The Walled Garden (83) (Essential Essays Series)

“The Walled Garden is not physically a big book yet it is an intelligent one that is filled with intriguing ideas.”

The Walled Garden by Mark Frutkin is a collection of essays that contemplates complex questions about life and language through examples such as art and films. Each essay seems as if Frutkin is writing a letter or postcard to the reader without addressing a particular person. As a result, this form of narrative allows the reader to feel as if Frutkin is a longtime friend or mentor sharing wisdom or interesting facts with them. At times, one senses as though Frutkin is taking them on a journey through history or embarking on a meditative retreat because the writing is descriptive and strong.

The writing itself pours poetry: “As the trees and plants are expressions of earth, they will ultimately return to that earth whence they came. All this world is nothing more than sparks of light reflecting from the mirror of emptiness; words, poems, songs arise from silence and fall back into silence, breath tasting the air and giving back into air, rain falling in a river.”

The cover is also inviting with an emerald color and before the reader even opens the book, they are mesmerized by the light, shadows and uneven stonewall that seem to anticipate the life questions or philosophies that Frutkin handles with compassion and insight.

One essay that describes Denis Villeneuve’s film Arrival addresses the following question from the movie: “If you saw what would happen in your entire life, past and future, would you change anything?” Frutkin shares compelling notions and the reader may find themselves having to pause, reread and reflect on their own experiences as if they are strolling in a garden and taking in the fragrances and scenery around them. These essays encourage slowing down and looking at what is in your presence and examining aspects of life, art, films, or religion. If we take a moment to observe our surroundings, we can find beauty, complexity, pain and joy.

This is what Frutkin’s essays do: They let the reader observe brilliant words and descriptions while, at the same time, Frutkin gives his take on certain challenges all humans experience. From the birth of a child to the death of a parent, Frutkin shares his own personal stories and, in the end, builds a connection with the reader that they cannot help but also feel the sorrow or joy of each situation.

Although the writing is beautiful and the insight intriguing, sometimes the reader may falter and lose themselves in certain philosophical concepts (depending if one is philosophical or not) but Frutkin masterfully draws the reader back on the path of the book with accessible language and explanations and leads the reader to a better understanding of the theory being examined in the essay. Each section is threaded together with Frutkin’s powerful and playful use of words. A reader unfamiliar with some of the films or art described in the book need not worry since Frutkin paints each passage with gentle strokes and rich descriptions. This, too, produces a desire in the reader to want to know more about these films, photographs, or art.

Calmness also fills the pages of this book and even with tough subject matters, Frutkin has created a safe place for readers to feel what it is to be human without inching back and giving up. The book is fluid in its motion as it moves from one essay to the next like walking in a garden, moving from one plant or flower to the next.

With the movement of time, one would hope that years of acquired experiences could allow the sharing of wisdom with others and Frutkin has succeeded in doing this in his brilliant book. The Walled Garden is not physically a big book yet it is an intelligent one that is filled with intriguing ideas. Frutkin allows the reader to climb the walled garden and in the beauty and heartache around them, the reader is reminded that life is a gift and through the trials and tribulations, there is hope.

Frutkin is a gifted writer who does not retreat from handling complex questions in order to provide some answers that the reader can either accept or debate. This is what makes a brilliant writer—allowing the reader to observe, think, accept or question—and Frutkin has done this eloquently in his new collection of essays.