Building My Zen Garden
From Library Journal
In his first foray into the world of garden writing, Egan (education, Simon Fraser Univ. , BC; The Educated Mind) endeavors to teach readers the principles that inform the design and meaning of Zen gardens through this personal account of building his own garden in Vancouver, Canada. Unfortunately, he does not quite achieve his goal. The narrative is an amusing and heartfelt chronicle of his Zen garden adventure with a desultory sprinkling of observations about the "Zen" principles that guided his work. Egan makes only passing references to unnamed Japanese garden books and web sites he consulted for his project, though readers interested in creating Japanese gardens themselves would have found a specific list of these resources useful. An optional supplement to more standard works on Japanese garden design. ABrian Lym, City Coll. of San Francisco Lib. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
Kieran Egan had a fantasy. Inspired by a visit to a friend"s miniature Zen garden on a balcony in Nagoya, he returned home determined to build his own Japanese garden. Like many men his age, with kids grown up and moved away, he was ready to tackle something new — and tackle was the right word. Even before he began, he had to spend days hacking at the overgrown thicket where his garden would be. At night, dreaming of roots with nothing to do but grow, he thought less about Zen masters than about Dorothy Parker, who observed, "Every year, back comes spring, with nasty little birds yapping their fool heads off and the ground all mucked up with plants. " In spite of the running conflict between Zen philosophy and his own rather slapdash methods, he succeeded in creating "a treat for the eye and spirit. " Like Michael Pollan"s A PLACE OF MY OWN, BUILDING MY ZEN GARDEN will appeal to men, and to women as a gift for men. In these prosperous times, when men of the baby-boom generation are often looking for something new, building a Zen garden could very well be it — even if, after reading and laughing at the author"s adventures, they never build one themselves.
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Tags: Baby Boom Generation, Building, Building My Zen Garden, Creating Japanese Gardens, Dorothy Parker, Educated Mind, Garden, Garden Books, Japanese Garden Design, Kieran Egan, Little Birds, Michael Pollan, Optional Supplement, Own Japanese Garden, Prosperous Times, Reed Business Information, Simon Fraser Univ, Vancouver Canada, Zen Gardens, Zen Masters, Zen Philosophy, Zen Principles
While this isn’t an all inclusive guide to japanese gardening, its a fun and inspiring read. After reading this book I set about building my own japanse style garden; and while I didn’t find myself referring to it for specifics of actually building the garden – I did find myself referring to it for motivation. Egan’s self-effacing sense of humour is particularly enjoyable, as he struggles with such tribulations as moving a large rock, or dealing with a leaking pond (problems that I also found myself dealing with). I would highly recommend this book to any do-it-yourselfer thinking about building a japansese style garden.