Eden [Hardcover]

Olympia Vernon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 10, 2002

Eden is a fearless and wildly original debut, a powerhouse of a novel that explodes on the first page and sustains a tightrope intensity until the last. When fourteen-year-old Maddy Dangerfield draws a naked woman on the pages of Genesis in fire-engine-red lipstick during Sunday school, the rural black community of Pyke County, Mississippi, is scandalized. Her mother, mortified by the small-town gossip and determined to teach Maddy the perils of her youthful intelligence, forces her from then on to spend weekends caring for her estranged Aunt Pip, an outcast who lives on the wrong side of town and is dying of cancer. The lessons Maddy learns are ones that could not be taught in any church. Shuttling between the home she shares with her parents -- endlessly locked in a cycle of resentment, violence, and only sporadic tenderness -- and the house of tough, strong-minded Aunt Pip out on Commitment Road, Maddy feels her eyes gradually opening to the complicated dynamics that inform her world. As the once self-possessed, fiery Pip wastes away in body and spirit, Maddy is forced to confront the brutal finality of death and to contend with the ghosts that hover over Pyke County -- the violated body of Laurel Pillar, a young white girl raped in the field years before; Uncle Sugar, the black man said to have Laurel's blood on his hands, in prison for life; Justice Bates, Sugar's alleged accomplice, his broken body strung up and hanging from a tree; and the community of dead and dying women who have been ravaged by disease, in whom Maddy finds a terrible sort of comfort. In lush, vivid brush strokes, Olympia Vernon conjures a world that is both intoxicating and cruel, and illuminates the bittersweet transformation of the young girl who must bear the burden and blessing of its secrets too soon. Eden is a haunting, memorable novel propelled by the poetry and power of a voice that is complex, lyrical, and utterly true.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A young girl is sent to nurse her dying aunt in this arresting, uncompromising debut. Fourteen-year-old Maddy Dangerfield lives with her parents in rural Mississippi: her mother, Faye, obese and devoutly religious, is "a maid for damn near every white man in Pyke County"; her alcoholic, illiterate father, Chevrolet, works in a scrap yard and spends the family's money on whores and gambling. One of his sexual conquests was Faye's sister, Pip, who is estranged from the family as a result. To teach Maddy about mortality (and to assuage her own conscience), Faye sends Maddy to Pip's home on weekends to help care for her as she succumbs to breast cancer. What makes the book stand out is not its relatively simple plot, but Vernon's idiosyncratic prose style ("he laughed and folded his arms as if he controlled my vocabulary") and Maddy's stark, often surreal perception of the world. Her burgeoning sexuality is illustrated less by her crush on young laborer Landy Collins than by the way she describes the tangled mess of smells and sensations that define the people around her, who are "all, in some way, falling apart." The tone is relentlessly grim, infused with religious superstition, racism and death; macabre events-Chevrolet's mutilation at the hands of his mother-in-law, the death of a troubled orphan, the slaughtering of a hog-are scattered like land mines throughout. But what Vernon's story lacks in optimism, it more than makes up for with raw power and insight.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In Vernon's debut novel, 14-year-old Maddy Dangerfield, who is reminiscent of Celie in Alice Walker's The Color Purple or Ellen Foster in Kaye Gibbons's eponymous novel, must grapple with a cruel, impoverished existence. Her mother is trapped in a disturbing and violent marriage, the fate of most women in rural Pyke County, MS. Maddy's mother toils as a maid for local white folks to pay for her father's excesses. He gambles, drinks, and sleeps with other women, even his own sister-in-law, Pip. Not quite able to forgive her sister's betrayal, Maddy's mother sends Maddy to serve as caretaker when Pip becomes ill. Witnessing her passionate Aunt Pip succumb to breast cancer, Maddy learns too much too quickly. She also begins to confront what will likely be her harsh, unavoidable future-so very unlike Eden. As emotionally powerful as it is poetic, Vernon's raw and fierce first novel possesses a beautiful, albeit brutal, lyricism and introduces a strong new Southern voice. Highly recommended.
Faye A. Chadwell, Univ. of Oregon Libs., Eugene
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; 1 edition (December 10, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802117287
• ISBN-13: 978-0802117281
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,767,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eden: A New Gift to the African-American Canon, January 29, 2003

By 

Vannie Osborne (CA -- USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eden (Hardcover)

Olympia Vernon has certainly marked her space on the map with Eden. The entire book sings like music. Every line, every chapter is indelible--like an ongoing paean that praises and celebrates life, love, loss, forgiveness, death, God, pain, nature, disease and the awe of body--the physical journeys it takes. I found the language as bare-boned as Hemingway. Quick, clean, sharp and vivid. Even cancer resonates as a "character" in the novel. I was enamored with the simplest "sharing" in the book and that was Maddy. Though a rift eases in between two sisters, Faye and Aunt Pip, the child is still allowed to go to her aunt. Could that in some manner be a gesture of forgiveness? The one and only frail part about the novel is plot. However, the characters, structure, language, magical-realism and overall theme of the work deems it all the more rich. I hope this young author continues to contribute good, qualified, "seriously imaginative" literature to the African-American canon. I think she will keep the map strong. Highly recommended!!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Missing Pieces, February 10, 2003

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eden (Hardcover)

I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up the debut novel by new author Olympia Vernon. The title suggested to me that I was beginning a story about the concept of Eden, a place where old age ceases, evil is nonexistent, and a place of abundance. Quite the opposite was true.

Maddy Dangerfield, a fourteen-year old with the weight of the world on her shoulders, lives in a place that defies Eden and all of its niceties. Maddy's mother, Faye, sends her to care for her Aunt Pip, Mama Faye's outcast sister. Pip suffers from breast cancer and the loss of her breast. Maddy learns much from Pip, and this stop in her journey to adulthood takes on an important role.

There was a strong theme of missing pieces in the novel, beginning with Maddy's father Chevrolet, who was missing his arm, and ending with Maddy herself, and all of the losses she incurred. The writing spoke to me in hushed voices, Vernon allowing her words and lyricism to come to the forefront. You won't find a largely plot-driven novel in Eden, as the author allows focus to remain on her characters and their losses. A symbolic tale of coming of age and coming to grips, this was a fantastic debut...

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eden, February 25, 2003

By 

Edward Ott (Baton Rouge, La) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eden (Hardcover)

Eden truly touched me from beginning to end. Each time I picked it up to read, I didn't want to put it down. I wanted to know the characters personally, sit down and talk to them or just watch them live their lives. I felt close to them like they were taken from my past and I was now witnessing the continuing saga of their lives. The words are beautifully written. Fresh, smooth, easily digested words, phrases, references, connected me with the author. I loved that every time I read a page I could see it as if I were standing their watching. Reading Eden gives you a taste of Southern black culture that is not often seen and will have you wanting more.