Customer Reviews

Garden of Lies

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Eileen Goudge's Garden of Lies in my opinion is no light read and certainly no escape. It is a riveting, heartbreaking and thought provoking page turner. It does have some incredible and improbable turn of events, but hey, that's what makes a book a great read, is it not? I cried, blushed, cringed, ached, and dreamed with the heroes and the heroines of the novel. While appreciating the delicious and exquisite love that develops between Rachel and Brian, it was a torture for me to read through it and impossible to enjoy. You will have to read it to find out why. What a book! Filled with all implications of love of every kind. Love stolen, love taken, love given, love lost, love unfullfiled, love unrequited... it still breaks my heart. Ultimately, we get a glimpse of an answer to all the "whys?" in Rose's reflection: "And now I understand. How the winds of change can blow. How events can be bigger, stronger than we are. And even how you can love more than one person, each love with its own subtle shadings, one maybe stronger but now necessarily canceling out the other." It is not about what one deserves. None of us deserve more nor less than any other. Perhaps we deserve nothing. Love is a gift. Some receive, some do not, by forces greater than us. Only if it were true that it is better to give than receive. Thanks to Eileen for your insight into love and life.

Having only read one other book by Eileen Goudge (TRAIL OF SECRETS), she is in top form with this one. GARDEN OF LIES is one of the best books I've ever read. Although there are now many fiction novels about babies switched at birth, GARDEN OF LIES does not constantly dwell on that idea, but instead recounts their path in life from the time they were switched at birth into womanhood. It was wonderful to read how the girls grow up starting in the 1950's and continuing into the 1980's. Both Rachel and Rose had strength and tenacity, managing to withstand the horrors of war, lost love, deception and betrayal.

This is a book not to be missed. Even 10 years later, it's a timeless piece of fiction which goes great with a cup of tea and a warm blanket on the sofa! I'm now reading Ms. Goudge's long-awaited sequel, THORNS OF TRUTH, and anxious to read what happens with Rachel and Rose's children.

I've read all of Ms. Goudge's novels, but my favorite, and the first I read, was Garden of Lies. The plot and characters keep you reading nonstop until you reach the last page! For weeks after I finished reading, I missed the characters and wanted desperately to know how they were doing. Reading Eileen Goudge's novels is like being involved in another life. Rachel and Rose bacame part of me and I rallied for them both. Garden of Lies is a touching and life-altering novel that will change the way you see life and other literature forever.

Eileen Goudge, Garden of Lies (Signet, 1989)

This book was, upon its release, not just a sensation; it posted numbers that scandalized the publishing world. How on earth could a romance, of all things, sell like this? Almost fifteen years in the future, we can look back and snicker at our naïveté, of course. The last piece of the genre fiction puzzle gained respectability, and now Danielle Steel, Sandra Brown, and Nora Roberts sit atop the bestseller lists as comfortably as do King, Clancy, and Grisham. Steel was already on the brink of megastardom (and was, of course, a megastar in the romance world long beforehand), but most, if not all, other romance writers owe a great deal of their present respect in the world of modern literature to Eileen Goudges debut novel.

Garden of Lies is the torrid tale of two girls switched at birth. After ones mother dies in a hospital fire, Sylvie, the mother of the other, switches the two babies in order to prevent her spouse from realizing her actual daughter is the product of an affair. The two girls, Rose (Sylvies natural daughter) and Rachel (Sylvies adopted daughter), lead oddly parallel lives despite their vast gulfs in economic and social status. Through a series of coincidences, the two both end up in love with the same man, and the close ties both have to him threaten to reveal Sylvies long-held secret.

The first thing to say about this novel, as any romance novel, is to benchmark it against the doyenne. And Garden of Lies is so much better than the works of Danielle Steel that they may as well not be on the same planet. Aside from the proofreading (Ive never yet encountered a Danielle Steel novel that looks as if it had been proofread at all), Goudge seems to have turned her back on the cookie-cutter philosophy of genre fiction (simply stated, create character who fits plot, insert here). Not that you havent seen this plot and these characters before, but unlike most straight genre fiction, Goudges characters are three-dimensional, they react to the plot as if they were actually reacting to it instead of doing what thousands of cookie-cutter characters have done before them, and when they emote, theyre not giving us dialogue straight out of the pages of the scripts for The Guiding Light. Refreshing, to say the least.

This epic (and really, when a romance novel goes over 500 pages, its acceptable to call it an epic, no?) has a whole lot going for it. Its probably best to have your suspension-of-disbelief mode set pretty high; there are a few okay, thats too coincidental events, and the whole stretch that takes place in Vietnam is too pat. But by the time you hit either of the above, the novel is barrel-racing along too fast for you to stop and compare Goudges jungle to, say, Lucius Shepards, you only have time to hang on and enjoy the ride. A rollercoaster aint a rocket, either, but its still fun.

Garden of Lies has rightly carved itself a place in the history of the modern romance novel. Probably the best of the bunch Ive encountered since the glory days of Stephanie Blake in the early eighties. Definitely worth your time if youre looking for a good, easy summer read. *** ½

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The plot was rich and deep. I love the way Rachel's and Rose's lives became very interwined. This book was very entertaining. The story was so good that I have to give it a 10, even though Ms. Goudge could have told the same story, same exact plot on half the amount of pages. She does go into too much descriptive detail, and sometimes that detail becomes boring (while the story itself remains entertaining). I just think she goes overboard with the descriptive detail. (Since I have read all her novels, I do know about her descriptive detail). I can not wait until April 1, because I will be the first one in line to get the sequel to this book, 'Thorns of Truth'. I am sure it will be as fascinating as 'Garden of Lies'. Thank you, Ms. Goudge, for presenting your rich talent to us.

Wonderful book - loved the story line and the sadness. Book was thrilling, sad, sensual, and just simply a good read. I really couldn't put it down!

Excellent book, fast summer read. I couldn't put it down and even purchased the sequel before I finished the first book. Eileen Goudge is definately a new favorite author of mine. Must read.

I have read this book about 4 years ago and it is still on my top 5 list. This is a story about 2 girls switched at birth and how their lives changed forever. Eventually their paths cross when they both fall in love with the same man. The Suspense in this book keeps building page after page.

The story of baby girls switched at birth reads like a soap opera. Not that that is a bad thing!

Rose and Rachael are brought up in quite different families and through a series of coincidences fall in love with the same man. One grew up with him and one saves his life. He marries one and breaks the other girl's heart.

This book doesn't test any boundaries but rates well as a good escapist read where the fairytale ends with everyone eventually living happily ever after.

Although I find it extremely implausible that two women switched at birth would somehow miraculously find and fall in love with the same man a half world apart, that is the wonderful thing about fiction you get lost in...it's like a soap opera, you never admit to watching one, but you know you're addicted! It's the Danielle Steele phenomenon. This story is just perfect; Rose and Rachel are knowingly switched at birth after a tragedy in the hospital where they are born. Rose grows up in a poor, strict, catholic home and is in love with her neighboring boyfriend Brian. Rachel is raised in opulence, becomes a doctor and after finding out she can never have children, volunteers to serve in Vietnam. There she meets Brian and they fall in love. The scene where Rose finds out that Brian and Rachel have gotten married just breaks my heart, and anyone who has ever been dumped out of the blue will have tears in their eyes, I promise. Years later, Brian and Rose come face to face and it is evident that Rose has never gotten over him. I got this book when it was originally published 10 years ago and have read it several times.