cover image A Garden Story: The Creation of an Urban Garden

A Garden Story: The Creation of an Urban Garden

Leon Whiteson. Faber & Faber, $18.95 (168pp) ISBN 978-0-571-19868-9

Reaching an impasse in the course of writing a novel, Whiteson, architecture critic for the L.A. Herald-Examiner, inspected his overgrown Hollywood backyard and set to work. Digging in the yard was a welcome relief from tapping at a keyboard; he found that he enjoyed the rhythm of going back and forth between mental and physical activity. Whiteson began by completely clearing the neglected yard to provide a ``blank page''-he uses the metaphor of his garden as a ``green'' novel that parallels his ``white'' work on paper. He reminisces about his father's garden in the former Rhodesia and intersperses the garden story with entertaining commentary on the Los Angeles cityscape and his own neighborhood. As the garden takes shape, Whiteson finds that it has connected his head with his hands, cultivating a surprising quietness. Nongardeners can appreciate this book, and gardeners will be delighted by it. (May)