This is a beautiful book. Fleischman's ability to imagine a range of separate but interconnected lives provides a powerful reminder of the way in which we are all part of something bigger than ourselves. He has a unique capacity for empathy which inspires me to become more empathetic.
I like, too, the way in which there is a specific geographic setting -- a neighborhood in Cleveland -- because it demonstrates that places matter in our lives. Places become a part of our identity, and their details and unique characteristics shape us in a variety of ways.
The ongoing metaphor of seeds growing and changing, and the cycle of seasons and lives, seems straightforward, but the way that Fleischman develops the metaphor is poetic and moving.
An excerpt from the chapter "Sam":
Squatting there in the cool of the evening, planting our seeds, a few other people working, a robin signing out strong all the while, it seemed to me that we were in truth in Paradise, a small Garden of Eden.
In the Bible, though, there's a river in Eden. Here, we had none. Not even a spigot anywhere close by. Nothing. People had to lug their own water, in buckets or milk jugs or soda containers. Water is heavy as bricks, trust me.
And new seeds have to be always moist. And in all of June it didn't rain but four days.
