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    Cutting Back: My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto
    Cutting Back: My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto
    Cutting Back: My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto
    Audiobook7 hours

    Cutting Back: My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto

    Written by Leslie Buck

    Narrated by Caroline McLaughlin

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    At thirty-five, Leslie Buck made an impulsive decision to put her personal life on hold to pursue her passion. Leaving behind a full life of friends, love, and professional security, she became the first American woman to learn pruning from one of the most storied landscaping companies in Kyoto. Cutting Back recounts Buck's bold journey and the revelations she has along the way. During her apprenticeship in Japan, she learns that the best Kyoto gardens look so natural they appear untouched by human hands, even though her crew spends hours meticulously cleaning every pebble in the streams. She is taught how to bring nature's essence into a garden scene, how to design with native plants, and how to subtly direct a visitor through a landscape. But she learns the most important lessons from her fellow gardeners: how to balance strength with grace, seriousness with humor, and technique with heart.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJun 6, 2017
    ISBN9781541475205
    Cutting Back: My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto

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    Reviews for Cutting Back

    4/5

    32 ratings6 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I'm very much an amateur gardener (when I can be bothered to garden), so I was awed by the work described in this memoir, which depicts the author's experience working for a gardening company in Japan. Working in another culture, barely speaking the language, the author provides insight into so many Japanese gardens - from small residential plots to grand imperial showcases. It's a fascinating tour of a world I had never really imagined. The author also discusses how her experience drained her, her struggles working in a culture she didn't fully understand, and how she managed to endure - all of which resonated with me.
    • 4/5
      While I enjoyed reading this book and learning more of the culture which produces such gardening masterpieces, I was also in two minds about the 'suffering' Leslie Buck went through. Was it necessary to have such dis-regard for self? Is the Japanese employment situation really so dire?I want to like Japan but reading a book like this makes me think that I see the country through rose-tinted glasses. Having stayed with a family in rural Japan, I now wonder did I offend them? was I sufficiently grateful? I didn't like her use of the expletive 'Jesus' - it just didn't contribute to the story. She was honest enough without being more honest!!The boyfriend sub-plot was an effective foil to the story.Her book has sent me back to a book I have on Japanese gardens, where I can ponder the possible techniques that she learned, and which might have produced these gardens.
    • 4/5
      This author has a passion for pruning plants. She is living in California and decides that to really learn her craft she must relocate to Japan to learn from the masters there. She packs up. leaves her boyfriend and it is off to a new adventure. I do enjoy a nicely manicured Japanese garden don't think that a big audience would or should read this book. Most of the book deals with her trying to gain an apprenticeship and her relationships with her supervisors and other members of her work crew. There is a lot of cutting, snipping and ladder climbing. If this is your thing you will like the book.
    • 2/5
      Hmm...I feel like two stars is a bit harsh, I really do.But while the writing style was great in this, I felt like I gradually lost interest because the pacing was a bit slow. To be honest I found myself skimming towards the end. There is a great amount of detail, and while I loved that, I found that there was so much information about the plants and about the objects, and it was a bit lacking for the characters.By the end of the book, I felt like the only person I understood was the main character. Everyone else was a bit blurred into the background, and I found I didn't really know anything about them, and therefore couldn't connect.I did like the writer's experience with diversity and culture, and I liked her journey as a "plot", but it did move a little slowly and my interest definitely fluctuated.
    • 5/5
      A young, successful business owner decides that she wants to further her tree pruning skills with an apprenticeship in Koyoto, Japan and winds up on an elite landscaping company that shows her no leniency nor favoritism. 6 day, 10 hour weeks into the chills of winter teach her humility, tenacity and a skill set that's almost Garden Tao. She does not speak Japanese, nor do they American, so much of her duties are hopeful completions with determined vigor. She gets homesick for her boyfriend and the warmth of her home in California, but acquires such a dignified work ethic that it's worth every miserable minute. Acquiescent to the ways of the country, she bows deeper, demures readily, and soaks up the traditions she meets in every new garden she tends. A novelty to most in an occupation held primarily by men, she hardly blends in..yet holds her own against the near tyranny of the "bossman" .. Towards the end of her apprenticeship, she is near breaking, but perseveres to the end, respectfully among the team she worked with. There are many "hacks" offered and splendid garden "views" shared, along with the amazing people she meets who own or run these quintessential gardens.The book got sloppy towards the end, probably due to deadlines, with a couple paragraphs being repeated and spaces missed between sentence ends, but it hardly distracted from the joy of reading this book. Right there with "Lab Girl" by Hope Jahren, it will remain in my Garden collection to read again and again.
    • 5/5
      A Naturalist DelightThere is a difference between learning the tricks of the trade and becoming a master artisan. The author devoted over twenty years learning how to prune trees. Cutting Back is specifically about time spent in Japan where its society revers traditional gardeners like Olympic level athletes. She shares her experience through vivid descriptions of the people, places, and a love affair with plants. The passion and care that goes into making each plant shine and thrive within its environment is similar to a spiritual journey. Delightful images, like the one of a pruner snoring in a tree fifteen feet above the ground, are woven throughout. It was interesting how little difference there was in Japanese and American culture when it came to a female working in a male dominated profession. One overriding premise came through loud and clear, gardening is very hard work when done correctly, but the results can be spectacular.The author is a certified aesthetic pruner and owns her own landscape pruning company in the San Francisco Bay area. She has also worked with the Merritt College Pruning Club and other public institutions including the UC Botanical Garden, Portland Japanese Garden, and Tassajara Zen Center.I received this book free through Net Galley. Although encouraged as a courtesy to provide feedback to the publisher, I was under no obligation to write a review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.