Review: Petals Falling on Complicated Ground

Petals in the Wind

Virginia Andrews

HarperCollins

2012 Edition

978-000-792785-2

The memory of it would not allow them to lead ordinary lives.

These words blaze on the back of my copy of Petals on the Wind. Okay, well, maybe they don’t actually blaze (the lettering is in stark white), but the theme of how memory scars us is poignant in this sequel to Flowers in the Attic. The three remaining Dollanganger children remain and grow into adulthood, but how will they survive it?

Cathy Dollanganger continues to narrate the saga of family secrets and the power of memory. She, Christopher, and Carrie have escaped Foxworth Hall and have found solace with Paul Sheffield, a lonely doctor, and his African American maid Henny. Christopher is determined to become a doctor, Carrie is still physically stunted from malnutrition, and Cathy studies to become a ballerina while remaining hellbent on destroying their mother Corrine. But between juggling her lingering feelings for her brother, continuing to mother Carrie, developing her sexuality with Paul and her dance partner Julian, Cathy is still haunted by memories of the attic and all that was lost, including her younger brother Cory. Carrying around the weight of the past takes a toll on Cathy is she becomes the proverbial villain in her own story, seducing her mother’s husband in order to destroy her.

While this narrative whimsically swirled and definitely offered this saga’s trademark drama, the writing was oftentimes redundant and a bit inaccessible. The melodrama was overblown and sometimes hindered the quieter moments within the story, like when Cathy decides to harness the power of her sexuality based on her mother’s past behavior. It was a quite intimate moment, one line really, that spoke volumes about Cathy’s evolving personal and sexual identity. (Please see the previous rumination!) Also, the “love square” between Cathy, Christopher, Paul, and Julian was overdraw and tiresome, leaving me to wonder if having a relationship with Cathy is worth really worth the pursuit. Then then there’s the casting of the lone African American character in a stereotypical role. By today’s polarization of racial politics, this doesn’t help the narrative either. Henrietta “Henny” Beech literally has no voice (she is mute) and is the traditional mammy figure, a character who was lovingly flat with no dimension. Given the book was originally published in the 1980s and set in the mid-1960s to mid-1970s, this characterization is not surprising, but it’s still no less annoying (especially as her space in the book was so minor I wasn’t even sure I could mention her in the review!)

Petals on the Wind continues with the over-the-top family drama. It is the trainwreck you can’t stop watching. Traditional lore is that this series is based on true events. True or not, the writing is simultaneously overshot and stunted, not really evolving from the first book. If you to wash in the over bloated shock of reality TV emotional hijinx, keep reading. If you’re looking to be inspired by the Aristotelian unities of drama, mmm...maybe you can miss this one.

Join me August 4th for my ruminations on the next book in the Dollanganger series, If There Be Thorns.  We’ll see what this third installment will offer. MWAHHH! (God, that sounds ominous...)