover, I find this an interesting (but not remarkable) read. It's easy to see that "Z" has a definite mean streak in her and is being unbearably manipulative towards her mentee. Is "Z" so sought after as a poet that the speaker cannot (or will not) see through her machinations? How disheartening it must have been to have gone through the (unlawful) trouble of acquiring the lobelia, pressing it, and then being reprimanded "Z." Seems like the speaker is a glutton for punishment; had someone suggested that I steal even part of a plant from a public garden, I would have walked away from the relationship pronto.
I'm with you on this one Doris - how irritating is this book?? And trust me folks, I'm an English major and great lover of literature, poetry and the like...but this book just screams ostentatiousness (yeah - I had to look up the spelling on that one). Seriously, my interest in this drivel is withering like the sun-drenched petals of a daisy. (Sorry, I'm not much of a gardener and thus I don't know the names of any "fancy-dance" flowers.)
Such a short text, Doris. Please elaborate. Pretentious? How? Why? What do YOU make of the book? That's what we're talking about, the book, our opinions of it as we read. NOT the people who take the time to reflect upon it.
Rae - I was talking about the book and the conversation between Z and Spence or whatever his name at the restaurant - after I posted my response - wondered and hoped no one would misunderstand and think I was referring to responses in the forum - so it was certainly not my intent to offend anyone - Doris -
This book is a real page turner. Anyone who enjoys poetry will not be able to put it down.There seems to be a genuine reverence for the poem and the poet in these pages. Although some of this may seems pretentious( and I did assume that Doris was referring to the people in the novel).There is a lot of information and story for the poet within these pages. Luckily , I was able to get the book and have read far enough ahead to appreciate the encylopedia of poetic knowledge.And on the subject of pretentiousness I will quote the devine Ms.Emily Dickinson: "We play at paste-Till qualified, for Pearl".
C.E. - isn't it strange how we each have our own perspective on things? - When I said pretentious I was picturing Z there with her long cigarette holder (my addition - don't think that was in the book - ) speaking with Spence in their "more intellectual than these other paeons (sp.) attitudes" - again my interpretation - to me they seemed pretentious -
When I think of poets writing I picture them in solitude and not as a corporate business as this book seems to depict them and maybe that is the way it is done now - (my depiction is much more romantic, don't you think?) - I know any time I have written poetry and I am indeed an amateur - but the words come to me in solitary times -
Regarding Emily Dickinson's poem - I FINALLY found the poem - but I don' t think of that as pretentious - don't really understand it - would like your or someone else's interpretation of it - but when written metaphorically - not always easy for us to understand but I am studying it trying to get the meaning -
Oh dear - sounds like this book has me caught in its trap and they do have it at my library but it's out on loan now - may or may not get it and read more - seems Z may be going to get her come-uppence - and I have read several good reviews of the book - of course still doesn't mean we would all like it -
I have only commented on one other fiction book offering in about a year and a half with the club, but I couldn't let this one go by. I always read the comments however, and always find Doris dead on to my thinking. You couldn't possibly be my fiesty 90 year old aunt who lives in Wisconsin and is named Doris could you?
I have found this book to be so much drivel while trying to appear literary.
Stevie - thanks for the compliment (I did take it as a compliment - being compared to your aunt) - but I am not - do hope I can still be feisty when I'm 90 tho' - Doris - (took feisty as a compliment also)
Don't you just hate it when you hit "Post Your Response" and neglect to enter your name?? Anyhow, Doris, thanks for the kind words on my stab at "poetry". It really was just me being my mocking, sarcastic self.
Now, about the book - I realize that we're supposed to find this "wickedly funny" [according to the blurb] however I seem to be missing the humor. What's so funny about an over-eager somewhat ignorant student taking harsh treatment from some pompous flower-obsessed poet named Z? Better yet, who cares?
Okay, okay - now I'M the one being being too harsh. I think it's just best to surmise that this one isn't for me at all...
"Well, in truth, you would be helping me. I haven't the time anymore
to do this kind of research. I want to pay you to sit in the garden
and describe flowers: two dollars a description. It will be our
contract. It would be a great way to develop your writing skills.
And you could learn a lot about the process of revision. I will show
you the strengths, the weaknesses in your own words as I transform
them into my own vernacular." -- Z's words from the 4th or 5th read -
Okay - I may be way off the mark here but sounds to me like a contract entered into by poor naive young girl and Z for Z to "transform them into my own vernacular" - translation - "I'll pay you for your words, descriptions and ideas and I will claim them for my own" as she did in the poem "Spiked lobelia" -
I also am a great lover of poetry and also the turn of a phrase in prose can make my heart sing - but to me this book (the little we have read thus far) if a spoof I am not finding funny and if not a spoof don't know what to call it except not my cup of tea -
Enough from my soapbox for now - and being the curious cat that I am I will have to research some more about this author and her poetry -
We may not all agree - but I do love a good discussion - Doris -
Thanks for clearing up matters. I guess the conversation between Spence and Z really left you cold. It did me too, as did the continuing conversation in the last installment. Won't be anxious to complete this one.
This did not turn out to be as good as i first thought it would.The denegration of obliglitory romance, adultry and lust, left me cold. what happened to the reverence and beauty of poetry?: Do I care if Emily Dickinson was a lesbian? I THINK NOT!
I found the story important, as it reveals at its most raw the duplicity of daily life, especially for those whose future it crosses at a time when they are the most vulnerable to it. As we peer over the shoulders of Annabelle, we wish she would not be so trusting. We urge her to listen to a part of herself that must see that her time is valuable and not to accept more responsibilities than she can handle. We see the crash course she is on. Weinstein brilliantly brings the reader, as well as Annabelle, the predicaments we ourselves face, and recall for some of us a time when we too were naive to how the world worked, so to speak. I'm impressed as well with how Weinstein builds all this to a head with one big broken but, of course, false promise that, as it must, turns the world upside down. We ask, love is wonderful, isn't it, but must it be blind? I'm happy to discover that in the end, a virginity lost yields a truth that is self-sustaining.
(Note. I can't say I found this to be a "wickedly funny" novel. I hope I didn't misread it.)
