Customer Reviews

Rowing in Eden (Berkeley Signature Edition)

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Barbara Rogan paints an incisive portrait of life in small-town America, definitely not Norman Rockwell. Here are murderers, bigots, small-minded busybodies. Jane Goncalves and her foster children left the big city to escape these things, but find themselves embroiled in controversy and strife. Sam Rockwell exists in a shadowy purgatory of grief after losing his beloved wife to cancer. Sam and Jane come together in the face of adversity and form a deep bond, showing that the best families aren't necessarily related by blood.

Rowing in Eden is an insightful look at small town americana in the 1990's and of the darkness that lurks beneath the the post card exterior of the seemingly ideal town of Old Wickham. While parts of the story are predictable and the villains are, at times, somewhat one dimensional, what separates this story from others of its type are Rogan's rich drawings of the three main characters and the separate tragedies that unite them. Rowing in Eden is solemn, haunting, and yet a strangely uplifting story about love and hate, death and living, fear of the unknown, and bonds that form in adversity.Rowing in Eden is not a triumph of the human spirit spirit, but rather a testament to its perseverance. I strongly recommend this book to fans of slice-of-life fiction.