Eden Close

by Anita Shreve

A compelling tale of edgy, small-town emotions, lingering obsession, and romantic salvation from acclaimed novelist Anita Shreve.

Andrew, after many years, returns to his hometown to attend his mother's funeral. Planning to remain only a few days, he is drawn into the tragic legacy of his childhood friend and beautiful girl next door, Eden Close. An adopted child, Eden had learned to avoid the mother who did not want her and to please the father who did. She also aimed to please Andrew and his friends, first by being one of the boys and later by seducing them. Then one hot night, Andrew was awakened by gunshots and piercing screams from the next Mr. Close had been killed and Eden blinded.

Now, seventeen years later, Andrew begins to uncover the grisly story––to unravel the layers of thwarted love between the husband, wife, and tormented girl. And as the truth about Eden's past comes to light, so too does Andrew's strange and binding attachment to her reveal itself.

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Chick Lit, Contemporary, Mystery, Adult Fiction, Coming Of Age

265 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Anita Hale Shreve was an American writer, chiefly known for her novels. One of her first published stories, Past the Island, Drifting (published 1975), was awarded an O. Henry Prize in 1976.

Reviews

[Duane Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Anita Shreve's debut novel and it has everything that makes a novel a pleasure to read, and what it did was set the standard for the 19 novels that Shreve now has to her credit. It has a great story and characters as all of her novels do, but this first one remains one of my favorites.

[Kerri · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the last year or so Anita Shreve has made her way onto my mental list of go to writers - meaning, if I see a book by her, I buy it. Some I have enjoyed more than others, and I have learned how to judge when I am in the best mood for her work, which has I think contributed to my growing enjoyment of her writing.
A short while ago I read her book Strange Fits of Passion and it instantly became my favourite of hers (so far). Eden Close now comes in just behind it. She writes about truly sad things in a oddly hypnotizing way, so while in Eden Close I found myself wanting to know who it was that blinded Eden with a gun and shot her father (or perhaps more accurately, to confirm my suspicions - and I was right!), I was more interested in the characters, who they are and why they are. They are bigger than the situation. You might not enjoy this if you want a big twist or a book that never gives you firm ground to stand on.
This book builds slowly - you know the question from the first chapter and the truth unravels slowly. I'm impressed once again with how Anita Shreve handles some rather disturbing things in a way that feels real and uncomfortable but not gratuitous.

[Diya✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Need to reread
Read this book almost eleven years ago, it was one of best book I read at the time growing up and it was enjoyable to read with great balance of mystery, a story told through flash backs - kept me on edge when it all unravelled.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned recently that many women in the first half of the 20th Century are being called "Middlebrow" - good enough to be re-published, but certainly nowhere near the more solidly classic authors. I was thinking about where Anita Shreve might sit in some future view of literature. Here at GR she gets shelved in several genres, and not consistently. She may not come as far as Middlebrow, but I also think she's better than what some are calling Chick Lit and/or Romance.

This title is no exception. It opens in tragedy where the young teenager Eden Close is blinded and her father killed by gunshot. Through memories of Andrew, their neighbor, we learn the circumstances of that child. She came to live there as an infant, having been left on the doorstep in an Oxydol box. (Do they still make Oxydol? I remember the laundry detergent, but haven't seen nor heard of it for decades.) Yes, the Oxydol box is a little corny and maybe Shreve didn't need to add that detail.

We go back and forth from the present to the past. The plot is just OK. Unusually for me, I began to anticipate. The characterizations are good enough, but are not strongly drawn. Shreve's writing is also decent. This novel has been on my shelf for awhile, always making my quarterly list, though I never seemed to get to it. I think this isn't Shreve's best work, but it happened to be just what I needed at the moment.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm trying to understand what the author was aiming for as she wrote this book. As another reviewer wrote, one could see where this book was headed from a mile away, so one assumes that Ms. Shreve wasn't trying to write a mystery or build up to a surprise ending. The writing, although a bit odd sylistically, wasn't particularly beautiful or interesting (although there were certainly some well-turned phrases and some well described scenes -- brushing hair, the pond), so Ms. Shreve couldn't have written the book for the poetry of its words. So that leaves the underlying story -- boy returns home to rediscover the damaged girl he left behind who had always loved him but that he had not realized he had always loved in return. Maybe Ms. Shreve built the book around the concept that love can be blind in more ways than one. If so, she could have written this story without the pretense of the mystery and, in doing so could have made it more believable and could have spent more time developing the characters.

