Everyone has a history. But how we choose to tell that story is a matter of personality, style, and imagination. Illustrator and writer Katie Vaz has chosen to tell her history through plants. Her new memoir, My Life in Plants, tells of important moments in her life and in her relationships using a flower or a vegetable or a houseplant that played a part in that memory.
For example, there were the carnations that her mother sometimes gave her at her gymnastics meets, the summer in high school that she spent picking strawberries, the mums she left in front of her dad’s house when he was traveling so the house would look and feel lived in, the cat grass her adopted cat refused to eat, the poinsettia she bought when she was in graduate school in Germany over the holidays, or the tulips her husband brought inside because she said she always wanted fresh flowers in her home.
Some memories are sweet, like the prom corsages or the basil she grows in her kitchen that makes it feel like her space. Some are more poignant, like the standing funeral wreath from her father’s funeral or the Boston fern that died due to her grief following the death of her beloved cat Spanky. Most of these moments are about her love for her family and the few close friends she keeps near her, and they reflect the intention of Vaz to try to make the most of each moment and not lose herself in thoughts of what other people’s lives look like or what she thinks her life should be.
Vaz’s openness and honesty in telling her story is brave and lovely, and it’s that vulnerability that drew me in. She speaks a lot of her overthinking, of comparing herself to others, to what she sees on social media, to what she sees on television and in movies. I can relate to that, to the overthinking and how that can ruin moments that could be special memories.
Each story is accompanied by hand-drawn illustrations, the moments of her life on display along with those plants she loves. Vaz has a specific point of view in her illustrations, and they add a genuine and personal level to each one of these short chapters.
My Life in Plants is a unique and enchanting way to tell a life’s story, and it would make a perfect gift for anyone who is struggling to figure out who they are and where they fit in life, lovers of plants and flowers, and anyone who can appreciate the engaging drawings throughout the book.
Egalleys for My Life in Plants were provided by Andrews McMeel Publishing through NetGalley, with many thanks.
