\Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z."" opens with a quote from T.S. Eliot: ""Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal""-an ominous sign for narrator Annabelle.
??College junior Annabelle is a transfer student at a university in New York City.?? Her work-study program assigns her to work as the secretary for famed poet Z., and Annabelle couldn't be happier.?? After all, she wants to be a poet, and this will give her a chance to be mentored by her favorite living poet.
??The relationship quickly evolves beyond secretarial work, and soon Z. has Annabelle caring for an elderly friend, fetching ""jet black, not midnight black, not shoeshine black"" ink for her fountain pen and traveling around New York gardens to write descriptions of flowers-Z.'s genre of poetry. Eventually, this leads to Annabelle working in Z.'s home arranging files, replacing used hand towels with new ones and preparing the apartment for Z.'s weekly salons, parties with the poetry elite of New York.
??Z. assures Annabelle she considers her far more than just an assistant; Annabelle is her apprentice. Annabelle takes this to mean Z. values her opinion and respects her work. But, the only time this idea of valuing Annabelle is conveyed is when Annabelle says it.?? Z. says it just once and then starts finding fault with Annabelle's work.
Somehow, during this time, Annabelle still manages to start a relationship with graduate student Harry where they pretend to be James and Nora Joyce; she meets and begins doing menial tasks for Z.'s husband Lars Bovardine and daughter Claire; and, she takes a poetry workshop taught by visiting professor and nemesis of Z., Braun Brown.
Essentially, everyone is nothing more than a caricature. Z. is the outdated artist retreading her work; Lars, the bored husband looking for attention; Claire, the rebellious teenage daughter; Harry, the disgruntled graduate student; Braun, the hip young artist threatening Z.'s idea of poetry.
Even Annabelle never becomes a fleshed-out character, lacking depth and awareness.??She justifies all of her actions through the reactions of others, for she does not want to disappoint Z. She moves into an apartment she can't afford, she helps Harry write his book by lying around naked and touching herself and she writes a poem about Z. because Braun suggests she should.?? Annabelle's thoughts are not even original-when she is asked her opinion she regurgitates lines from poems she has read.
She never stops to think about what she wants; she just becomes enamored by the people around her, especially Z. and Braun. She fixates on them because they are what she wants to be: poets. Even when she sees the downside of the poetry culture, she still holds them in esteem.
Author Debra Weinstein is a poet and this is her first novel. Her background in poetry probably explains the subject matter for the book and why names of poets and lines of poetry are constantly thrown around by the characters.?? But rather than the poetry, it is her attention to the minutiae that slows the book down. Minutiae may makes a poem work, but it drags a novel down.
