Wednesday review

The Three Loves of Persimmon by Cassandra Golds,
Penguin, 2010.

This novel was shortlisted for both the N.S.W. and the Victorian Premier's Awards and it's easy to see why. It's a modern fairy-tale, complete with a mouse called Epiphany and a talking ornamental cabbage. The setting is an under-ground railways station where Persimmon runs a florist shop. Epiphany, the mouse, longs for a life 'Somewhere Else', but Persimmon, estranged from her family, longs for companionship.

She is instructed by her (deceased) Great Aunt Lily to begin a Quest for Love. Golds' gentle humour is often present in this book and the flurry of letters Beyond the Grave are good examples of this;

For a child who knows so much about flowers (and birds and bees and things, you know) you are surprisingly backward.

Of course, gentle readers, you will know instantly who is to be Persimmon's love, but the journey she takes to arrive there is one could offer small lessons in unrequited love to the attentive reader - and console anyone suffering a similar condition. Epiphany's Quest for the Palace of Flowers and Somewhere Else provides a slightly different slant on the courageous journey to self.

Although I wouldn't quite go as far as calling this a crossover book, I'd certainly recommend it to any reflective teenage girl who was craving a little old-fashioned certainty in her life.