THE GREENHOUSE by Susan Hillmore (New...

THE GREENHOUSE by Susan Hillmore (New Amsterdam: $9.95). This curious novel, told from the anthropomorphized point of view of an elegant conservatory, chronicles the decline of an upper-class British family during the early 20th Century. Treated as a pariah because she was born with a crippled leg, the daughter of the builder of the greenhouse finds refuge in its scented atmosphere. When she becomes the mistress of the great manor, she attempts to share her love of exotic plants with her illegitimate son. But, like the century that spawned him, the boy is a monster, ruled by base appetites. His wanton cruelty causes the destruction of the greenhouse and the family that nurtured it. The haunting tone of Hillmore’s languid elegy for a faded era recalls the work of Henry James.