Review
A Therapist's Perspective
by C. V. — Therapist, Adult Healing Center / Montpelier, France
Elizabeth Garden's cathartic codex: "Tree of Lives" can open difficult wounds, but this book will also cleanse them; and help bring a troubled reader to the path of healing.
Garden's book has been a great blessing to my Adult Healing Workshops in Montpelier, France, where I host private retreats for a set of international women and men who are survivors of childhood trauma.
Our Summer workshops involve three weeks at the center, split by ten days in nature (in the Pyrenees Mountains and on the Mediterranean Coast), which gives the guests/ patients ample time to read. "Tree of Lives" is in our library at the center, and before the "dix-jours en plein air" (ten days of fresh air), I give a little introduction to the book and see who wants to take a copy on the trip.
The beginning is a bit harrowing and can be a challenge for our guests/patients as hypersensitivity is common to abuse survivors. But usually on the second or third day, I notice a change come over the person reading this book...
Two-thirds of our guests/patients are professional women, and the rest are professional businessmen. Many of the women and men have important and demanding executive jobs at top companies. They come to our retreats because they know they can count on our non-judgmental attitude and complete discretion and confidentiality. Because telephones are not permitted - their cameras are a privacy threat - and because our clinic has a very strict "no social-media" policy, our guests/patients are exceptionally vulnerable staying with us. This is because much of their professional lives is about staying connected through technology. This vulnerability is one factor that aids the change "Tree of Lives" inspires.
A second factor is their heightened vulnerability caused by their unfamiliarity with exposing their true selves in the company of their peer-group; (after all, emotional and physical abuse in childhood can haunt the adult lives of high achievers more than it does other people; as lower-income workers are usually able to incorporate many of their unhealthy behavioral patterns, which they learned through abuse, into their lives with complete transparency, without it raising flags or signaling alarms among their personal and professional relations.
But high achievers feel obliged to conform to the elitist standards of politeness, and need to appear irreproachable, exposing none of the individual quirks that make us human and are endearing to members of the lower-classes; whereas in their class, such quirks are seen as flaws and can carry heavy penalties.
So, taking these vulnerabilities into account, a book with the power of an author's first-hand experience dealing with trauma, and so beautifully written, has the power to provoke catharsis. As Elizabeth Garden is herself an abuse survivor, her words contains the necessary emotions and language patterns for what in psychology is called: "tertiary social sharing."
While this book is capable of wetting the eyes of healthy adults, I have observed these serious professionals who are abuse-survivors while reading"Tree of Lives"; and I have seen them reach the second half of thebook... all of a sudden, these faces that are usually serious and hard as rock, melt completely and fall into tears. It is a very beautiful thing.
The problem with most reputable books written on abuse is their authors lack of first-hand experience; which, though it is unfortunate that Ms. Garden had to be a victim of childhood emotional and physical abuse, the rest of us are lucky for this; because, her pain is what gives her book its gift to cleanse.
Many Books Review:
Best Books of The Month June 2020
Posted on 16th of July, 2020 by Naomi Bolton
Best Literary Fiction
Tree of Lives
by Elizabeth Garden
Tree of Lives by Elizabeth Garden is an epic story about a young artist named Ruth. It is a tale of her courage and perseverance as well as the exploration of a tragic family secret. Ruth has a promising future but has the deal with the consequences of coming from an abusive and bigoted family as well as her father's undiagnosed mental illness. Although very disturbing at times, the book is filled with endurance and hope.
14 Books for Every Feminists Bookshelf
Books that speak to the feminist in you
by Jacob Jacobowitz
Being a feminist means that you never stop learning about women's rights and the feminist movements that have occurred throughout time. These books explore feminist history and theories, inspire readers to be better versions of themselves and tell the uplifting life stories of fellow feminists.
#1 Tree of Lives by Elizabeth Garden
Tree of Lives is the inspiring story of a scrappy artist who creates the life she envisioned despite the many men who sought to control, abuse, manipulate and take advantage of her. Ruth, the female protagonist and ultimate survivor, came from a seemingly normal suburban Connecticut family with a horrific secret. An epic journey of female triumph over unaddressed family and societal trauma, Tree of Lives is a two-track story of a determined women's struggle to make her own life after being stymied at every turn, using wit, grit, art and a wide open heart.
