The Language Of Flowers

In The Language of Flowers, Vanessa Diffenbaugh's powerful first novel, a damaged young woman, Victoria Jones, who can only communicate through the Victorian language of flowers, goes from being homeless to a sought after wedding floral designer.

The Victorian language of flowers was used to express emotions: honeysuckle for devotion, azaleas for passion, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it has been more useful in conveying feelings like grief, mistrust and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings.

Now eighteen, Victoria has nowhere to go, and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own. When her talent is discovered by a local florist, she discovers her gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But it takes meeting a mysterious vendor at the flower market for her to realise what's been missing in her own life, and as she starts to fall for him, she must decide whether it's worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness. The Language of Flowers is a heartbreaking and redemptive novel about the meaning of flowers, the meaning of family, and the meaning of love. Beautiful, original and utterly unforgettable, it is set to be the fiction sensation of 2011.

Vanessa Diffenbaugh was born and raised in California. She has degrees in Creative Writing and Art Education from Stanford University. She is an activist and has worked in non-profits with "at risk" youth, including homeless and foster youth. She and her husband have three children, Graciela, Miles, and Tre'von and live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews by members of our Uncorrected Proof Book Club

Review #1 by Jane Rawson, Yarraville, VIC

Rumour has it that The Language of Flowers is set for best-seller status, which just goes to prove that I am, once again, out of step with public opinion.

The Language of Flowers is the story of Victoria, given up at birth, cycled through foster home after foster home, and unable to feel love or connection. At the age of nine she goes to live with Elizabeth, who teaches her the messages we can send through flowers. Victoria and Elizabeth form a relationship – largely due to Elizabeth’s persistence – and it seems Victoria will be adopted and finally have a family.

But between them, Victoria and Elizabeth sabotage the relationship and Victoria goes back into the child welfare system. Both blame themselves and they never speak again.

As a grown woman, Victoria – who lives in a park and wears all her clothes at once – is hired by a brusque but kind florist, startled by her native talent for arranging flowers. Victoria meets Grant, Elizabeth’s nephew, and they fall in love(ish). But Victoria is convinced she can’t be trusted to love anyone, and she sabotages that relationship as well. Through all the emotional upheaval, Victoria manages to run a hugely successful florist business. Thanks to her thorough knowledge of the “language of flowers”, she builds bouquets that bring her clients their innermost wishes. This device is a kind of half-baked magic realism, and reminded me of “Like water for chocolate” but without the charm. The rest of the book is so relentlessly everyday, that Victoria’s mysteriously influential floral arrangements just don’t seem to fit; it’s like Diffenbaugh lost her nerve and didn’t embrace the idea fully.

Victoria struggles with love and connection, but I felt like her struggles were nothing out of the ordinary. We all have trouble trusting people, we all mess up relationships. I would have expected more striking emotional malformation in someone who had never been loved in her life and had been mistreated for most of it. While the author is clearly interested in the lives of foster children, I don’t think she did her character justice. Her problems are solved too easily and her emotional coldness seems more like an attribute (‘she wore quirky hats’, ‘she liked to drive with the window down’, ‘she was unable to love’) than an integral part of her character.

The Language of Flowers is certainly easy enough to read, and moves along at a nice pace. If you’re after a light read, or are obsessed with flowers, or enjoy any books set in San Francisco, this might be for you. If you’re after a little bit more, look elsewhere. Note, however, that just about everyone who has reviewed this book online totally disagrees with me, and thinks The Language of Flowers is the book of the year.

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