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A review by jacki_f
The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards
3.0
Kim Edward's first novel, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, was a high concept novel with an intriguing premise. Lake of Dreams is quite different. It starts very slowly and even when it finds its stride, it never becomes a book that I felt any affinity with.
Lucy is living in Japan with her boyfriend Yoshi. She is unsettled, unable to find a job and feeling homesick. She goes to visit her mother who lives in upstate New York - her first visit home in many years, having left soon after her father died in a boating accident. She discovers some long lost letters, which prompts her to investigate a previously unknown family member. This initiates a chain of events that will have a huge impact on her family.
The book is an easy read and feels well researched. Nevertheless I didn't care about any of the characters, didn't find the story terribly interesting and became totally fed up with the endless watery metaphors. Lucy makes a dislikable heroine who is possessive about her ancestors, judges her mother and complains about her boyfriend not ringing her (but doesn't return his calls when he does). The plot is also overly reliant on happy coincidences, timely revelations and the reader's willingness to overlook time compressions that defy the laws of physics.
There have been many recent - and better - books about women uncovering family secrets: Sarah's Key and The Distant Hours come to mind.
If you read the Kindle edition of this book, be aware that a family tree is included but it's at the very end.
Lucy is living in Japan with her boyfriend Yoshi. She is unsettled, unable to find a job and feeling homesick. She goes to visit her mother who lives in upstate New York - her first visit home in many years, having left soon after her father died in a boating accident. She discovers some long lost letters, which prompts her to investigate a previously unknown family member. This initiates a chain of events that will have a huge impact on her family.
The book is an easy read and feels well researched. Nevertheless I didn't care about any of the characters, didn't find the story terribly interesting and became totally fed up with the endless watery metaphors. Lucy makes a dislikable heroine who is possessive about her ancestors, judges her mother and complains about her boyfriend not ringing her (but doesn't return his calls when he does). The plot is also overly reliant on happy coincidences, timely revelations and the reader's willingness to overlook time compressions that defy the laws of physics.
There have been many recent - and better - books about women uncovering family secrets: Sarah's Key and The Distant Hours come to mind.
If you read the Kindle edition of this book, be aware that a family tree is included but it's at the very end.