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Eden Lake
In 1968, newlyweds Clay Perry and Carol Weiss founded Eden Lake, a utopian children's summer camp in Maine. Thirty years later, their marriage is long over and the camp has become a pricey playground for entitled suburbanites. When tragedy strikes, the Perryweiss children have to decide what role Eden Lake, and all that it stands for, will play in their lives. Abe, the eldest and heir apparent, has never been able to commit to a career-or a relationship. Jude, entangled with a married man, must confront her turbulent relationship with her past. Eric, the youngest, who has never strayed far from Eden Lake, stands at the precipice of a new life. Idealism and infidelity, childhood memories and the hard truths of adulthood collide and coalesce in the summer of 1998 at Camp Eden Lake. Praise for EDEN LAKE
"EDEN LAKE is an unusually accomplished debut novel about love and loss and the absurdities of summer camp. Jane Roper writes with quiet authority and sly humor about a large and intriguing cast of characters." - Tom Perrotta, bestselling author of Election, Joe College and Little Children
"As a kid I lasted one week at summer camp, but at EDEN LAKE I overcame my phobia. This is due to the quirky, warm, funny, quixotic crew you'll meet in these pages, and the compassionate yet sharply observed story of a family assembling and reassembling itself after a father's death. I'll be revisiting EDEN LAKE many times." - Jenna Blum, bestselling author of Those Who Save Us and The Stormchasers
"Anyone who's ever experienced the sweet tumult of summer camp is hereby ordered to read EDEN LAKE immediately. In fact, even if you've never been to camp, this book should go on your must-read list. Jane Roper has written a wise, sexy novel that fearlessly probes the particulars of desire and loss. It's a sheer delight - as irresistible as a smore." - Steve Almond, author of, My Life in Heavy Metal, Candyfreak, and Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life
"EDEN LAKE is an unusually accomplished debut novel about love and loss and the absurdities of summer camp. Jane Roper writes with quiet authority and sly humor about a large and intriguing cast of characters." - Tom Perrotta, bestselling author of Election, Joe College and Little Children
"As a kid I lasted one week at summer camp, but at EDEN LAKE I overcame my phobia. This is due to the quirky, warm, funny, quixotic crew you'll meet in these pages, and the compassionate yet sharply observed story of a family assembling and reassembling itself after a father's death. I'll be revisiting EDEN LAKE many times." - Jenna Blum, bestselling author of Those Who Save Us and The Stormchasers
"Anyone who's ever experienced the sweet tumult of summer camp is hereby ordered to read EDEN LAKE immediately. In fact, even if you've never been to camp, this book should go on your must-read list. Jane Roper has written a wise, sexy novel that fearlessly probes the particulars of desire and loss. It's a sheer delight - as irresistible as a smore." - Steve Almond, author of, My Life in Heavy Metal, Candyfreak, and Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life
- GenresFictionLiterary Fiction
376 pages, Paperback
Published May 12, 2011
About the author
Jane Roper
5 books246 followersJane Roper is the author of two novels, The Society of Shame and Eden Lake, and a memoir, Double Time: How I Surived—and Mostly Thrived—Through the First Three Years of Mothering Twints.
Jane’s writing has appeared in Salon, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Millions, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, Cognoscenti, Writers’ Digest and elsewhere, and has been included in the anthology Labor Day: True Birth Stories by today’s Best Women Writers.
A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and Williams College, Jane is married to singer/songwriter Alastair Moock. They live with their teenage twins just north of Boston in a drafty Victorian house on a hill. When she is not working, writing, parenting, cooking, hiking, rock climbing or wasting time on social media, Jane can be found trying to read and promptly falling asleep.
Jane’s writing has appeared in Salon, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Millions, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, Cognoscenti, Writers’ Digest and elsewhere, and has been included in the anthology Labor Day: True Birth Stories by today’s Best Women Writers.
A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and Williams College, Jane is married to singer/songwriter Alastair Moock. They live with their teenage twins just north of Boston in a drafty Victorian house on a hill. When she is not working, writing, parenting, cooking, hiking, rock climbing or wasting time on social media, Jane can be found trying to read and promptly falling asleep.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
August 3, 2011
In order to win Jane Roper’s novel Eden Lake, I had to agree to read the book and participate in the accompanying Goodreads discussion as a part of The Next Best Book Club. I am a finicky reader who has probably put down at least as many books as I’ve begun, and so I wanted to make sure I had a decent chance to like the story okay before I agreed to have it shipped to me. I could already see myself ten pages into 300, not enjoying the read, but having to stay with it because I said I would.