Pretty Progressive: TREE OF LIVES:
THIS IS THE PERFECT WOMEN'S BOOK CLUB BOOK! This epic true story follows a baby boomer named Ruth and her struggles with her deeply abusive upbringing, the nexus of the dysfunction being the secret tragedy that set the stage for the many obstacles she had to overcome. It includes dramatic, literal cliff hanger scenes, family secrets, narcissism and abuse, mixed races, genetics, mental health, single motherhood, the Other Side, religion, and inspiration through visualization. Thought provoking discussion questions are in the back pages. This book is currently being used by therapists for victims of abuse.
Pretty Progressive
Powerful Women Studied These 49 Books In Detail
TREE OF LIVES by Elizabeth Garden
Tree of Lives is an inspiring book for any young woman caught in a cycle of abuse or still living at home with narcissistic, controlling or alcoholic parents. This epic true story follows a young artist named Ruth and her struggles with her deeply abusive upbringing, the nexus of the dysfunction being the secret tragedy that set the stage for the many obstacles she had to overcome. It includes dramatic, literal cliff hanger scenes, family secrets, narcissism and abuse, mixed races, genetics, mental health, single motherhood, the Other Side, religion, and inspiration through visualization. Thought provoking discussion questions are in the back pages. This book is currently being used by therapists for victims of abuse.
From the Author
I think many folks, especially artists, suffer from the fallout from the undiagnosed mental illness of others. Luckily, art can serve as an escape hatch and a pathway to document the rawness of that tightly packed energy which seeks release. I believe that when suffering is put into words or form, the sharing of it dilutes the pain as others harmonize in that same key, and real healing can begin. Indeed, I am very gratified that Tree of Lives is used by therapists for adult patients of childhood abuse. Bigotry and its evil twin, white male domination, are woven into the fabric of the typical 20th Century American ethos on full display in the main character Ruth Thompson's household. Her rocky path out of the "Wildwoods" can be seen as a heroine's journey through the invisible gauntlet of unaddressed childhood trauma. Ultimately, Ruth learns that self awareness, imagination, forgiveness, grace and a cautious distance can help us avoid the secondhand smoke from that often blinds and chokes us as we make our way through life.
From the Back Cover
Ruth took the rocky path out of the Wildwoods.
Based on actual events, Tree of Lives explores how history, secrets and family traumas interconnect to affect future generations. You will be both horrified and uplifted by this vivid tale of Ruth, a woman who is sublimated and abused by the men in her life. She uses her artistic talent to eventually empower herself and find her own voice. The book transitions between a long buried but very public tragedy by a man in 1930 and his great niece Ruth, born 25 years later. Emotionally charged threads expose the ghosts of the past which walk with her throughout. The author draws you into Ruth's world with a painfully honest narrative and frank descriptions of the darker elements of human nature and mental illness. Your heart goes out to Ruth as the tragedy becomes a celebration of life and hope. This is an unforgettably vivid portrayal of a complex life.
About the Author
Elizabeth Garden (a pen name) is not a writer who likes to draw. Rather, she is an artist who wrote a book and whose life is a mirror of Ruth's, the fictionlized main character in Tree of Lives. A baby boomer raised in suburban Connecticut, Garden distinguished her young self as a talented artist who dreamed of an art career. Unfortunately education was neither encouraged nor supported by her controlling, male dominated family, so Garden invented herself as best she could, though with considerable reaction to the abuse she first saw as normal life. Hired for a part time job in her 8th months of pregnancy with her second child in 1982 for what seemed like a dead end paste up job at a drab newspaper, her career in publishing blossomed thanks to those who saw her potential. Garden's quick grasp of computers evolved into page design and art direction in the publishing world. With a career in high gear but a personal life stuck in reverse, Garden continually sought answers to her many personal dilemmas by delving into the hidden world of ancestry, the unconscious and the occult to understand why things were the way they were. She instinctively knew the answer lay with the ghosts of her family of origin. A major clue presented itself in the mid-'90s, when she learned of a tragic family secret. After that many things fell into place but not without struggle. Compelled to write the story but wary of exploiting the tragedy, only when she saw its context with her own life was she able to write her award-winning story.
