The Orchard: A Memoir (2011)

This memoir about young love and acceptance in the middle of a pesticide-filled apple orchard was pretty unique, but not entirely compelling. Weir is writing about her late husband and the early years of their marriage. The changes in Weir and her husband from the beginning of the memoir to the end are striking, but I wish Weir had spent more time on that evolution. She doesn't do a particularly good job of showing how and why they change. Perhaps much of it is still too painful for her (I hate criticizing memoirs because they are so personal to the authors). Read it if you are interested in apple orchards and the use of pesticides. ( )

This is a touching memoir ofliving on a farm in the midwest. ( )

This is brilliant. The prose and structure is like that of a dark fairy tale-- the naive girl, the handsome prince, the evil stepmother, the enchanted land. Very moving. I have thought about it many times since finishing it. ( )

Although I don’t usually read memoirs, this lovely story by Theresa Weir of her married life is novelistic in style, and really is an unforgettable story.

Theresa was 21 when she met 23-year-old Adrian Curtis, and they married a mere three months later. Adrian was an apple farmer and Theresa went to live with him in one of the small buildings on his family’s farm. Adrian’s parents, particularly his mother Ruth, were opposed to the marriage, and constantly tried to sabotage it by trying to maintain control over Adrian and by disparaging Theresa. But life on the apple farm had many rewards too. Theresa loved the beauty of the natural setting, and became emotionally invested in the art of raising tasty apples. But she never realized until it was too late that the ubiquitous pesticides used to ensure the health of the apples were not so beneficial to the health of the people who inhaled them.

Theresa ends the book with a poignant plea to readers to understand that you can never know when you can lose someone, and so, she exhorts us: "Don’t wait. Don’t ever wait."

Discussion: This book would make a wonderful book club choice. How do you deal with hostile in-laws and a spouse who feels caught in the middle? How much should you sacrifice for the sake of family harmony? How do you even know whether you love someone or not, just because you share a life and children? When the choice is a healthy crop to support your family, or a healthy family with no means of support, which do you choose, and how do you justify it?

Evaluation: This story of hardship and suffering, and love and hope pretty much stole my heart. At the end of the book, I felt like I knew this family well, and my tears were not only for all that Teresa had lost, but also for all that she finally achieved. ( )

When I first started this book I wasn't really in the mood for a memoir and almost put it aside twice, but the writing was excellent and I found the people, Theresa and her uncle very interesting. By the time I was done I had goosebumps. This memoir is about how 2 people, both exceedingly young, who have little in common, trying to make a go of a marriage and an orchard. When they have children together, they form a family and grow together to find, love, peace and a sort of contentment. Yet there is so much more in this relatively short book, ties to family and land, farmers and pesticides, expectations and hopes and finally an ending and a new beginning. ( )