Cutting Back: My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto

Buck is a California garden designer and aesthetic pruner who went to Japan for a three-month apprenticeship in Kyoto, working in some of Japan’s renowned gardens. Her memoir is a mix of gardening insight, cross-cultural observations, and personal development. Buck has as good an eye for cultural dissonance as she does for pines that need pruning. She is also unsparing in her self-observations, wrestling with her American ego in the context of another country’s work culture. The through line of her narrative is the slow development of her professional relationship with her crew boss, Nakaji, whose leadership style is primarily management by yelling. The changing nuances of her understanding of him are particularly engrossing and give the book a kind of literary skeleton. This is an absorbing read about the formative interplay of humans, cultures, and gardens. [em](Apr.) [/em]