The Mother Garden: Stories

What an odd and absorbing set of stories. Some of them are quite moving, others a bit puzzling. All of them will stay with you for days, their striking images the stuff of dreams.

I agree with all the reviewers here... The stories aren't just about loss, but maybe more what people feel and what we do when we reach those edges -- death and love and all of the things we can't make sense of. What struck me, reading these stories was the strength of the language -- hilarious and tender, surprising, complicated and spare. I want to quote some of my favorite lines, but I don't want to ruin it for anyone else!

After reading this book, I've been buying it for friends. Not only is the writing truly beautiful but the stories are deep and moving. And, every now and then, I get to laugh out loud. There's not a better combination.

The surreal abuts the all-too-familiar in Robin Romm's exemplary collection of stories, where mothers take root (at least for a while) and an egg or a goldfish stands in for the fragile emotions at play. While death and illness are recurring themes, Romm deftly avoids bathos, finding her niche in the push and pull between horror, sadness, humor, and sex. There is nothing glib about Romm's magical scenarios; rather, by placing the outre alongside the commonplace, she unflinchingly illuminates both.

I am not much for short stories. Wow, was I favorably impressed with the collection of stories in Robin Romm's The Mother Garden. These stories are like a tender touch to a black eye. Without flinching, Ms. Romm looks closely at what it means to be human. Loss sure, but that is not, to my mind, the meditation here. Rather, its a close up exam of life's relentless hope in the midst of the inexplicable hardships that come our way. Romm gives many of her characters an off beat voice and just enough magic to sharpen the focus. These stories are redeeming, fun and poignant. After reading this book, I sent copies to several friends and family members all living in different parts of the country. Every person responded with an unusual degree of gushing thanks. In one way or another they all conveyed the same message: the book is different, insightful, and makes it so easy to touch those broken and bruised places we all tend to protect while longing to have them touched with a healing hand.