[Flannery · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anita Shreve is another flowery-prose-and-cliche-lovers. I read Lisa's ([http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/10...]) copy of this book that she found shoved under her oil tank.

It was okay. The plot isn't very memorable. In fact, I had to check Amazon to refresh myself on it to write this review. I remember the relationship between Andrew and Eden as being sweet. Unfortunately, the thing I remember most clearly are the tired cliches and nauseating flowery descriptions. Too many words, just say what you mean!

I'm an aspiring writer myself so I'm especially critical of wordiness. It has its time and its place, but it's an art to use it correctly. Better to just call it a red flower than a tight scarlet bud ready to burst forth its alluring scent like a girl blossoming into womanhood.

I think I just made myself gag.

[Jennifer Vanblarcom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I could write like Anita Shreve. She uses words to create pictures, almost like watching a movie. I was so pulled into the characters and the unraveling mystery that I devoured this book in just a few days. Not my absolute Anita Shreve book but a winner.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am fairly assured that when I pick up an Anita Shreve book I am going to enjoy the reading and the unpredictability that seems to be a hallmark for her.This was no different.
Apparently one of her older ones and unknown to me until I picked it up at a book sale, it was no less appealing from being somewhat outdated. She takes a situation, infuses it with humanness and the random bits of detail needed to pique interest and gradually, without seeming to be doing so, reels you into the suspense and drama surrounding otherwise average characters until you are forced to re-evaluate who they actually are and what purpose they fill in the story.
I become totally involved in the slow revelations and seemingly indifferent mentions of important tidbits and although I usually think I know where the story is headed, more often than not I am pleasantly surprised and left wondering at the genius of her ability to thread the truth of her tale so unassumingly beneath the fabric of it's fiction.

This story is about a boy and his childhood.
About the girl next door and her childhood.
About all the things we assume we know about those closest to us and how rarely are things ever so clear.
After a traumatic event, all their lives are changed and it's not until the death of his mother and his returns from years away to pack up her life that he learns just how much. The story is more about how we deal with life than about the actual life we make for ourselves. From thinking he knows what he wants to realizing he never admitted to wanting what he never thought he should have, he opens himself to a new possibility and finds love and redemption in an unlikely place.
Not a groundbreaking masterpiece, yet an honest, emotional fabrication of love and second chances. Enjoyable and with the happily ever after I always wish for.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reminded me of why I used to love Anita Shreve so much. I love the way her earlier books are written- their pace, atmosphere and quietude.

The story takes place on an isolated farmland and oscillates between the main character Andrew's present day (which was the 80s) and his youth 20 years prior. Both timelines unfold together and past becomes entwined with present and long held secrets are finally uncovered in the last few pages.

I would have not have guessed this was her first novel except for the ending somewhat gives it away. Her other books do not have such tidy clean endings.

[[ J o ] · Rating 1 out of 5]

They Made Me read this book in College and it was one of the worst periods of my life. Not because of anything happening to me, except the reading of this book. I'm unlikely to re-read it, so I'll attempt a review from a very old memory...

Dire is the word that comes to mind. Very thin, very clichéd plot with some of the worst characters I've ever come across. The prose was flowery, twee and just the slowest. I hated it back then, I truly did. I hate myself for being able to remember this book, too.

[Nadia Noland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the book. It was sort af mystery/love story. The writing was detailed enough that I felt I could see everything for myself.

[Julie Stratton Shelton · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best!

[Karen Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anita Shreve at her very best. Hooks you in from the first page and cleverly expands the central characters before a twist at the end. Ingenious.

