The Rose Grower by Michelle de Kretser: book review

In the ten years from 1789 to 1799 in the village of Montsignac in Southern France, love blooms among the tender petals of roses and the thorns of the French Revolution.

In The Rose Grower (2001) Jean-Baptiste raises his three daughters, Claire, Sophie, and Mathilde amid the isolation of the farming village while writing a treatise on the history of French food. There is a day of excitement when an American balloonist, Stephen Fletcher from Paris, falls from the sky into their fields, changing their lives and their world forever.

Claire, the eldest is married to a man in exile as a traitor. She lives with their son. She loves the brash American balloonist but is morally tied to her husband, Hubert. The balloonist loves Claire but knows he cannot have her. Instead, he hopes that Hubert dies in the war.

Sophie, the middle daughter and an aspiring rose grower, loves the balloonist too, but her love is unrequited. The local doctor, Joseph, loves Sophie, but she barely notices him. Joseph dislikes Stephen intensely. If Joseph had to name a rose after the brash balloonist, it would be Bombast Recollected or Fragrant Fool. To Sophie’s father, Jean-Baptiste, neither Stephen nor Joseph are suitable partners for his daughter; Stephen is too arrogant and Joseph is too harsh.

Mathilde, the youngest daughter, loves her dog, Brutus. No-one has a problem with that.

Love, jealousy, desire, and rejection are set among the disease and decay of the French Revolution. Malice, unpatriotism, counter-revolution, and the spectacle of execution by guillotine are too strong for fragile love and roses.

Humorous, evocative and tragic, it is an intriguing and interesting novel.

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