The bestselling novel from the beloved author of Writing Down the Bones, Wild Mind, and Long Quiet Highway is now available in paperback for the first time. With a half-million copies in print of her three remarkable books of nonfiction, Natalie Goldberg has inspired a generation of writers with her insight, humor, and empathy. Subtly hilarious and achingly raw, her first novel Banana Rose has rewarded her devoted fans while attracting a whole new readership to her work. Banana Rose is the story of Nell Schwartz, a Brooklyn-born Jewish girl who moves to the Taos of communes and sweet cedar smoke, transforms herself into Banana Rose (because she's "bananas"), falls in love with a horn player named Gauguin, and believes they can stop time if they just love hard enough. It's also about Nell and Anna, a strange-eyed writer as lonely as the Nebraska farm where she grew up, whose kisses taste like raspberries and who teaches Nell what it means to be an artist. But most of all, Banana Rose is about Nell's struggle with her own wild heart, with the demands of canvas and paint, with her family and faith, and with her irrepressible longing for home.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
I Loved This Book!:
Natalie Goldberg has an amazing way with putting words together it's as simple as that. Banana Rose was full of very complex characters and I LOVE Taos, so I love anything about that area. Much like the music and lyrics of Bob Dylan or R.E.M. sometimes I don't understand what they are saying, but I love the sound of it, the way the words fit together. Natalie's writing is exactly like that. She is an abstract artist with words, even though it might be hard to put your finger on the meaning, you love the way... more info
boring:
Her descriptions are good. I read "Writing Down the Bones" and thinking that Goldberg, in that book, mostly teaches how to get it all out in a carefree way, which may be good for practice writing. Still, I hardly ever find my practice writing good to read. It reminded me a little of Nell's rambling story. I definitely didn't get "into" it. I couldn't understand Nell's actions...there was no depth! She just did what she did, that was it. So she slept with two other people right before her wedding, that's... more info
Funny if you've ever heard Natalie read from her books:
I started this book before ever hearing Ms. Goldberg read from one of her books. I wanted to prepare for her visit to Spirit Rock Meditation Center and started Banana Rose. I had a hard time getting into it. I found that Banana was a bit of a whiner and the story seemed to go nowhere interesting. But when Ms. Goldberg gave a talk and read from her book, "The Great Failure," suddenly her voice leaped out at me. Her phrasing and emphasis helped me see that where I earlier took Banana as a "whiner," she was... more info
A soul seaching book:
I notice from reading the reviews, most of it was either love or hate! This is the first Goldberg book that I have read. After reading it, I gave it an okay or average grade. But for some reason the book has stayed with me. So there must have been more to it, then I gave it credit for. I am looking forward to reading a few more of her books as they were highly recommended. I think myself growing up in the Hippy era that Goldberg was writing about, made it easier for me to relate to some of the crazy... more info
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