Mister Owita's Guide to Gardening: How I Learned the Unexpected Joy of a Green Thumb and an Open Heart

The publisher’s description of this memoir as “a white woman living in a lily-white neighborhood in Middle America” who befriends a male Kenyan gardener had me a little wary about simplifications and stereotypes. But I actually keep an eye out for books published by Amy Einhorn's imprint at Penguin … and my own yard needs work … and so I looked forward to a memoir that applied gardening metaphors to friendship and life.

Alas, I found the writing amateurish (overwritten, with poor time and content management) and the author prickly. But worse (I hate when this happens!), I found the publisher’s description inaccurate -- this is absolutely a breast-cancer memoir and a memoir about aging parents, woven with a thread about show more friendship ... with Giles Owita, who I did love and welcomed every time he came to the page. show less

Carol Wall's MISTER OWITA'S GUIDE TO GARDENING, a memoir of family, friendship and life-threatening illnesses, is something of a slow starter, with Wall telling of her childhood, marred by the death of an older sister, born with Down Syndrome and a heart defect and her own bout with a thymus condition, treated with radiation by an overzealous physician. She believes this treatment resulted in later neck and throat tumors removed during her adolescence. And later, as an adult, she endured breast cancer and its debilitating chemo treatments.

But, despite all of these illnesses, she seems to have made a good life as a high school English teacher with her lawyer husband, Dick, who she married when she was only twenty and he nineteen, both show more still in college. They raised three children who all seem to have turned out well and live in a comfortable home in Roanoke. But now Wall is coping with the decline of her aged parents - her mother is failing physically and suffers a series of strokes and her father has Alzheimer's. And then Wall herself has not just one more recurrence of breast cancer, but two, resulting finally in a double mastectomy and more chemo and radiation and all of the awful side effects. She does not suffer these multiple setbacks gracefully; her husband bears the brunt of her worst doubts, fears and crises of faith (she is a devout Catholic convert).

But she finds solace in the close if guarded friendship she has formed with a Kenyan immigrant named Giles Owita, who she learns belatedly is much more than just her 'gardener.' He holds a Ph.D. in horticulture and practices a Zen-like attitude towards life and all living things. She comes to know his wife and children too and learns their story and sad family secrets.

And yes, this 'slow starter' soon began to suck me in as the misfortunes of both families began to multiply. Through the medium of plants and gardening the friendship between 'Mrs Wall' and 'Dr Owita' deepens and takes on a meaningful and touching 'professor-student' nature as successive setbacks and tragedies befall both families.

Wall's memoir covers a lot of ground: the inevitable ups and downs of a long marriage, coping with serious illness, loss and letting go, fear and misunderstanding, religious faith, and - perhaps most of all - the importance of friendship, because Giles Owita becomes a true friend, and is a man you will not soon forget.

This is a book which will probably resonate most with women readers, because of its in-depth documentation of the terrors associated with the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Wall went through it all more than once and each time it tested her marriage and shook her religious beliefs. Because of her blunt honesty in telling of her travails, Wall sometimes comes across as a bit neurotic, maybe even a whiner. But, to be fair, she had reason for her vigilance and hypochondria. She'd already been through it all and was terrified of a reoccurrence. Men - husbands - should read this book too. Highly recommended. show less

I do not have the greenest of thumbs. When I bought some of the broccoli, spinach, and lettuce plants that the high school horticulture class had babied along from seed, I brought them home and placed them in the sunniest spot I could find in the house as I figured it was too cold to put these tender little things outside. Two weeks later, they were still alive but crawling with aphids. I painstakingly pinched every tiny aphid and egg I could find every other day while cursing my original impulse to buy them. My daughter mentioned my struggles to the horticulture teacher who told her that they're winter plants and should be planted outside. I breathed a sigh of relief and did that. They promptly died. Clearly I'm cursed. And I don't show more think I'm meant to garden. So I was intrigued by Carol Wall's memoir, Mister Owita's Guide to Gardening, about her own gardening shortfalls that were turned around by the wonderful man she hired to bring order and beauty into her neglected, overgrown yard.

Carol Wall hated flowers. They symbolized death to her and so when she hired her neighbor's new gardener, Mr. Owita, to tackle her own yard, one of the first things that she asks of him is that he pull out the gaudy azalea bushes a former owner had planted. He quietly ignores this particular instruction as he starts to transform Wall's yard. As Mr. Owita makes inroads in the yard, he and Wall start to develop a tentative friendship as well, sharing little tidbits about their lives and families. Soon the tentative friendship blossoms into a much deeper friendship with each of them confiding some of their hopes and fears in each other. He is consoling as she walks the difficult path of caring for and eventually losing aging, ill parents and grapples with her own scary diagnosis. She wants to help him and his wife bring their daughter over from Kenya to join the family they've made in the US.

As she tells of the blessing of friendship with Mr. Owita, Wall also reflects on the many things he's taught her: gardening, certainly and an appreciation for flowers and their ephemerality but also equanimity in the face of obstacles, an acceptance of the cycle of life, simple gratitude, courage, and the importance of kindness and forgiveness for all. Through her assumptions about this poor Kenyan immigrant, who in actual fact holds a doctorate, she must face her own prejudices, horrified to find that she has any at all. She witnesses his caring interest in his fellow human beings, his tranquility, his contented joy in life, and his simple but important and powerful acts of nurturing both people and plants. She sees the contrast in his approach to life and her own rage against circumstances that she cannot change and the ways that it hurts her and those she loves. From him, she learns to dig in the dirt and to envision future beauty.

