This novel uses the robot as an analogy for living with the shortcomings of a small child. The robot "leaks oil" when scared, babbles before gradually learning more complex speech and throws tantrums to get his way. The main character, Ben, has just split up with his wife. He sets off with Tang the robot in search of the man who built him,. After some pointless traveling they wind up back where they started with a very improbable happy ending.

library book read 8/14/2023 ( )

One morning Ben and Amy find a robot in their garden. He somehow wandered in and he appears to have been damaged. And to top it all - he is a very old model and does not look like the androids that Amy had been talking about and wants to have. So she wants the robot gone - sent for recycling. Ben decides that he wants to keep Tang (as the robot introduces himself) and that adds more tension to a marriage which is on the rocks anyway.

Ben is drifting - his parents died six years earlier, his grief led to his dismissal from the veterinary school, his marriage is dissolving around him and he really sees no reason to do anything. Until Tang that is - for a reason that even he cannot explain, the little robot becomes the center of a recovery and even Amy leaving him does not change his new path. So off they go on a trip around the world to try to find some help for Tang - who appears to be in mortal danger from some of the damage he had sustained.

Ben starts the novel as a looser who blames everyone else for his issues and never fulfills his promises and ends it as a mature man who is ready for anything life throws at him. The almost comical elements (from the dog they meet to the megalomaniac villain that tries to kill them) are mixed with the story of an evolving father/son relationship (Tang behaves like a brat half of the time and as a toddler otherwise) and that combination should not work and yet, it somehow ends up working.

It is a cute novel that can be read as a metaphor for parenthood (and towards the end the author pushes a lot towards that) or as an adventure story. It is both things at the same time, despite some chunkiness and a somewhat uninspired middle. The end makes you smile though - because good wins against evil and all is good in the world (well, mostly).

The novel does not seem to have become very popular in English but the Japanese seem to have liked it enough to publish more volumes in the same series (the originals were never published in English from what I can see). ( )

A sweet, charming book. If you need a feel good read, this checks all the boxes. ( )

I really enjoyed this. Real talk - cheating (1 instance, not explicit), and forcible confinement (very briefly).

The robot is basically a child in this story. One that learns as he goes. It was delightful. Tantrums and all. The man is ... well, I'd be irritated to live with him, but he does his own learning as he goes as well. The woman, I'd also not want to live with, and I'm not sure how I feel about her own growing. I think she just tries to get back what she had because her other option didn't work out for her. The robot definitely makes this story. ( )

With the death of Ben's parents his life went on hold. After failing at becoming a veterinarian no amount of pushing and prodding from his driven wife caused him to find a new interest. It's not until a broken robot (Tang) shows up in their garden that Ben finds anything he wants to do except lounge. Actually all he wanted to do then was just get Tang repaired. He didn't intend to travel around the world looking for Tang's manufacturer, he didn't mean to "adopt" a stubborn robot, and he certainly didn't foresee a change in his own life.

Install clearly set out to write a warm and fuzzy book when she wrote A Robot in the Garden and that's exactly what she did. It's a clever new take on an old theme and completely enjoyable reading. ( )