[Eva-Marie Nevarez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow - Anita Shreve has a talent unlike any I've seen before. I love the way she writes - it's amazing and seems to transport me to wherever the characters are.
I love when I read a blurb that actually fits with the book. So many times the blurbs just say anything and are laughable but the New York Times Book Review said that "Its insights are keen, its language measuered and haunting." And that's all true.
It's really amazing and no one can do her writing justice - you have to read it for yourself.
I have a different cover than the one above and while the one above is fitting, the one on my paperback is AWESOME! Totally Eden!

[Kelly Hager · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's about a man who returns to his hometown after his mother dies. He's been gone for 17 years; he left for college not long after his next door neighbor was shot and his daughter assaulted. The daughter, Eden Close, was one of his best friends growing up. She's next door again, living with her mom.

While he's home, Andrew starts to delve into the story of what actually happened that night and why Eden's mom is so protective of her.

I only have one Anita Shreve book left. :( I hope she releases a new one soon.

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I savored every word because her writing is so beautiful. There is something so familiar about her characters, insights that make you say, 'yes! exactly!' , sometimes out loud. In this way her writing resembles Elizabeth Berg. As much as I liked this one I did think that the story dragged in a few places, especially for as short a novel as it is. But the feeling of those two lonely houses alone together in a sea of farmland and the two old friends and would be lovers will be with me a while.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here's how Anita Shreve is not like Mae West: when she's good, she's very good, but when she's bad, she's pretty mundane.

This is not one of her good books, in my opinion. I saw the big climax coming from a mile away. I thought the emotions were clunky in this one, and some big questions remained unanswered--like why did Eden choose to remain living with her mother?

The thing that redeemed this book was it had a nice happy ending. But I would give this one a pass.

[Whitney Bruice · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author does paint a very descriptive picture of all the settings. However what disturbs me is the way Andrew takes control over Eden even sexually when she has been sexually abused and controlled by many, and it’s supposed to be romantic. What may have been normal in the 80’s is questionable now (regarding consent).

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I probably shouldn't, I love Anita Shreve. She's actually a pretty good writer. Evocative. She keeps me interested to the end.

[Apryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I realized why certain authors don’t connect with me. This book was a 2.5 because the characters feel so distant I don’t care what happens to any of them. I am not invested in the characters or what is unfolding. This disconnect makes a good storyline flat and lifeless to me as a reader.

[Loreen Froese · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anita Shreve has the extraordinary ability to take a character, bring their personality, emotions and surroundings to life and make us feel as if we were experiencing the moment.
Her writing is not action packed but a slow burn with the feeling that something more is coming and it does. A beautiful novel that was recommended to me by a good friend and I enjoyed it immensely.

[Lisbeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

For quite some time I have had two books by Anita Shreve on my shelves. Many years ago I read The Pilot's Wife and got fascinated by Shreve's way of writing and her personal stories. It seemed like a good idea to read some more and I have now finished both of them.

Eden Close and Sea Glass are stories about everyday people who are facing a drama or events in life that change their lives. In Eden Close Andrew returns home after many years to attend his mothers funeral. While preparing their old house for sale, his memories of the fatal events that struck his neighbour Eden comes back to him. Going down memory lane and his old feelings for her, he finally digests what happened that night many years ago. Like in The Pilot's Wife, everything is not what it seems to be, and the event that so effected many people finally gets its solution.

In Sea Glass we meet at set of people in north east England just before the Wall Street crash in 1929. Honora and Sexton, a young couple just getting married. He is a salesman of typewriters and copying machines, she is a bank clerk, McDermott, working in the mill and mostly deaf due to the noises in the factory, Vivian, a bored society lady who does not know what to do with her life and Alphonse, a twelve year old boy working in the mill.


All these people do not seem to have anything to do with each other. But as the events of the big crash occurs their lives intermingle in unexpected ways. This is the time of strikes, workers fight for a decent work hours and pay and the situation slowly builds up until the day it is time to go into a strike.

