Book Review: Eden by Olympia Vernon

By Dee Y. Stewart



Rating: 5 stars.



Olympia Vernon’s first book is a tragically written tale about womanhood, death and family responsibility. Cancer is not the only disease that can destroy a household, but infidelity, betrayal and alcoholism can cut just as deep. Olympia Vernon’s Eden (Grove Press, $23.00) is written in perfect poetic prose. Anger, betrayal, resentment, redemption all spring forth in every chapter and the beauty and bitterness of mortality drips off every page. In the opening chapter Maddy Dangerfield describes her relationship with her mother: “I went to my room to listen to it[the rain], to become a part of my God, to leave behind the quiet silence between a mother and child who didn’t know how to talk to each other, how to fully communicate about the dead, the cheating, the alcoholic father, the whispers in town about a sinful child with no respect for God’s house, His rules.”



Fourteen –year- old Maddy Dangerfield was in hot water. While in Sunday school she got caught drawing a flat chest naked woman on the first page of the Book of Genesis using her Aunt Pip’s scandalous red lipstick, a symbol of her wanton behavior. For Maddy’s punishment her mother sends her to Aunt Pip every weekend, to care for her. As she tries to nurse her dying aunt, Maddy faces the end of childhood and the certainty of death.



Olympia Vernon captures the soul of the southern black voice as she portrays the tumultuous relationship between Maddy’s mother and father, the raping of a young white woman at her uncle’s hands, and Aunt Pip’s adulterous betrayal with her sister’s husband. The novel is loaded with heartache after heartache. Its only relief is in the faith of a God that redeems and heals, where life is better in another place outside of Pyke County Mississippi. Eden is the struggle of a girl fighting against nature, her maturity and her mortality. This book is one of the best books written this year.



Available online at Barnes and Noble and http:www.groveatlantic.com.

The women's relationship with nature and the Earth.

It was so real and a bit disturbing, but all of that was needed, so I liked everything.

hug my three year old daughter and have her sleep in my bed.

sad and thankful

Olympia Vernon

It portrays the american voice brilliantly. This book captivates you.

If you are reading my review, you need to read this book. If you do not want to buy it, at least check it out at your local library. It is that great.

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Created Apr 02, 2003 at 10:46am • Submit your own review...