A compelling tale of edgy, small-town emotions, lingering obsession, and romantic salvation.
Andrew, after many years, returns to his hometown to attend his mother's funeral. Planning to remain only a few days, he is drawn into the tragic legacy of his childhood friend and beautiful girl next door, Eden Close. An adopted child, Eden had learned to avoid the mother who did not want her and to please the father who did. She also aimed to please Andrew and his friends, first by being one of the boys and later by seducing them. Then one hot night, Andrew was awakened by gunshots and piercing screams from the next farm: Mr. Close had been killed and Eden blinded.
Now, seventeen years later, Andrew begins to uncover the grisly story - to unravel the layers of thwarted love between the husband, wife, and tormented girl. And as the truth about Eden's past comes to light, so too does Andrew's strange and binding attachment to her reveal itself.
In her notable fiction debut (her most recent nonfiction book is Women Together, Women Alone ) Shreve sensitively explores the coming-of-age and later redemption of her hero, events separated by nearly 20 years. A recently divorced New York advertising executive in his mid-30s, Andrew returns to the home of his youth in upstate New York to bury his widowed mother. In the dilapidated house next door live Eden Close and her mother Edith. The novel opens with Andrew dreaming of the night he was awakened by screams from the Closes' house, an incident well remembered: "The man next door was murdered when I was seventeen. His daughter was raped." Blinded by the same gun that killed her father, Eden endures an hermetic existence, zealously guarded by her mother. She and Andrew had been best friends before puberty complicated their relationship, and now Andrew, looking to the past for clues to his future, reconnects with Eden. Readers will have guessed the secret of Eden and her mother long before the story's putative climax, when it is revealed to Andrew and others. Shreve's evocative prose and elegiac voice, and her faithful attention to her likable hero's emotions render him believable and give this romance a weight superior to most in the genre. Film rights to Disney/Hollywood Pictures. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
For Andrew and Eden, it's a modern adaptation of paradise lost and then regained. As next-door neighbors, "best buddies," and then awkward adolescents, Eden and Andy find solace in each other's company until a tragic event occurs as Andy prepares to leave their small home town and heads off to college. The awful accident drives them apart, but then inadvertently draws them together again some 15 years later. Their relationship is rekindled when Andy returns home to attend his mother's funeral. Rather than close the chapter, Andy cautiously explores the remains of his past while trying to solve the mystery that envelops the woman he has always loved. Flashbacks add to this sensitive exploration as Shreve's characters struggle to obtain the ever elusive happy ending. - Heidi Schwartz, "Business Interiors," Red Bank, N.J. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Anita Shreve grew up in Dedham, Massachusetts (just outside Boston), the eldest of three daughters. Early literary influences include having read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton when she was a junior in high school (a short novel she still claims as one of her favorites) and everything Eugene O'Neill ever wrote while she was a senior (to which she attributes a somewhat dark streak in her own work). After graduating from Tufts University, she taught high school for a number of years in and around Boston. In the middle of her last year, she quit (something that, as a parent, she finds appalling now) to start writing. "I had this panicky sensation that it was now or never."
Joking that she could wallpaper her bathroom with rejections from magazines for her short stories ("I really could have," she says), she published her early work in literary journals. One of these stories, "Past the Island, Drifting," won an O. Henry prize. Despite this accolade, she quickly learned that one couldn't make a living writing short fiction. Switching to journalism, Shreve traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, where she lived for three years, working as a journalist for an African magazine. One of her novels, The Last Time They Met, contains bits and pieces from her time in Africa.
Returning to the United States, Shreve was a writer and editor for a number of magazines in New York. Later, when she began her family, she turned to freelancing, publishing in the New York Times Magazine, New York magazine and dozens of others. In 1989, she published her first novel, Eden Close. Since then she has written 14 other novels, among them The Weight of Water, The Pilot's Wife, The Last Time They Met, A Wedding in December, Body Surfing, Testimony,and A Change in Altitude.