As usual Anita Shreve slowly builds up her stories, we get to know the characters and their positive sides and their failings. Then all of a sudden events happens fast and it is difficult to put the book down, until the end of the story is revealed. I really like her stories, maybe because they are about you and me, ordinary people who find themselves in situations we all face in life. Well, maybe not all of the situations in her books, but we are still able to sympathise with them.

[Cathryn Conroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1989, Anita Shreve published her first novel, "Eden Close." Remember that when you read this incredible book because very few novelists are able to do this the first time. The plot is riveting--even if it's a little bit predictable--and the characters are so real it will feel as if they are living and breathing.

In upstate New York in a small farming community in the early 1960s, two houses are situated 70 feet from each other with nothing else around except corn fields. Andy and his parents live in one house. Edith and Jim Close, a childless couple, live in the other house. One day, a baby is left at Edith and Jim's driveway. They name the little girl Eden. This is the story of Andy and Eden's lives, which were punctuated by tragedy and scarred by secrets. But both of them must face the horrors of their past when Andy comes home as an adult to bury his mother and clean out the family home.

This inherently compelling book has it all--a page-turner of a story, a mystery and a romance.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shreve's skill is her ability to write sentences that capture the essence of an experience (the breakdown of a marriage, being a parent, loving a parent, the sadness of loss, and on and on). I read the book in one sitting and partly because of where I'm at I found it very engaging. The build-up/suspense/twist was obvious, perhaps more unpredictable at the time of publishing (?) but that didn't bother me: I fell in love with the happiness, the almost ease of it being too good to be true.

Andrew goes back home after the death of his mother to do up and sell the family house. But really, as the first few pages show, the story is about what happened to him and his next door neighbours 17 years earlier. It's a story of repentance and forgiveness and being able to start again in a very caring way.

[Ayu]

Having a good friend is very important in our life. Make a good friend is not as easy as we tought. A good friend will always be there when we need it. He/She will always give us a spirit to reach something. He/She will not forget us even he's/she's not close to us. Beside that, I also learned about how to be a good person. Sometimes we didn't realize what we are doing. We never think about the effect from what we have done. We never think if theres a good or bad thing will come to us. Then, at the end we just able to regret it. That's why, as a person we must think clearly about what are we going to do, and we must be able to think about what probably will happen next. These means what I've got/learned from this novel.

[Susan Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a book for those who need a strong and involved plotline to follow, but if you love character driven works this is lovely. The story focuses on a short period of time, when divorced father of one, Andrew, returns to his roots to sort out his recently deceased mother's effects. His relationship with damaged Eden, who is kept housebound by her adoptive mother, is slowly rebuilt and answers to old mysteries are gradually revealed. The observations and emotions within the story are beautifully expressed. I was slightly disappointed by the ending, but couldn't quite put my finger on why.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fact that this is Shreve's first novel is evident throughout the first half. Her writing style is less polished than in later novels and there is a lot of redundency in her word choice. The story focuses on Andrew as he returns to his childhood roots following the death of his mother. His memories of one fateful night 17 years earlier come to light as he again encounters neighbors from his past. Although I was able to predict the majority of the outcome there was enough suspense to keep me coming back for more and a few surprises to boot.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very sad story with a mostly happy ending, a hopeful ending. Andrew remembers his childhood as he fixes up his childhood home after his mother dies. He ends up discovering all the secrets of his neighbor who was his best childhood friend. He didn't realize that her father had been molesting her and that her "mother" had tried to kill her. Andrew rescues Eden from a life of darkness and gives her the hope of love and care.

[Lynne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Generally I enjoyed this book, but I have to say that I grew weary of the main character's constant headaches. Being the author brought them often, I suggest that in future writings she just has the man put on a pair of sunglasses when it's bright outside. It was an uneccessary destraction from the plot.

[Denise Heinze · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a dark and disturbing novel but also hopeful and redemptive. Shreve's prose is quiet and pensive, beautifully understating the horrific events in Eden's tragic life. I did find the ending predictable, but that was anti-climatic (and perhaps meant to be) relative to Shreve's focus, not on what happened to Eden Close one fateful night, but how it left her life in tatters.