Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya

Anyone familiar with Jamaica Kincaid’s work knows that the natural world and, in particular, plants and gardening are especially close to her heart. Along with such acclaimed novels as Annie John and Lucy, she’s also the author of My Garden (Book), a collection of essays. Now, in this travel memoir, she invites us to accompany her on a seed-gathering trek in the Himalaya.

For Kincaid and three botanist friends, Nepal is a paradise, a place where a single day’s hike can traverse climate zones from subtropical to alpine, encompassing flora suitable for growing in their home grounds from Wales to Vermont. And as she makes clear, there is far more to this foreign world than rhododendrons that grow thirty feet high. Danger too is a constant companion – and the leeches are the least of the worries.

For along with the narrow paths that skirt vertiginous drops, these mountains are haunted by Maoist guerillas, and when they appear – as they do more than once – their enigmatic menace lingers long after they have melted away into the landscape. And Kincaid explores the irony of her status as memsahib with Sherpas and bearers – and understands that the liberating, exotic pleasures of travel are inextricably intertwined with the everyday pleasures of home and family.

A wonderful blend of introspective insight and beautifully rendered description, Among Flowers is a seriously entertaining, thoroughly engaging, and characteristically frank memoir from one of the most distinctive and striking voices writing today.