Scan barcode
A review by lisa_mc
The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards
3.0
Don't let the title fool you: "The Lake of Dreams" is not a sappy romance or a new-agey parable. It's a tightly packed, well-written story of two branches of a family and the past and present events that affect them all.
After years living a somewhat nomadic life abroad, Lucy Jarrett, the novel's narrator, returns home to upstate New York and her fictional hometown of The Lake of Dreams. The impetus was her mother being in a minor accident, but the changes Lucy finds upon her return are far more than her mother's arm in a cast: Her brother is engaged and soon to be a father, her high school sweetheart is a successful artist, and the town is churning with plans to develop land where a military depot once sat.
In an upstairs room of her mother's house, closed off since her father's death a decade earlier, Lucy finds a packet of personal writings and suffrage literature. This piques her curiosity, and her quest to find out more about Rose, the writer, leads Lucy not only into unknown family history but also to a connection with a famous glass artist.
At the same time, Lucy's own unsettled life comes into sharp relief as she deals with the fact that time hasn't stood still at home in her absence. And the unresolved grief over her father's death when she was a teenager rises to the surface, which involves some other family conflicts and secrets, albeit in the more recent past.
Lucy is not always likable — she gets petulant and self-absorbed at times — but her indecisions and insecurities are piercingly realistic. And her curiosity about her distant relative is infectious: We want to know the whole story of Rose's life as much as she does (plus we want Lucy to get her own life sorted out as well).
Edwards has laid out a lot for herself to manage as an author, but she smoothly and ably weaves the past and present storylines into a hearty, complex tale of loyalty and betrayal, heartache and redemption, love lost and found. The glass motif and the anchor of Halley's Comet add a layer of art that's a perfect complement to the story.
Lucy and her family discover more than one long-lost truth, but the story is as much about the letting-go as it is about the discovery. Edwards roots "The Lake of Dreams" in the past, without sentimentalism, but in the end the novel is about people releasing the past to move into the future, however uncertain it may be.
http://www.kansas.com/2011/01/09/1665288/dreams-past-dreams-present.html#ixzz1Ah8zdfhU
After years living a somewhat nomadic life abroad, Lucy Jarrett, the novel's narrator, returns home to upstate New York and her fictional hometown of The Lake of Dreams. The impetus was her mother being in a minor accident, but the changes Lucy finds upon her return are far more than her mother's arm in a cast: Her brother is engaged and soon to be a father, her high school sweetheart is a successful artist, and the town is churning with plans to develop land where a military depot once sat.
In an upstairs room of her mother's house, closed off since her father's death a decade earlier, Lucy finds a packet of personal writings and suffrage literature. This piques her curiosity, and her quest to find out more about Rose, the writer, leads Lucy not only into unknown family history but also to a connection with a famous glass artist.
At the same time, Lucy's own unsettled life comes into sharp relief as she deals with the fact that time hasn't stood still at home in her absence. And the unresolved grief over her father's death when she was a teenager rises to the surface, which involves some other family conflicts and secrets, albeit in the more recent past.
Lucy is not always likable — she gets petulant and self-absorbed at times — but her indecisions and insecurities are piercingly realistic. And her curiosity about her distant relative is infectious: We want to know the whole story of Rose's life as much as she does (plus we want Lucy to get her own life sorted out as well).
Edwards has laid out a lot for herself to manage as an author, but she smoothly and ably weaves the past and present storylines into a hearty, complex tale of loyalty and betrayal, heartache and redemption, love lost and found. The glass motif and the anchor of Halley's Comet add a layer of art that's a perfect complement to the story.
Lucy and her family discover more than one long-lost truth, but the story is as much about the letting-go as it is about the discovery. Edwards roots "The Lake of Dreams" in the past, without sentimentalism, but in the end the novel is about people releasing the past to move into the future, however uncertain it may be.
http://www.kansas.com/2011/01/09/1665288/dreams-past-dreams-present.html#ixzz1Ah8zdfhU