I went to Amazon and checked out the opening pages. I was happy with how things got started: “Just before noon on the morning after Memorial Day, Eric filled the tank of the John Deere, started the engine and rolled out of the barn into broad sunlight.” One of my favorite authors, Richard Ford, often starts books on a holiday (Independence Day, Easter) and there’s a lot competent in Jane’s sentence: it placed me firmly in time and in the sort of setting where there would be a John Deere and a barn. I knew I wasn’t in Queens anymore, and felt like my reading life was safe for the week I put it in Jane’s control.
Maine, complicated relationships, secrets, and summer camp. These are the primary ingredients of this story that bring together a group of brothers and sisters to run a summer camp that their parents ran when they were growing up. There are surprises here—excellent ones—and they are spaced out nicely that in such a way that just when I got comfortable with how things were going, just when I thought I could see what was going to happen next, there was something that threw me for a good reading loop and reinvigorated my interest in the story.
I’ve heard several writers say that they don’t have one idea for a book, usually the book comes when several ideas seem to collide and this book has a good bit of that going on. There are romantic and familial complications along with the tricky balance that running a camp that’s good for kids must be while at the same time paying attention to the fact that there are bills to be paid. “Materialism is the opiate of the masses,” one character quips in part about all the upgrades to the camp over the years (i.e. a climbing wall). Another remembers how in the old days the camp was supposed to be, “A vision of what the world might be.” That last line, it reminds me of something fiction can accomplish as well. Eden Lake creates a world I was thankful to have visited, enough so that I still haven’t stopped thinking about packing up the car and heading north to see if I could find some version of it.
I went to Amazon and checked out the opening pages. I was happy with how things got started: “Just before noon on the morning after Memorial Day, Eric filled the tank of the John Deere, started the engine and rolled out of the barn into broad sunlight.” One of my favorite authors, Richard Ford, often starts books on a holiday (Independence Day, Easter) and there’s a lot competent in Jane’s sentence: it placed me firmly in time and in the sort of setting where there would be a John Deere and a barn. I knew I wasn’t in Queens anymore, and felt like my reading life was safe for the week I put it in Jane’s control.
Maine, complicated relationships, secrets, and summer camp. These are the primary ingredients of this story that bring together a group of brothers and sisters to run a summer camp that their parents ran when they were growing up. There are surprises here—excellent ones—and they are spaced out nicely that in such a way that just when I got comfortable with how things were going, just when I thought I could see what was going to happen next, there was something that threw me for a good reading loop and reinvigorated my interest in the story.
I’ve heard several writers say that they don’t have one idea for a book, usually the book comes when several ideas seem to collide and this book has a good bit of that going on. There are romantic and familial complications along with the tricky balance that running a camp that’s good for kids must be while at the same time paying attention to the fact that there are bills to be paid. “Materialism is the opiate of the masses,” one character quips in part about all the upgrades to the camp over the years (i.e. a climbing wall). Another remembers how in the old days the camp was supposed to be, “A vision of what the world might be.” That last line, it reminds me of something fiction can accomplish as well. Eden Lake creates a world I was thankful to have visited, enough so that I still haven’t stopped thinking about packing up the car and heading north to see if I could find some version of it.
July 31, 2011
I'm a long-time fan of this author's "mommy blog" and looked forward to enjoying her writing style in something more long-form. I was not disappointed. This book is essentially a character study, mainly focusing on siblings that grew up watching, attending, and then working a summer camp out east. There are a lot of layers, from comparisons between childhoods in the 70s and today, to commentary on commercialism, to explorations of trust, mistrust, fidelity and infidelity. And there's enough story to give the reader that "just one more chapter before I go to bed" momentum. A great summer read, but so much more than a beach read.
Want to Read
April 11, 2011from author
July 4, 2011
When I first heard of Eden Lake I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into. I admit at first I was a skeptic. Did I really want to read about a summer camp “that has become a pricey playground for entitled suburbanites”? Not really. However, Roper’s novel goes beyond the clichés of grief and tragedy and challenges the hypocrisy of idealism for the elite and the elite only. How can one hope to change the world through the youth, if that youth is from one socio-economic class? The novel attempts to deal with these questions as well as ideas about truth and communication with children and what is and isn’t appropriate. Abe sums it up nicely when he says, “Truth was such a tricky thing when it came to children. When was it good medicine and when was it poison?” (Roper 321). This question plagues all adults in their search to teach, guide, and help children as they reach maturation and suffice it to say, there is no right answer.
This novel explores the complexities of the human soul and the relationships between family members. It shows how secrets can destroy and alter one’s entire worldview in the blink of an eye. More importantly it shows us that we are human and though we may embrace idealism, we remain flawed. A great debut novel that shows the complexities of the human heart and its struggle for understanding.