In 1998, Shreve received the PEN/L. L. Winship Award and the New England Book Award for fiction. In 1999, she received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey, and The Pilot's Wife became the 25th selection of Oprah's Book Club and an international bestseller. In April 2002, CBS aired the film version of The Pilot's Wife, starring Christine Lahti, and in fall 2002, The Weight of Water, starring Elizabeth Hurley and Sean Penn, was released in movie theaters.
Still in love with the novel form, Shreve writes only in that genre. "The best analogy I can give to describe writing for me is daydreaming," she says. "A certain amount of craft is brought to bear, but the experience feels very dreamlike."
Shreve is married to a man she met when she was 13. She has two children and three stepchildren, and in the last eight years has made tuition payments to seven colleges and universities.
Eden Close is one of Anita Shreve's best. The story has a slow, meandering quality with an undercurrent of mystery. As is often true with Ms. Shreve's books, the reader suspects that things may go a bit awry, or take an unsuspected turn, as one approaches the end of the story--and Eden Close is no exception. As a result, I find that I often put her books down for a bit when I get to the last ten or so pages, at least for a couple of hours if not for a day, both because I don't want to finish the book (which has been a good read) and because I like to ponder just what will happen before finding out exactly what does. If you haven't read anything by Shreve, this is a great one to start with; if you have, you'll truly enjoy this one!
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The first book I read by Anita Shreve was Where or When. The year was 1993 and I came across this book while browsing at the library. I remember thinking when I closed this book that this title was the book, which deserved all the praise or at least sales that Bridges of Madison County was receiving at the time. I thought the book Where or When better written in comparison to Bridges and that Eden Close had a more intriguing plot as well as a chilling outcome. After reading Where or When I went back and read Shreve's earlier books, Eden Close, Strange Fits of Passion and then Resistance. I remember thinking that Anita Shreve was one of the most overlooked new writers of that time. Then a woman named Oprah selected Shreve's book The Pilot's Wife for her television book group and overnight, one of my favorite authors became a household name. And her succeeding books, Fortune's Rock, The Weight of Water, The Last Time We Met and her latest title Sea Glass continue to illustrate why Shreve's books are such rich reading experiences.
Now that I have read all of this author's books at least once I gave some thought to rereading some of her books. But it wasn't until one of my online book groups selected Close, Shreve's first novel, that I actually picked up this book and began reading it for the second time. I did wonder what I would think about a book I read close to ten years ago and one that I remembered enjoying so much that I always recommended it to others looking for a good book. I am happy to say that my second reading of the book Eden Close if anything has improved with age. The plot of this book, the characters and descriptive passages glued me to my seat once again. I found the subject matter continues to be as relevant today as it was when it was first published and the lives of the characters still as heartbreaking. And as Shreve does with all of her books, this time she puts you smack into this midwestern town where within two farm homes side by side we watch innocent lives torn apart by an unspeakable tragedy.
If you have enjoyed Anita Shreve with her more recent books, be sure and go back and read her earliest novels like Eden Close, Strange Fits of Passion and Where or When and see why I considered Anita Shreve a favorite author before she was as popular as she is today.
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I really enjoy Anita Shreve's books and this book is no exception. It is a quick read and a thought-provoking little book ~~ one that I couldn't put down after picking it up.
Andrew returns home to ready the house for sale after his mother died, only to embark on a personal journey to rediscover love with his oldest childhood friend, who lives next door ~~ Eden. Haunted by the incidents that had happened to Eden during her teen years ~~ the summer before Andrew left home for college ~~ Andrew begins to investigate what had really happened that summer. And to his surprise, the answers weren't what he expected.
It is a quick read ~~ perfect for a hot summery day of reading. I recommend this book ~~ it's just as good as Shreve's later books and it will haunt you for a while after you put the book down. It's a rare glimpse inside of a man's soul and mind as he explores the possibilities of love again.
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