Title: Not All the Flowers Turn Into Pumpkins – One Woman’s Journey
Author: Julie Trinham
Publisher: LuLu
ISBN: 9780994381507
Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 534
Reviewed by: Barbara Bamberger Scott
Pacific Book Review
Drawing from journals and memories of a fascinating past, author Julie Trinham has created an emotional travelogue that allows the reader to be an observant passenger on two transcontinental sojourns.
In 2004, the author was given the chance to live for a couple of months in Japan, to help her daughter complete her foreign studies by serving as after-school caregiver for her two grandchildren. It would mean quitting her job, which she wasn’t too keen on anyway, and though it wasn’t a place she’d ever wanted to go, she agreed.
In 2013, having resolved to devote herself to her painting, she was finally able to go the city she’d always dreamed of visiting: Paris. Her book comprises her recollections and excerpts from diaries that she carefully kept of experiences in both places. The chapters jump back and forth from one to the other. In each place, she learns smatterings of language, observes much about the depth of culture unique to each, explores exotic cuisine from sushi to café crème, juggles Australian dollars with Japanese yen and French euros, and comes to know and enjoy the company of the local folk. Childhood vignettes and her deepening passion for art and for the plight of the Australian aboriginal people also play a role in this colorful, wide-ranging memoir.
Trinham references in her title the fact that some experiments don’t work out as we planned, just as all flowers don’t germinate to fruits. Sharing her adventures illustrates how difficult it can be at times to overcome cultural barriers, and how much time is spent by all travelers simply trying to acclimate and integrate. Her flights to and from her native Australia are part of the story that all travelers will readily empathize with. What emerges is a portrait of a bold, unconventional woman willing to confront the world on its own terms, while maintaining her sense of self. Neither Paris nor Tokyo fully satisfies all her inner needs, but in both places, she realizes, she will leave some trace of herself, and perhaps that is reason enough for being there, and for coming home.
Trinham’s reflections – humorous, intelligent, varied – will stir similar memories in those who have traveled far, and perhaps motivate others more home-bound to seek new horizons.
