Rousseau's Garden

Lisa Arsenault is an elementary-school teacher in Ajax, Ontario.

Claire returns to Paris to investigate the mystery of her mother’s
changed character and depression following her return from her last trip
to Paris when Claire was an adolescent. Claire herself has recently been
experiencing panic attacks and wonders if there’s some physiological
link to her mother’s condition.

Claire’s journey through the French landscape parallels her
mother’s experiences. Both women are artistic, both share a love for
the works of the 18th-century French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
and both experience revelations regarding love, marriage, parenthood,
and friendship. Claire fulfils her quest to discover what happened to
her mother and finds out a lot about herself along the way.

This absorbing novel boasts interesting, complex characters, a good
plot, some humor, and an evenly paced narrative. Some beautiful images
are evoked, such as the description of marriage as “an archive,
nothing being lost, if you remembered the code,” and the likening of
happy moments to solar energy to be stored for darker times. At the same
time, every sentence gives the impression of having been crafted until
it was absolutely perfect, and a certain stiltedness results. The
following sentence is typical: “she suspected that the special
qualities she and Zoe ascribed to the friendship had much to do with the
telescoping of narrative and emotion, impressed upon them by the
infrequency of their meetings.” Rousseau’s Garden is recommended for
readers who appreciate a very formal, polished style of writing.