Rosemary for Remembrance

190 pp. "Rosemary for Remembrance is a saga of family secrets. As layer after layer of past is pulled back, allowing us in to view hidden thoughts and truths, we find out about each character's history and obsessions. This novel also explores the meaning of "culture" in two senses. First, the story involves three generations of a family steeped in Corsican culture. Rosemary for Remembrance switches back and forth between the new and old worlds and between present and past, allowing us a look into the difference between the cultural mores of old Corsica and those of modern America. At the center of the novel is the widow Savaria, who grew up in Corsica and has lived her adult life in America. It is mainly through her eyes that we see the difference between the Corsica of her childhood and of her parents, and the America of her adulthood and of her children. The second meaning of "culture" has to do with art--specifically poetry, which plays an important part in the lives of these characters, providing them with the passion and the motivation for many of their actions. Rosemary for Remembrance is full of poetry, with poems written by characters as well as famous poems referred to with reverence. Rosemary for Remembrance is full of remembering. As the suicidal Ophelia remarked, rosemary is the symbol of remembrance. To Savaria, it is also the symbol of fidelity. At the end of the novel, rosemary helps Savaria not only to remember the past, but also to accept the present and to continue on." "Yvonne West is a lifelong lover of the arts. Her father was an American artist, and did much painting in Corsica; her mother was a French concert pianist. Yvonne was educated in France, England, and the United States. She is a graduate of Vassar College, and has worked as a translator, interpreter, and language tutor. A resident of Jacksonville, Florida, she is also the author of The Dolphin Pool."