Snapshot Review: ‘Banana Rose’
Novel Title: Banana Rose
Author: Natalie Goldberg
Year: 1995
Story Behind the Book’s Name: The main character, Nell, transforms from a New York City girl to a southwestern commune woman. With her personal changes, comes the change of her name to “Banana Rose.”
Type of Story: Coming-of-age. Love. Life through the eyes of an artist.
Main Setting: Taos Mountains commune, New Mexico.
First Sentence: “The first time I saw him, he was standing in a corral.”
My Thoughts: When my creative writing professor, during my senior year of college, assigned it as required reading for discussion, I was hesitant. The summary on the back cover did nothing to strike my interest. Trying to be a good little student though, and since I liked this professor and trusted his opinion, I read it. I loved it.
Similar Reads: The Honk and Holler Opening Soon by Billie Letts; Barbara Kingsolver’s books, especially The Bean Trees and Animal Dreams.
Other Books by the Author: Natalie Goldberg has written and co-written dozens of writers’ manuals. Some of her titles include Chicken and in Love (1979), Writing Down the Bones: Freeing The Writer Within (1986), Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life (1990), Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in America (1993), Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in America (1994), Living Color: A Writer Paints Her World (1997), Thunder and Lightning (2000, also recommended by my professor), The Essential Writer’s Notebook (2001), Top of My Lungs (2002), The Great Failure: My Unexpected Path to Truth (2004), and her newest one Old Friend From Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir (2008).
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