The Sunflower Forest - Torey L. Hayden

For those of you who read my last Torey Hayden review "Overheard in a Dream - Torey Hayden," you will know I am a huge fan, so huge infact that I have every single one of her books and am in the shop as soon as the new one is released. So after reading Overheard in a Dream and loving it I decided I would definitely buy her second novel "The Sunflower Forest."

I had high expectations as I always do with Hayden's work, however after reading the first 3 chapters of this novel I was disappointed that it wasn't matching up to its predecessor and thus I wasn't really feeling very involved in the book. By that I mean I couldn't really picture the places being described and I couldn't really indulge in the scenarios being portrayed. This worried me and I feared I wouldn't get into the book enough to enjoy the content.

However my fears were brushed away as I read on. The Sunflower Forest though slow to start really lured me in and got me hooked. By the 6th chapter I had fallen for the plot hook line and sinker and was so engrossed that once again I was reading a book I couldn't put down (much to my boyfriends disgust).

The Sunflower Forest tells the story of a family living in Kansas, the two children Lesley the eldest and Megan the youngest born to a Hungarian mother and an Irish/American father. As a family they had travelled far and wide, never settling in one place for too long with mama always keen to move on when she wasn't happy, and daddy always happy to oblige. The result of these frequent moves was two children who often struggled to make close friends or form strong bonds with their peers.

Once in Kansas, and settled mama had "spells" these "spells" are cleverly written by Hayden who is describing mama's deteriorating state of mental health. Each "spell" described a situation where mama because depressed or acted strangely in the presence of the children. During her "spells" the girls knew to stay well away until she returned to her normal self.

Mama, called Mara, as I said is a Hungarian national, who lived through world war two in Germany. She was fluent in Hungarian and German; spoke English but regularly spoke all three languages in one conversation, mostly falling into German or Hungarian if she couldn't be bothered to concentrate on getting the English equivalent correct. Mara was subjected to horrific attacks it Germany as a young women, raped for her blonde hair and blue eyes and kept in what could be called a baby production place otherwise known as the hostel. The story develops to concentrate on Mara's previous children, those she had prior to Lesley and Megan, those she had amid torture and abuse from the Nazis. Those who were removed from her care so she could breed again. They were called Klaus and Jozsef, Klaus who was taken away from her when she pretended she could no longer produce breast milk to prevent the embarrassment of leaks, and Jozsef who she smothered to prevent him being removed from her care.

Whilst the novel focuses on Lesley the young women in her late teens growing up and learning about life, the underlying family issues all stem from Mara and her state of mental health. As Lesley looks after her sister, her mother roams the house either happy, singing and storytelling or sad and moping around in her dressing gown. Her father out working. The story tells of Lesley's ability to excel in languages and her dream of going to university to pursue them. It concentrates on her growing of age and forming a relationship with a local lad as well as the pressure she feels in finally bringing him home to meet the family. Constantly fearing her mother's emotionally wellbeing and often feeling obliged to take care of her, to the extent of missing school to watch her during the day to make sure she stays well.

The story of Mara develops as she meets a young child who she believes in Klaus, the son she never saw grow up. The son who would now be in his late thirties or early forties and could by no means be the young boy she befriends. Toby Waterman is young and the spitting image of Klaus, he is desperate for friendship and Mara is soon calling him Klaus and saying that she has found her long lost son. At this point in the book it is obvious that Mara's mental state is far worse than previously described. It is also at this point that Lesley and the family begin to worry about her. Despite the growing concerns and warnings from the Waterman family to stay away, Mara continues to see the boy until the situation see's her arrested and forced to see a psychiatrist.

During this time Megan at nine years old is reading up on World War Two and Lesley is beginning to have a greater understanding of the brutality Mara suffered at her age.

From the middle of the novel onwards the story develops quite rapidly and each chapter is quite fast paced, moving through the weeks until is abruptly slows and reaches a rather shocking climax (which I won't reveal or it will ruin the story). From this point on again it begins to move quickly and see's Lesley reject the idea of University and to travel to Wales, in her search of her mother's beloved "Sunflower Forest." It is in Wales that she learns so much more about her mother, and thinks less of the family she left behind in Kansas. As her holiday turns into weeks and then months, Lesley ceases writing to her family and concentrates on the farming family she is staying with, in the Welsh mountains. Until finally she explains to the Welsh family what brought her to her mother and fathers old home. She decides it's time to return but takes with her that fact that her mother's stories of the sunflower forest were not real, there never was a sunflower forest in Wales, and infact there never was the Forest of Flowers that her mother had so vividly described to her in all those stories and all those tales of Wales. For Lesley this had been the reason she had travelled to the foreign country, to understand the time and place her mother once loved, but for Lesley the trip was ruined and wasted by the fact she discovered that the truth was in her mother's mind and that infact whilst it was not real, in her mother's eyes they were, and that means that they were never lies, just long tales told in such a way they would have taken on a truth from any persons lips.

This novel really had me gripped by the end and I came to love it. I'm not sure it matches up to the first one, but it's definitely a great read and whilst I haven't given an awful lot away I would recommend reading it and making your own mind up.

The style of writing is different to Hayden's normal work, and so if you have only read her autobiographical pieces you may find this difficult to adjust to, but when you do it is well worth it as she writes equally as well in a fictional format as she does recalling her own personal experiences.

NB: Where I use reference to the new books by Hayden - they are infact reprints - I have never seen the original covered books in the shops but browsing online stores you will find the same novels with different covers.