This novel explores the complexities of the human soul and the relationships between family members. It shows how secrets can destroy and alter one’s entire worldview in the blink of an eye. More importantly it shows us that we are human and though we may embrace idealism, we remain flawed. A great debut novel that shows the complexities of the human heart and its struggle for understanding.
May 24, 2011
Great, fun, quick read. I hope there is a prequel! A great addition to a summer beach/pool reading list! Captures the surreal, yet essential rite of passage of attending/working at a summer camp while also featuring some quirky undercurrents and stories...
June 8, 2011
Eden Lake starts is the story of three young adults who must return to their recently deceased father's summer camp in Maine. In doing so, our three protagonists, Abe, Jude (Judy) and Eric, must grapple with the past and all the complications of whom they've become. Eden Lake does a fabulous job of using a very specific lens- that of a small summer camp in Maine founded by idealists (essentially a summerland)- to examine "big picture" ideas that affect us all, ideas like love, career, family and loyalty, and what the past and future mean to us. But it is not a political scree, it's a story told in old-fashioned, loving detail. These people have to make hard decisions in the wake of their father's death.
Jane Roper does a great job of nailing the time and place of this story. As I read, I never doubted her rendition of the state of Maine during summer complete with wilderness, beaches, diner-shacks and mosquitos. And she nails the late 90's too, those wild days of the dotcom boom and the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal.
But what really makes Eden Lake shine is the author's crisp narrative tone that can engage tragedy and comedy, anger and love all on the same page and the author's skill at handling (and blending) the giant ensemble cast that the novel brings with it. The secondary cast that, in fact, is as interesting, and entertaining as our heroes.
Finally, as a fan of Tom Wolfe, I would like to say that maybe "you can't go home again", but Eden Lake shows us that we CAN go to summerland again.
Jane Roper does a great job of nailing the time and place of this story. As I read, I never doubted her rendition of the state of Maine during summer complete with wilderness, beaches, diner-shacks and mosquitos. And she nails the late 90's too, those wild days of the dotcom boom and the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal.
But what really makes Eden Lake shine is the author's crisp narrative tone that can engage tragedy and comedy, anger and love all on the same page and the author's skill at handling (and blending) the giant ensemble cast that the novel brings with it. The secondary cast that, in fact, is as interesting, and entertaining as our heroes.
Finally, as a fan of Tom Wolfe, I would like to say that maybe "you can't go home again", but Eden Lake shows us that we CAN go to summerland again.
August 15, 2011
In Eden Lake, Jane Roper conjures a whole summer camp full of characters dealing with a range of sticky issues. Abe, Jude, and Eric Perryweiss are the focus here, doing their best to run the family business in the aftermath of their father's untimely death, but what's remarkable is how fully realized all of the characters are, including the many supporting players who might've become cartoons in lesser hands.
A good example of this is Sergei, an illegal Russian immigrant who reappears at the camp every year hoping for summer work. He doesn't get as many words devoted to him as the Perryweisses, but Roper still gives him dimension and complexity: he's charming and creepy, genuine and conniving, and capable of insight and honesty that the book's central characters don't often allow themselves.
And that kind of complexity is partly what Eden Lake is all about. As much as Abe, Jude, and Eric spend the summer figuring out how to run the camp in their father's absence, they're also reconciling themselves to the messy contradictions that exist within their parents and themselves. Eric, the most innocent of the Perryweiss kids, ultimately sees this the most clearly:
"...he thought to himself how much easier life would be if there were simply good guys and bad guys; the dark side of the force and the light. More and more, it seemed, everyone, himself included, was a little bit of both."
A good example of this is Sergei, an illegal Russian immigrant who reappears at the camp every year hoping for summer work. He doesn't get as many words devoted to him as the Perryweisses, but Roper still gives him dimension and complexity: he's charming and creepy, genuine and conniving, and capable of insight and honesty that the book's central characters don't often allow themselves.
And that kind of complexity is partly what Eden Lake is all about. As much as Abe, Jude, and Eric spend the summer figuring out how to run the camp in their father's absence, they're also reconciling themselves to the messy contradictions that exist within their parents and themselves. Eric, the most innocent of the Perryweiss kids, ultimately sees this the most clearly:
"...he thought to himself how much easier life would be if there were simply good guys and bad guys; the dark side of the force and the light. More and more, it seemed, everyone, himself included, was a little bit of both."
July 13, 2011
Delicious summer (and other seasons) reading. I never went to summer camp, but this book brought me deep into the experience, with characters who I became attached to, and writing that sang. I loved it!
