There Are No Secrets in Eden

Reading Chris Bohjalian's latest novel, The Secrets of Eden, was rather like reading the local newspaper, which has devolved in the 25 years I've subscribed to it into little more than a supermarket tabloid. No matter what's going on of importance in the world their front page seems to focus on murders, the more salacious the better, domestic violence, robberies, discovered bodies, etc. It's a pretty sad commentary on Lee County, Florida.

Bohjalian is usually a book group favorite but, in spite of good reviews in PW and Booklist, I didn't find enough depth in this novel for any kind of discussion. Told through several voices, the novel begins with the discovery of a grisly murder/suicide scene in the idyllic Vermont home of Alice and George Hayward. Though everyone in town expresses shock and dismay it soon becomes clear that most everyone in town knew that George regularly beat his wife, specifically inflicting the worst wounds in places where they wouldn't show. Not only was their precocious daughter Katie well aware of the horror that went on in the Hayward house but so too was Alice's pastor, Stephen Drew.

Why didn't anyone intervene you might ask. I asked the same. Neither Alice nor George was a fully drawn character so the motivation for his cruelty and her acceptance of it remains nebulous. I didn't feel that the author tried to get into the psychological reasons why this crime happens all too often. Instead, Bohjalian overly focused on the actual arguments and beatings to the point where it became overkill, if you'll excuse the pun.

He also threw in a red herring in the character of Heather Laurent, a Marianne Williamson type of author, who specializes in angels and miracles. She rather unconvincingly shows up on Rev. Drew's doorstep a couple of days after the murders which have so devastated him, and within a week, they're sleeping together. Hmmm - I'm sorry, am I getting cynical in my old age?

Actually, much of the book is narrated by Stephen and he is the most interesting character in the novel. Since I listened to the book I found the reader's voice of Stephen just a perfect blend of chilly aloofness and intimate self-knowledge. In fact, the minister that we hear speaking is a very different man from the one his congregation sees, not that I would find this too unusual in a man of the cloth.

I kept with the book because I had some time invested in it and frankly, I had to know if the crime had actually been committed by the person I fingered less than halfway through. It seemed too plausible to be the denouement and I hoped for something more startling but it wasn't to be. If any of you have read and loved this book I'd be open to hearing from you so that I can hang my head in shame for having missed something big!