Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya

It seems apparent that some of the reviewers picked up this book with the misguided notion that they were going to read some wonderful account of their beloved Himalayas. Apparently you have no idea who Jamaica Kincaid is or what her writings are about, so if are upset because you have "been to the Himalayas and there are much better writings," it's because you've never read (or probably even heard about) "My Brother," "Lucy," or any other of her profound literary works. She is not a travel author, and although this work is set during her physical journey, it, like every other work of hers, is about the psychological, emotional, and social journeys we all make. Anyone has the right to write a review, but please make sure you have some idea of the genre of the book before you start casting dispersions. Personally, I give this book a 4 only because I consider this work to be less introspective than her others. It's still more profound than 90% of the other writings out there, just not as emotionally revealing as, say, "Autobiography of My Mother." Her writing is, as always, lyrical, with the unique ability to paint an extraordinarily vivid picture of even the most banal scenes. I highly recommend it, but only if you are well aware that this is not a "travelogue."

This is a lovely book which beautifully describes an extensive trek in a remote area of the Himalayas. Ms. Kincaid and her close friend, Dan Hinckley, a distinguised botanist, make the trip together. Dan Hinckley has traveled in the region extensively. It is the author's first Himalayan trek and she trains diligently to be prepared for its rigors. The author is a gifted writer who describes the feelings and emotions triggered by the beauty of the region and its warm and hospitable people. Ms. Kincaid's style is most engaging and includes wonderful description, humor, and great senstivity. The focus of the trek is the collection of seeds for propagating Himalayan plantlife in North America. The passion of the participants for gathering the seeds of rare species is engaging to gardeners and non-gardeners alike. All who have journeyed to this special part of the world, or intend to, will enjoy this charming book.

Among Flowers is an account of Kincaid's trek in the Himalaya with her botanist companions. Kincaid, living in Vermont but originally from Antigua, is an enthusiastic gardener herself though not a seed collector to the extent of her botanist companions. On occasion, particularly at the beginning, I couldn't help wondering what Kincaid was doing on the expedition other than gathering material for this quirky introspective book. She makes much of missing her thirteen-year old son Harold and keeps calling him on her satellite phone until Sunam, the Sherpa leader, takes it away from her due to the Maoist activity in the area. Also she is acutely aware that most of the seeds collected are not suitable for growing in Vermont and therefore shows little or no enthusiasm for them. As regards her companions, she mentions them by name but dispenses with detailed description. It's as if they were pale ghosts beavering away in a mystical landscape in their quest for seeds. To say I didn't care for the book would be wrong, rather, I did enjoy it, but found several sentences repetitive, stumbling, and bordering on the nonsensical. The writing does not flow easily ... ... "Dan said we were too low for finding this; Bleddyn said, yes, but soon we would be." ... ... "It resembled something my children would play with in the bathtub, rounded and dullishly smoothed, like an old-fashioned view of the way things will look in the old-fashioned future, not pointed and harshly shiny like the future I am used to living in now." ... ... "When I told Sunam how touched I was by his presence, this little boy, the same age as my son, carrying sixty-pound loads strapped up on his back, he said of course I would be touched because Jhaba was a Sherpa." ... ... "Now the shield itself was behind me, I could no longer see the mountains that had been the shield of my destination." ... It's as if this stumbling style mimics Kincaid's stumbling trek ... "That night in the cold dark and snow when I had stumbled into camp, what I had missed seeing growing spectacularly among the boulders hovering above me was the great Rheum nobile, growing solitary, erect, aloof, and stiff like little sentinels." Despite her off-beat writing style, or because of it, Kincaid succeeds in capturing the mysterious atmosphere of her surroundings and the frustrations of seed/plant collecting combined with the real danger of confronting Maoist guerrillas. A view on another world within a world. She manages to give an impression of possessing a contrived naivety through her writing style which is simplistic and complex all at the same time. Nevertheless, I'd prefer to have had her participate more and given a gutsier descriptive account of the seed collecting and the people surrounding her. That's style for you, what gets published and what doesn't. I'd be interested to know how much editing went on. Agents and editors are notorious for cutting and suggesting re-writes for clarity or