Get The BookBrowse Anthology, our 880 page collection of our past decade of Best of Year reviews, now available in hardcover!

William Wordsworth

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reading Guide |  Reviews |  Beyond the Book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

Bloodroot by Amy Greene

Bloodroot

by Amy Greene
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (8):
  • Readers' Rating (3):
  • First Published:
  • Jan 12, 2010, 304 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Jan 2011, 304 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

William Wordsworth

This article relates to Bloodroot

Print Review

Characters in Bloodroot rely on William Wordsworth's poetry as a source of comfort and inspiration, but echoes of his literary philosophy and poetic interests can also be found in the pages of Amy Greene's novel.

Just as Bloodroot relies on memory to tell its stories, much of Wordsworth's poetry focuses on capturing moments of memory and recollection. He developed a philosophy of "two consciousnesses": himself in the present and himself in the past, and a lot of his poetry sought to identify the discrepancy between these two. Whereas Marcel Proust, in his exhausting account, In Search of Lost Time, pursues the depth of memory through the taste of his madeleine cookie, Wordsworth's poetry explores the disjuncture between what is now and what was then.

Memory aside, Wordsworth is most famous for his depiction of daffodils in "I Wandered as Lonely as a Cloud." Throughout the poem, the speaker revels in the beauty of a field of daffodils, only to have the scene shattered when it becomes clear that the daffodils only exist in his memory. The daffodils that Wordsworth describes are carefully personified, described as "golden" and "dancing" which grants the flowers authority. The power of Wordsworth's daffodils and natural world is similar to the role that the bloodroot plant plays in Amy Greene's inaugural novel.

Filed under Books and Authors

This "beyond the book article" relates to Bloodroot. It originally ran in February 2010 and has been updated for the January 2011 paperback edition. Go to magazine.

This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access become a member today.
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Devil Finds Work
    by James Baldwin
    A book-length essay on racism in American films, by "the best essayist in this country" (The New York Times Book Review).

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Happy Land
    by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

    From the New York Times bestselling author, a novel about a family's secret ties to a vanished American Kingdom.

Who Said...

Censorship, like charity, should begin at home: but unlike charity, it should end there.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

J of A T, M of N

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.