A very personal and moving memoir, this is very definitely a love letter to a remarkable friend. It is a lovely and engrossing read that will enchant memoir readers looking for more than just another dysfunctional life story. Although there's not perfection here, in either Wall's or Mr. Owita's lives, and there are seemingly insurmountable obstacles to overcome, there isn't the dysfunction so common in the genre. Wall looks honestly at her own past and the battles she has fought. She doesn't shy away from detailing the times when she thought Mr. Owita's advice was wrong or too hard, only to discover that his advice was in fact the thing that she most needed to hear. He turned around more than her yard; he helped her to change how she views the world and her place in it. And he helped her see the beauty in her azaleas. show less

What a beautiful way to show the power of relationships developing through the sharing of life issues over time---and all originating over the terrible condition of Wall's yard! Wall writes beautifully about all of her emotions through her health issues and about her personal connections with family and friends over the years. Everything connects with Mister Owita as the two of them share their lives, always connecting through the state of her "compound." Owita is truly a magical sort of person but his magic is slowly uncovered in this memoir and it's fascinating as well as heartbreaking as she shows us how powerful misconceptions are in our lives and the harm they can do. A lovely book---well worth reading and absorbing.

Mr. Owita’s Guide to Gardening

A surprising friendship blossoms between two people with supposedly very little in common.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SUMMARY
Carol Wall was at a crossroads in her life. Her children were grown, she had successfully overcome an earlier illness, and her beloved parents were getting older. One day she notices a dark-skin man working in her neighbors yard. The yard was gorgeous, while hers was well beyond “rough around the edges.” It wasn’t the worst yard in the neighborhood but it was quickly moving in that direction. She wanted to hire this gentleman to work on her yard. His name was Giles Owita, and he had immigrated from Kenya. The book is about the relationship that develops between Carol and Mr. show more Owita. It is about the changes in both their lives and about how they helped each other overcome some difficult battles.

“I never liked getting my hands dirty. This was one reason that our yard looks so sad but there were other reasons, too— bigger reasons that were much harder to confront than brutal grass and overgrown bushes.”

REVIEW
My favorite part of this charming story was the silent war over Carol’s three azela bushes. She detested them and wanted them yanked out...Mr. Owita thought them beautiful, and merely fertilized and trimmed them. And so their relationship began. She was furious, he would not do what she wanted with the blasted azaleas, she wanted to be in control. Mr. Owita was a soft-spoken, humble horticulturist with a huge smile for everyone. He was full of wisdom about plants and about the difficulties of life. A unique and enjoyable part of the book were the letters that Mr. Owita and Carol exchanged with each other. Each letter from Mr Owita further conveyed his wisdom and bright attitude. They were a joy to read. The story written by CAROL WALL was part memoir and part tribute. The writing was charming, heartfelt and thought-provoking. It increased my awareness of the importance of treating all those around you with respect and dignity. You never know what someone else is going through.
Publisher Berkley Books
Published February 3, 2015
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

“It’s seem to me like too many people spend too much of their time taking care of their houses instead of enjoying their spouses. And where was the fun in that? show less

Mister Owita’s Guide to Gardening arrived as if on cue during the recent winter doldrums to provide an entertaining respite from the cold and snow. Author Carol Wall has managed to weave a lot of elements (poetry, spirituality, life, death, gardening, friendship, aging parents, intolerance, racism, provincialism, etc.) into her story and yet has managed to make it a very enjoyable, peaceful, and thought-provoking read. In fact, there are many stories within her story and many messages to be learned. But be warned: you might need a Kleenex or two.

Readers who are expecting an actual guide to gardening from this little gem will be disappointed as the title is really just a metaphor for life. The author tells her true story of living with show more and surviving cancer. Often brutally honest and at times understandably self-centered with many a woe-is-me-moment, the author shares her fears, anger, loneliness, grief, and family troubles dealing with this uncertain disease all the while still dealing with unresolved childhood issues and aging parents. By way of an unexpected friendship with an immigrant gardener (Mr. Owita), who has his own crosses to bear, she ultimately arrives at a place of gratitude, compassion, and balanced acceptance of her situation in life and is helped greatly by letting others in and by helping others. Through Mr. Owita’s strong, principled character and his own misfortune she learns his philosophy to “bloom where you are planted.”

Miss Wall’s personal journey is very real and inspiring and I’m sure writing her memoir was a very cathartic experience not to mention an endearing tribute to a dear friend. I think Mister Owita’s Guide to Gardening would be a perfect selection for a book club as it can offer many great topics for discussion as mentioned above. Weeks have passed since I read this and yet the story still lingers in my mind. One should certainly not judge this book by its cover which happens to be another one of the morals of this story! show less

When I received Mister Owita’s Guide to Gardening by Carol Wall as an Advanced Reader Copy I was eager to dig in (pun intended). I enjoy gardening and wondered what this memoir would teach me. Surprise…it was not really about tending a garden. It was more about tending a life, tending a friendship, tending to people who cross our path. It is the story of a very unlikely friendship between a suburban white wife, mother, teacher and a Nigerian immigrant, professor, horticulturist, gardener. When Carol Wall approaches him to help her transform her yard and garden, she is unprepared for effect his presence will have in transforming her and her life.
I found the book touching while not being sappy. It reminded me to pay attention to life show more around me and the effect of others on the quality of that life. The characters have physical and emotional hardships and you can feel the pain, the frustration and the helplessness that is experienced. It was a gift to be reminded of the power of caring. show less