The Language of Flowers
by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
As Reviewed by Joan Kirschner

As I write this in mid-January, on yet another day where the temperature has reached an unseasonable 50 degrees, I can’t help thinking of the promise of spring, which for me means flowers in a profusion of colors and scents. Already there are signs of the season to come in my mailbox: garden catalogs, and a postcard announcing the dates of the Philadelphia Flower Show.

With that in mind, it will be no surprise that I was intrigued by the title of this month’s book selection, The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. Diffenbaugh was a new author for me, and it turns out that this is her first novel. What a find!

I chose the audio book format for my commuting hours and found that I was driving just a little more slowly in order to spend more time listening to this compelling novel.

The heroine of this tale is Victoria Jones, who is eighteen years old and just emancipated (the legal term mentioned repeatedly and significantly) from a childhood of foster and group homes. She trusts no one, and has no friends or attachments, but she does have one characteristic: an extraordinary love of and gift for working with flowers and plants. On her own in San Francisco, she at first sleeps in a park, cultivating a tiny secret garden, and carefully holding on to her little money and few possessions, the most important of which is a guide to the language of flowers, used by the Victorians to communicate messages to friends and lovers.

Along with her emotional and financial insecurities, Victoria carries a dark secret, a painful memory that she has encased in the armor of her combative, belligerent behavior.

Her chance encounter with a floral shop owner who offers her some part-time work is a brush with kindness she at first hesitates to accept, but her destitution and the chance to work with flowers make it irresistible. The shop owner is only the first of a number of compassionate women who will help Victoria begin to confront and overcome her past, which also includes a male character who takes on greater significance as the story spins out.

The story moves back and forth between Victoria’s young adulthood and childhood, providing a history and explanation for the reader, until the two are finally reconciled. Central to this is her vividly remembered relationship with a former foster mother, whose own emotional difficulties made a giant impact on Victoria’s life.

Motherhood is a pivotal theme that runs through this book, and greatly significant to the plot. It is viewed back and forth, from all sides, and in all its complexity, by the various generations of mothers, daughters, and granddaughters. The mirrored sides of joy and pain create a complete but at the same time fragmented picture.

Diffenbaugh’s consistent use of the language of flowers is a clever device that helps tie the story together. It is both fascinating and a central focus of Victoria’s life.

To find out how beautifully Diffenbaugh ties this story together, read The Language of Flowers. It is not a book that you will soon forget.

© Copyright 2012 by Joan Kirschner

Joan Kirschner is a locally based freelance copywriter and editor specializing in advertising communications, and has more than two decades of experience with leading national retailers and direct marketers. In addition, she is the book critique writer for:
The Women of Gloucester County online magazine’s The Book Corner.

Joan received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Penn State University and completed a professional certificate program in TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other Languages) at CUNY Brooklyn College. She considers education to be a lifelong process.

Contact Joan at: joan.kirschner.copywriter@gmail.com and 856-459-1765 or 856-381-9348.