Apologia
Over my elementary and high school career, I have been assigned the task to read a book and then elaborate on whatever I chose, numerous times. I was usually allowed to pick any book in the library, and it was almost always by an American author. This year Mr. Hindley assigned the class to read a book by a Canadian author. A CANADIAN author!The first thing that came to my mind was "Who are Canadian authors?" I had never really heard of any famous Canadian authors, which is pretty bad, considering that I live in Canada. The worst part is, that when I went to the library to pick out a book by a Canadian author, the librarian could only think of 3 authors off the top of her head. I finally chose the book 'The Lost Garden' written by Helen Humphreys, and you are probably thinking "who is Helen Humphreys?" Well, that is exactly why I am writing about her, because I believe that she is a significant Canadian author, but is also an unknown author to many Canadians.

Helen Humphrey is a brilliant Canadian author who wrote the book 'The Lost Garden' which I had the pleasure of reading. Her first novel was written in 1997, when she was 36 years old, but her first book of poetry was written when she was just 24. Being the versatile writer that she is, she enjoys writing novels more than poetry at the moment because, she feels that "as a reader you enter a book and live inside there. And in poetry, there's no place for you"(Richards, Linda L.). She does admit that some day she would like to go back to poetry, but not quite yet. Helen Humphreys first novel, Leaving Earth "was a New York Times Notable Book in 1998 and won the Toronto Book Award the same year"(Richards, Linda L.). Her second novel Afterimage won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize as well. Humphreys is a significant author because she takes a lot of time to research for her books before she writes them. For example, she knew nothing about flowers before writing 'The Lost Garden' which has many pages full of in depth information that the average person would not know about flowers and gardening. This dedicated writer also gets into the roles of her characters as each night while writing 'The Lost Garden,' she placed the real Genus Rosa (only 2 copies in the library system in Canada) on her stomach, just like the character of Gwen Davis did in the book. It is the little things like this that makes a book interesting, as you know the author really understands the characters that they are writing about. Another very significant and interesting thing that Humphreys does is incorporate real life stories from her family into this fictional book, which leads me to talk about the significance of the actual book 'The Lost Garden.' The way that Helen Humphreys ended up writing the book is also very significant. She "wrote the last two pages first and then started right at the beginning and wrote toward those final pages"(Tancock, Kat). Humphreys claimed "this book it just came out first, and was literally unchanged from first draft to finished draft"(Tancock, Kat).

The 'Lost Garden' is set in the time period of the Blitz or in other words WWII. This is an ironic thing for Humphrey to write about as both of her parents lived through it and she did not. The book, although fiction, has a fair bit of truth in it in comparison to Humphreys life. In the book, Gwen Davis' best friend Jane has a husband who is missing in action. This lost RAF [Royal Canadian Air Force] pilot has a story very similar to that of Humphreys grandfather who "disappeared in 1941 and was never found again"(Richards, Linda L.; Tancock, Kat). Humphreys' other grandfather "found a lost garden on the English Estate where he was living at the time. He worked with the garden: brought it back to its own fullness and, after his death, the estate was sold to a condo developer and the garden was lost again"(Richards, Linda L; Tancock, Kat). This is almost exactly like Gwen Davis' life in the novel. This content is unknown to most readers, even I was not aware until I was finished reading the book, but it made the book even more interesting and appealing to me. It is information like this, that I think makes a book significant among others.

Among the real facts of the story, there is much more to this book that makes it a great read. The love story intertwined in the novel grabs every ones heart's, who doesn't love a great love story? Humphrey reveals through her writing the pain that the character of Gwen Davis has felt in her life. Through expressive words that Humphrey uses, we understand how Gwen feels, and the hurt in her heart after Raley refuses her. The book has many aspects in life in which many different people can relate to, which makes the novel a great read for just about anybody. Another matter in the book that I feel is significant is the metaphor; "something that is lost, briefly found and lost again"(Richards, Linda L.) that everyone can relate to some way in their life. This is because "all of us have some sort of lost garden. There is always something that has been untended and has grown wild. You know, emotionally or something we used to be or something we used to do that we've let go"(Richards, Linda L.). This metaphor makes the book seem so much more than just a story when you apply it to different aspects of your own life, making this novel more than what it is made out to be. Many would agree that Humphreys work is "a story of longing, life and death- the stuff all great gardens are made of"(www.wwnorton.com).

Hopefully after reading this, you will understand why I believe that this novel and the author are a very significant in Canadian Literature. Helen Humphreys as of right now is not a well known author and is clearly not getting the credit needed for her intense writing in the 'Lost Garden.' She puts so much thought into her writing and I believe that she should be recognized for it, just like all great American authors. From now on, I will pay more attention to Canadian authors and next time when I have the chance to pick a book for a project, I might just give the Canadian authors the credit they deserve and pick up one of their books instead.