Because Ideas Matter...
The faculty and staff of Butler University's College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences presents
Recommended Readings
Secrets of
Eden
by Chris Bohjalian, Crown, 2010
Reviewed by Judi Morrel
Chris Bohjalian, winner of the 2002 New
England Book Award, tackles social issues (midwifery in Midwives,
homeopathic medicine in The Law of Similars, homelessness in The
Double Bind), about which his readers often have passionate
feelings. He is a master at turning those feelings upside down
through well-drawn characters and intricate layers of plot. In this
novel, set in Haverill, Vermont (the "Eden" of the title), the
issue is domestic abuse, and the plot layers are revealed through
the voices of four characters: Stephen Drew, a minister who is
plagued with wavering faith, Catherine Benincasa, a deputy state
attorney who is driven to succeed, Heather Laurent, a new age
author who believes fervently in angels, and Katie Hayward, the
15-year-old who is orphaned at the outset of the novel by the
apparent murder-suicide of her parents. The novel begins with the
Reverend Drew baptizing Katie's mother, Alice, in the river. Later
that very day Alice is strangled by her husband who then turns a
gun on himself. Bohjalian uses the various voices to describe the
aftermath of the tragedy and is especially adept at creating
nuanced, entirely believable female characters. The novel is well
written, horrifying without being melodramatic. As is often the
case with Bohjalian, there is a surprising plot twist in the last
pages of the novel, and nothing is what it seems.
- Judi Morrel is associate professor of mathematics at Butler
University.