In My Father's Garden

January 8, 1996
For most of her life, Chernin (Crossing the Border, 1995), a psychoanalyst now in her mid-50s, has considered herself her "mother's daughter--stormy, revolutionary." But, she declares in this affecting and intimate memoir, as she grows older she finds that she is "perhaps my father's gentle, dreamy child even more." As she has grown away from her mother's once dominating influence (expressed, for example, in Chernin's In My Mother's House, 1983), she also has found herself rejecting her parents' Marxism in favor of belief in "an unseen order." Chernin tells three "stories" here to explain her evolution and views. As a daughter, she re-examines her father's capacity for worship and finds that she is now drawn to how he expressed his love for the world through unobtrusive acts of caring and through his tending of his garden. As a therapist, she takes on the responsibility of guiding a cancer-stricken middle-aged woman through the process of dying. As a seeker, she dares follow an impulse to travel to Germany to meet the spiritual sage Mother Meera (erstwhile guru to both Andrew Harvey and Mark Matousek). Speaking to those who believe that only "politics of total commitment on a grand scale" matter, Chernin proposes that personal efforts can transmit effects in ways unimaginable, through "the mysterious consequence generated from small acts of engagement with the world." This is, to Chernin, the basis of a new "spiritual politics"--for which, in her honest, fluent book, she proves to be a passionate and gifted spokesperson.

August 1, 1996
In this beautifully crafted parable of spiritual discovery, Chernin (In My Mother's House, HarperCollins, 1996) reflects on the ways in which the simplicity and serenity of her father's daily activity in his garden became the model and foundation for Chernin's own spiritual journey. In haunting prose, Chernin guides us through her pilgrimage from atheistic teenager to spiritually awakened woman. Through her retelling of an experience of comforting a dying friend and of an encounter with a Hindu holy woman, the author evokes the teachings of compassion and wisdom that her father's work in his garden taught her. With this little meditation, Chernin shares with us the manner in which exalted moments of spiritual self-awareness are grounded in the ordinary. Highly recommended.--Henry Carrigan, Westerville P.L., Ohio

July 1, 1996
Chernin's latest book provides a candid counterpoint to her earlier "In My Mother's House." This thoughful account illuminates a writer's connectedness to a father who existed in the shadow of a dynamic mother. Moreover, Chernin (a noted psychoanalyst, prolific writer, and well-known feminist) re-creates her own richly rewarding path to inner growth, with a "declaration of . . . mystical learnings" revealed in three separate yet inherently commingled narratives. Expanding on her relationship with her father, Chernin goes on to relate experiences with a dying friend and a trip to Germany to meet a woman said to be a divine presence. Surprising personal revelations and profound meditations contribute great depth of feeling to this luminous memoir. ((Reviewed July 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)