The Florist's Daughter

The Florist's Daughter by Patricia Hampl

Patricia Hampl's memoir is wonderful, moving and personal. With her dying mother's hand held in her own at the side of a hospital bed, Hampl reflects on the wonderful weight of being a daughter--of both loving, caring for and honoring parents, and receiving parents' love, care, and pride. Her story unravels as a lyrical stream of consciousness, flowing seamlessly as she moves from one mind's image to the next. Deeply reflective prose draws readers into the heart of remembrance--for her family and her beloved St. Paul, and the self that grew with them.

Patricia Hampl's new memoir "offers the bloom of meditation on the mysteries between parents and children, between the past and the present, and between those old adversaries, beauty and truth." --Kristin Ohlson, author of Stalking the Divine

Comments

[Kate Budzynski]

Though Hampl's memoir seems to emphasize the ordinariness of Midwestern life, she at the same time highlights all that is extraordinary about growing up in the great "middle" her parents so devoutly strive for. Her book speaks to how profoundly so many small and seemingly simple things that happen throughout one's life have lasting and far-reaching effects. Perhaps Hampl feels she was overprotected in her certain "middle" life, but she proves to be just as astute an observer as she admires her mother to be--apples might not fall far from the trees on which they were grown, but they do tumble down their own paths.