September 14, 2011
What a fun summer read (although a winter read would certainly give you a touch of summer!). This book took me back to the nostalgia of camp although with a touch of good adult drama. I felt very connected to the characters and the story and stayed up late reading on more than one night!
June 1, 2011
good light book about a family that owns a summer camp
June 1, 2011
I'm a long time reader of Jane Roper's blog and was thrilled to see she had written a novel. Great book, well-written, perfect for the summer. I highly recommend!
February 18, 2012
I read about this book long before I obtained a copy of it, waited rather anxiously for it as the topic of a summer camp is close to my heart.
Eden Lake is a camp owned by Carol and Clay founded in the late 60's. Their three children knew no other life as children, they lived at the camp and spent the summers as campers there. Carol and Clay get divorced, Clay remains at the camp with his new wife Gail and the children have all grown up and left the camp except Eric who wants to remain behind the scenes. When Clay and Gail are killed in a plane crash right before summer season, the three as well as Gail's daughter take to running the camp as per usual.
I loved reading all the camp stories and references, songs and games and things most of us would remember from summer camp. I spent 10 summers of my life at summer camp in Muskoka, and that place is home to me and has made me the person I am today. Many of the friendships formed there 30 years ago are still in my life and every year now I go up to the camp for a weekend in September for an alumni weekend. The reference to the candlelight ceremony was very touching as that's something that the alumni weekend has done.
While the summer camp is the root of the story, you are involved in the lives of all three children, Abe, Jude and Eric as well as Aura, Gail's daughter. There are secrets and emotions, all of them have some kind of turmoil going on in their lives and this is weaved into the story as they all return to a life they previously lived.
Loved it.
Eden Lake is a camp owned by Carol and Clay founded in the late 60's. Their three children knew no other life as children, they lived at the camp and spent the summers as campers there. Carol and Clay get divorced, Clay remains at the camp with his new wife Gail and the children have all grown up and left the camp except Eric who wants to remain behind the scenes. When Clay and Gail are killed in a plane crash right before summer season, the three as well as Gail's daughter take to running the camp as per usual.
I loved reading all the camp stories and references, songs and games and things most of us would remember from summer camp. I spent 10 summers of my life at summer camp in Muskoka, and that place is home to me and has made me the person I am today. Many of the friendships formed there 30 years ago are still in my life and every year now I go up to the camp for a weekend in September for an alumni weekend. The reference to the candlelight ceremony was very touching as that's something that the alumni weekend has done.
While the summer camp is the root of the story, you are involved in the lives of all three children, Abe, Jude and Eric as well as Aura, Gail's daughter. There are secrets and emotions, all of them have some kind of turmoil going on in their lives and this is weaved into the story as they all return to a life they previously lived.
Loved it.
March 27, 2012
I won this book in a blog giveaway late last summer.
Eden Lake is a dramatic book about siblings Abe, Jude, and Eric who come back to run their family's summer camp after the untimely death of their father. Each adult child is at different points in their life, but all seem to be stuck in their own rut going nowhere. The interactions at the camp help them all to eventually find their way to something new.
What I liked- The setting. I've never been to summer camp myself. I enjoyed the descriptions of camp and the way students and camp councilors interacted. A few of the character relationships were interesting. Abe's relationship with Aura was unexpected as was his mother's relationship with a long lost beau.
What I didn't like- I put this book down after reading about 100 pages because I couldn't get into it. The build up of each character and the setting took too long. I recently picked the book back up. It took another 100 pages for the characters to really develop. Under normal circumstances, I would not give a book 200 pages to get my attention. I'm still left feeling as if there was something missing. Just as I started to feel a small connection to the characters the book ended. I personally enjoy strong women characters. I didn't feel any of the women in this book fit that description.
Overall, I felt the book was ok. I'm glad I finished. Just not enough that I will be recommending this book to others or rereading it.
Eden Lake is a dramatic book about siblings Abe, Jude, and Eric who come back to run their family's summer camp after the untimely death of their father. Each adult child is at different points in their life, but all seem to be stuck in their own rut going nowhere. The interactions at the camp help them all to eventually find their way to something new.
What I liked- The setting. I've never been to summer camp myself. I enjoyed the descriptions of camp and the way students and camp councilors interacted. A few of the character relationships were interesting. Abe's relationship with Aura was unexpected as was his mother's relationship with a long lost beau.
