HOTHOUSE FLOWER AND THE 9 PLANTS OF DESIRE
Margot Berwin
Pantheon
Fiction
ISBN: 9780307377845
Lila Nova seems like a stereotypical New York thirty-something ad exec: slightly cynical, smart and ambitious. But after her devastating divorce, her outlook begins to change. One day in her neighborhood green market, she sees a plant, a beautiful plant that makes her stop in her tracks. She buys it from the handsome, sexy and intriguing vendor, David Exley, and it flourishes in her small barren apartment. In Margot Berwin's fun and fantastical debut, HOTHOUSE FLOWER AND THE 9 PLANTS OF DESIRE, Lila's purchase begins an adventure in magical horticulture that takes her from New York City to the jungles and beaches of Mexico in search of the world's nine most powerful plants.
Shortly after buying the bird-of-paradise from Exley, Lila stumbles upon an amazing laundromat. In it plants grow wild and moss covers the floor. The proprietor, a strange and cryptic man named Armand, gives Lila a cutting from a rare fern and tells her to return if she can succeed in getting the plant to root. When she does so, Armand shares with her the myth of the nine plants of desire. There are nine plants, he explains, that are powerful and elusive; when collected together they have the ability to give the owner all they desire. He promises someday to show his collection to her. But before he can, the laundromat is looted and the plants stolen. Armand and Lila quickly realize that David Exley is the thief, and they leave New York for Mexico to try to collect specimens of the nine plants to replace Armand's stolen ones.
Lila soon finds herself in a world totally alien; in the jungles of Mexico magic reigns and she must overcome her fears, harness her own powers of will, desire and attraction, come face to face with the power of the jaguar, confront Exley in a dangerous attempt to steal back one of the plants, and finally, save the man she loves (who she incidentally poisoned) from certain death.
Berwin's tale is part botany textbook, part adventure story and part romance novel, and is totally infused with magical realism and traditional folkloric motifs. Lila's journey is nothing less than completely transformative, and the characters she meets along the way are seductive and powerful. To survive and complete her odyssey, she has to decide who she can trust and in the end learn to trust her own instincts. In this way, the book is a modern fairy tale: Lila is the heroine who must conquer an external enemy while becoming her true self assisted by spiritual guides (human, animal and plant).
Berwin’s first novel is confident and lively, and her prose manages to be both passionate and funny. She is at her best in marrying wit and science: the plants are perhaps the most compelling characters presented. There are plenty of surprising and interesting moments to keep readers turning pages. Sometimes predictable and sometimes too far-fetched (magical realism is an ambitious style to undertake, much less in a debut), HOTHOUSE FLOWER AND THE 9 PLANTS OF DESIRE nevertheless delivers an original story and interesting characters in an amazing setting.
--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman
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