Pears on a Willow Tree

by Leslie Pietrzyk

Paperback, 1999

Status

Available

Publication

Harper Perennial (1999), Edition: First Edition, 292 pages

Description

Pears on a Willow Tree is a multigenerational roadmap of love and hate, distance and closeness, and the lure of roots that both bind and sustain us all. The Marchewka women are inseparable. They relish the joys of family gatherings; from preparing traditional holiday meals to organizing a wedding in which each of them is given a specific task -- whether it's sewing the bridal gown or preserving pickles as a gift to the newlyweds. Bound together by recipes, reminiscences and tangled relationships, these women are the foundation of a dignified, compassionate family--one that has learned to survive the hardships of emigration and assimilation in twentieth-century America. But as the century evolves, so does each succeeding generation. As the older women keep a tight hold on the family traditions passed from mother to daughter, the younger women are dealing with more modern problems, wounds not easily healed by the advice of a local priest or a kind word from mother. Amy is separated by four generations from her great-grandmother Rose, who emigrated from Poland. Rose's daughter Helen adjusted to the family's new home in a way her mother never could, while at the same time accepting the importance of Old Country ways. But Helen's daughter Ginger finds herself suffocating within the close-knit family, the first Marchewka woman to leave Detroit for the adventure of life beyond the reach of her mother and grandmother. It's in the American West that Giner raises her daughter Amy, uprooted from the safety of kitchens perfuned by the aroma of freshly baked poppy seed cake and pierogi made by hand by generations of women. But Amy is about to realize that there may be room in her heart for both the Old World and the New.… (more)

Rating

½ (24 ratings; 3.6)

User reviews

LibraryThing member bookheaven
Very good book about 4 generations of Polish women.
LibraryThing member Moosewoman
It was interesting reading about the Polish culture. Did not have any knowledge of that cultural before reading the book. It was a good book .
LibraryThing member Bookish59
The story of the close knit Marchewska women beginning with Rose emigrating from Poland to Detroit in 1919 and bearing 4 daughters. Her mother dies soon after her departure, and in her grief she creates and enforces an environment of dependence and loyalty to family that holds firm for years. The
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families grow larger; living in the same neighborhood, seeing each other every day, shopping together. And the women spend hours in their kitchens preparing, cooking, canning and baking all year long.

It is Helen's daughter, Ginger, who breaks the mold and escapes what she feels is an overbearing, stifling and racist family environment in which everyone is expected to think the same way, do the same thing, day in and out. She moves to Phoenix and remains there returning only to visit every summer with her children. But the price she pays for the guilt she suffers for abandoning her mother and family is very high.

A good read about a strong, dynamic family of women who are there for each other but cannot understand or accept change.
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LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd
Four generations of women, beginning with Rose, a Polish immigrant, and ending with her great-granddaughter, Amy, explore how to relate to one another and to their common ancestry; how to hold on to the past, and how to let it go. We know there are men in these women's lives, but as in the second
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generation's orderly American homes, they are always in another room somewhere. This isn't their story. The viewpoint changes from one woman to another as the novel proceeds; most of the time this works very well, but occasionally, especially at the beginning, it was difficult to remember which voice I was listening to. One section where Amy, on holiday from her job teaching English in Bangkok, struck out alone on a sightseeing jaunt seemed glaringly out of synch with the rest of the novel, although it could easily stand alone as a very effective short story.
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Language

Original language

English

Physical description

8 inches

ISBN

0380799103 / 9780380799107
Page: 0.4214 seconds