Tom's Midnight Garden is a superb work of literature. The captivating style ranges from poetic suggestiveness to colloquial conversations. The descriptions of the garden are concrete and vivid, and the author's keen eye for detail enables her to describe objects, such as the ancient grandfather clock, in a way that gives them a graphic immediacy. As a symbol, the clock's uneven performance suggests both the exactness of timekeeping and the elusiveness of relative time. It is fitting that Mrs. Bartholomew, who spans the past and present, is the one who always winds the clock.

The garden setting, with its strong allusions to the innocence and perfection of the biblical Garden of Eden, gives a mythic dimension to the story. When the tree in the garden is struck by lightning and falls, it symbolizes both the destructive aspect of time and the fall of humans from divine...