Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
I feel like I’ve been saying this so often recently since I’ve read some of her books back to back, but I just love Kristin Hannah’s writing! Her insightful understanding and portrayal of so many different types of people and their experiences absolutely astounds me. Although this one was not quite as good as The Great Alone, it was still an amazing book and one I’d definitely recommend.
A heads up - this novel may seem slow at first and you definitely won’t like some or all the characters in the beginning. The beauty of this novel is that the characters grow so much and there are different layers to each character’s story that it adds to the beauty of Hannah’s portrayals.
This book was Hannah’s most heart-wrenching of the ones I’ve read so far. First, we have the cold treatment from the mother Anya to her two daughters Meredith and Nina. This would hurt any young child but the worst part is Anya shows moments of tenderness to her husband, the girls’ father, or while she is telling the girls fairy tales. What is it about her daughters that she can’t show the same love and tenderness? Second, we finally get the entirety of the Russian fairy tale and it changes absolutely everything as it slowly blends into reality.
At first, the dysfunction between sisters Meredith and Nina bothered me as although they sometimes commiserated about their mother’s cold nature, they were also so harsh to each other. But as the story went on, I realized it was their mother’s indifference and harsh judgments rubbing off on them. If your mother is angry at either of you, why can’t you just change so she’ll love you both? In the beginning I also felt as if Meredith and Nina’s love stories added one too many story lines. But as everything came together I realized Hannah knew exactly what she was doing. I should never doubt her.
Of course, the ending had me ugly crying and cursing Hannah. The ‘what could have been’ made me so upset that I was angry and although I understand why it ended the beautiful way that it did; I was still hoping she had changed it just a bit.
Synopsis: Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family apple orchard: the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, Meredith and Nina find themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother, Anya, who even now, offers no comfort to her daughters. As children, the only connection between them was the Russian fairy tale Anya sometimes told the girls at night. On his deathbed, their father extracts a promise from the women in his life: the fairy tale will be told one last time - and all the way to the end.