What I didn't like- I put this book down after reading about 100 pages because I couldn't get into it. The build up of each character and the setting took too long. I recently picked the book back up. It took another 100 pages for the characters to really develop. Under normal circumstances, I would not give a book 200 pages to get my attention. I'm still left feeling as if there was something missing. Just as I started to feel a small connection to the characters the book ended. I personally enjoy strong women characters. I didn't feel any of the women in this book fit that description.
Overall, I felt the book was ok. I'm glad I finished. Just not enough that I will be recommending this book to others or rereading it.
November 30, 2011
This was a very long book. I really liked the beginning. The book was told by different voices, in a good way, I got a lot out of hearing the story from different perspectives. It seemed to be filled with some unnecessary drama with people not at the camp (bosses and boyfriends). My biggest criticism was how Carol told Eric about his father. That went against everything we knew about her as a person. It was good to see some character development, I liked Eric best. The children all seemed to grieve, but I am not sure how they were really able to run the camp all summer, on the heels of their parents death. I thought there would be more things like Jeremy's dad and the pierced ear incident. The last chapter was a fitting way to end the story.
This book was recommended to me by fellow Good Reads friend and writer Derek Gentry.
This book was recommended to me by fellow Good Reads friend and writer Derek Gentry.
June 13, 2011
I enjoyed this book about four marginally dysfunctional young adults whose parents founded an idealistic summer camp in Maine in their hippie years. Now these folks have to wrestle with running the camp when they haven't had a lot of success sticking with jobs or relationships in the past. In addition they have to handle some blows in their own families when a tragedy happens and when old transgressions become new information. I found the story to be compelling, but the characters mildly unsatisfying (though it may just be my age--I have this problem with many 20-something characters in contemporary fiction!). A good summer read!
February 6, 2012
Eden Lake is a wonderful debut (I'm pretty sure that this is a first novel?) novel about loss, forgiveness, and growing up. It's primarily a character study of three siblings and a step-sister, set in Maine at a summer camp. As a Mainer, I greatly appreciated the realistic depiction of Maine; it was accurate, non-patronizing and that's not always the case of novels set in the state (we don't put tarter sauce on lobster rolls, for instance).
The Perryweiss children are complex characters, each sympathetic and flawed, but carefully drawn and convincingly rendered.
The Perryweiss children are complex characters, each sympathetic and flawed, but carefully drawn and convincingly rendered.
October 30, 2011
The ultimate summer camp experience. Not only do you get to spend a summer with these characters, but you also get to see into their past and get a glimpse of their (possible) futures. While there are some rollicking good moments that would challenge a soap opera plot, there are also some really thoughtful reflections on how the world has changed since the seventies.
August 30, 2011
I really liked this story told in alternating voices of three siblings forced to run a summer camp for their recently deceased father. I felt like I spent the summer with them at sleep away camp and watched as they came to terms with their past and took ownership of their futures. A great summer read.
February 16, 2018
Good and easy read about a family trying to pick up the pieces after tragedy. The story is told alternately from three siblings' point of view. I like how this kept me feeling invested in each of their stories. This book transports the reader to the nostalgia of being a kid and/or counselor at summer camp.
November 11, 2012
I've never been to sleep away summer camp before but Jane Roper made me feel like I could've been there - loved the characters - especially the realness of them all - Great story, laugh out loud funny parts and scenes that made your heart ache for the characters. I definitely recommend this book.
November 4, 2012
A very likable book - summer camp, three siblings, complicated love, loss of parents, divorce, etc. But the thread throughout the book is good - nuture our youth so they grow up ready to handle their adulthood. Uncomplicated. A great summer read!
May 13, 2015
Really good story. The characters are so real-I just want to reach through the pages & give them hugs! I don't know if there are plans to do more with these guys or Camp Eden Lake, but I'd love to share another journey or two with them!
May 13, 2011
Enjoyed reading Eden Lake by Jane Roper!
For my complete review visit my book blog: http://www.marianslibrary.wordpress.com
Best,
Kathleen
For my complete review visit my book blog: http://www.marianslibrary.wordpress.com
Best,
Kathleen
July 14, 2013
I liked this and it tied into a recent read (Meg Wolitzer's The Interestings) is some cool ways. I really liked all the characters here, and they felt really believable to me. A good read.
August 1, 2011
It took me a little while to get into the story. But overall I liked the book. There are some great characters and I like the ending. Some aspects of the book didn't seem realistic to me though.
August 1, 2011
You can read my take here. 3.5 stars
July 6, 2011
Great book! Really enjoyable read!
August 15, 2011
I met this author at a reading at the library. I really liked this novel and look forward to her memoir which will be out next year.
December 3, 2011
Great fun book. Some coarse language/subject matter, but overall quite enjoyable.
November 23, 2012
Liked it
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews