The Garden

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Addition to the Teen Fiction Genre
Review: Eve is just awakening to her guardian, the all-wise Serpent, in the Garden of Eden, while nearby, Adam, is being spoken to by the Creator, God. God is working on making his charge, Adam, adhere to his rules, to keep him in line, and working according to His vision. However, the Serpent has something different in mind for his charge, Eve. Under the Serpent's ruling, Eve begins to think, and to question rules, and many other things. Unline God, the Serpent takes Eve outside of the Garden of Eden, where she is exposed to all types of new knowledge, that Adam has never experienced. When God instructs Eve and Adam to mate, the Serpent, as well as Eve, refuse such a thing. However, it does take place, in the form of rape, causing Eve to feel extreme animosity towards both Adam and God. Eve refuses to accept the responsibility of being the Mother of all humankind, until the Serpent changes form into a man, and the two of them become lovers. When Eve stumbles upon the Tree of Knowledge, and the Serpent warns her and Adam about the hardship that she will experience once eaten, the two of them take the challenge, in the hopes of becoming fully realized humans.

I received this book in the mail just last week, and was quite mesmerized with both the cover, and the synopsis about the story. As someone who has read the true story of Adam and Eve, and the Garden of Eden in the Bible many times, I was interested in reading Elsie V. Aidinoff's take on the story. I found her thoughts about Eve to be quite fresh, and remarkable, and found myself easily engrossed in the story. While THE GARDEN may cause a lot of controversy in the world of Christianity, as it brings up many new thoughts on the subject of Adam and Eve, everyone must remember that it is simply a work of fiction, and not something that is supposed to be revealing the truth. I, myself, as a faithful Catholic, realize that, and was able to enjoy the story, as I know that it was simply a work of fiction. Nothing less, and nothing more.

Erika Sorocco

Rating:
Summary: Richie's Picks: THE GARDEN
Review: God has been bringing up Adam. Meanwhile, He has had the Serpent taking care of and teaching young Eve in a distant part of the Garden. Now, the Serpent has brought Eve to meet her Creator and Adam for the first time. The fun-loving, irresponsible Adam, who is off racing the gazelles or some such thing, has apparently spaced out on God's telling him that Eve was coming this morning, and so they are sitting around chatting and waiting for Adam's return:

" 'I'm glad you like it. It's linen, Eve, a piece of linen cloth.'
" 'How did you make it?' I asked.
" 'Oh, I just waved a finger.' God turned back to the Serpent. 'What a boy,' he said, raising both hands in the air. 'Not very bright, mind you, but that's not important. He's the first, you know, my first try, so he's not perfect. But he's beautiful--you must see him run--and he's a nice boy, kindhearted, and good with his hands. I have had fun with him; you can't imagine.
" 'I can,' said the Serpent, glancing at me. But I was watching God. God who was able to create cloth simply by waving a finger in the air; what power he must have! I shivered.
" 'But it's very tiring,' God went on. 'He takes a long time with his lessons and seems to have trouble remembering names, and he doesn't always pay attention. And for some reason I can't fix him by waving a finger.' The Serpent coughed. God frowned. 'What's the matter with you? You're always coughing. You never did that before.
" 'Just a little dust in my throat,' said the Serpent. 'Go on.'
" 'The boy can't sit still, either. He wiggles his toes and plays with his hair until it drives me crazy.'
" 'Mmph,' said the Serpent thoughtfully.
" 'And his balls,' said God.
" 'What?' said the Serpent.
" 'His balls. He plays with his balls.'
"The Serpent lifted the front of his body into the air. 'What does he do with them.'
" 'He play with them all the time. All the time. Bounces them about!'
"The Serpent raised its head farther and widened its eyes. 'That's quite a trick. How does he do it?'
" 'From hand to hand, back and forth, to and fro, while I'm trying to explain things like the solar system.'
" 'Well,' said the Serpent, blinking. 'He sounds like quite an accomplished and original young man.'
" 'Yes, he's good with his hands,' God repeated. 'Look at this woodwork!' God waved at the porch with its carved columns. 'And he loves to make those balls I told you about. I must admit it's difficult work, with his big hands. But he makes lots of them, small ones, large ones. He weaves reeds together for the cover and stuffs them with bits of wool or seeds. They are wonderful balls, and they bounce very well. He's fascinated by them. I only wish he'd put as much time and interest into learning.'
" 'Oh. Of course,' said the Serpent. It sank into its coils, coughing.
" 'There you go again, said God. 'You should take something for it; try honey. Anyway,' he continued, 'when I ask Adam questions, he acts as if he's never heard the subject before. "What?" he'll say. "A planet? Nine planets? What's a planet?" as if we hadn't been talking and eating and sleeping planets for days.'
" 'It must be very trying for you,' said the Serpent.' "

There certainly is humor in THE GARDEN, a tale of what happened in the Garden of Eden told from Eve's point of view. But there is so much more. The God we meet is loving, but also stubborn, and impatient, and prideful. He has a terrible time dealing with the notion that the creatures He made in his own image have taken on lives of their own.

" 'What are the important things?' I asked. It seemed to me that everything I had learned was important.
"God frowned. 'Eve, you must learn not to interrupt! Serpent, I'm surprised you allow it!'
" 'I find the interruptions are often the most productive moments,' said the Serpent.
"God hunched his shoulders as if he found the idea incomprehensible, and turned back to me. 'Eve, in the next few weeks I will teach you the correct view of the world and the correct view of me. You must learn to appreciate what it means, that I created the world and all the animals and the birds and the fish, all the insects, everything! God waved his hands at the landscape behind us, which Adam and I could not see. A wasp circled around his head, and he waved it away. 'I created you, both of you! Adam and Eve!'
" 'And the linen, I said.' "

God sets off the complex series of events when he orders Adam to force himself upon Eve, making the "first time" horribly traumatic for both Adam and Eve. Furious about God's lack of patience and understanding, the Serpent takes Eve home, insisting that God and Adam stay away from her for six moons. During that time the Serpent and Eve embark upon a series of secret explorations outside the safe confines of the Garden.

My ninth grader reads everything these days with an overly-critical eye. This was the first thing I've seen her truly passionate about in months. Her copy was passed on to an eighth grade fantasy reader, who devoured 200 pages overnight, and came into class yesterday smiling and exclaiming that, "They're going to have to put that author into the Witness Protection Program."

THE GARDEN is a both an enchanting story and a powerful, incredibly thought-provoking book. Ms. Aidinoff's characterizations of Adam and Eve will prompt great discussions concerning the roots of "maleness" and "femaleness." It will also instigate debates about parenting styles and about freewill.

THE GARDEN is sure to germinate fields full of thoughtful reader reaction. Be sure to let the sun shine in on this extraordinary story by adding it to your collection.

Rating:
Summary: The Garden
Review: I thought this book was ok. I'm a devoted Christian, and the depiction of God was disturbing at times. I thought that Eve was a very real character, with understandable emotions and feeings. I thought that the book dragged on in some respects, the description was vivid, but long and continuous. It took me about a week to finish this book, which is long for me. The characters had very few scenerios in which new changes occur. The dialogue was very philisophical, about the world and the Garden. Throughout the book, I was waiting for the Serpent to show some signs of the Devil, like he really was, and I often confused the Bible tale to this one. It was a wonderful, intriguing idea, but it fell flat in a way. I wish there were more characters and that Adam and Eve had more interesting conversations and a stronger realationship. God also was depicted in a very negative way, which, I know is fictional but still upsetting at times. The book felt overworked and overdone, missing that special real feeling that other books I have read have.

Rating:
Summary: A Different Lens on the Garden
Review: In the Afterword to this debut novel, author Aidinoff relates how the idea for it came to her in church. Specifically, she was studying one of the Old Testament creation stories - remember, there are two in the book of Genesis! -- and found herself unsatisfied with the cryptic telling of the story of Adam, Eve, and serpent. So she decided to embark on a retelling that lengthened and elucidated the text, as she saw it.

This process of retelling is a longstanding tradition in Bible study and teaching, made popular by Diamant's The Red Tent. Aidinoff's efforts are considerable. The fruits, though, are mixed to say the least.

The problem is a heavy-handed agenda. First on it is to paint God as an irredeemable corner and then hurl felonies at him. Aidinoff depicts God in her narrative specifically as she describes him in the Old Testament in her Afterword: choleric and impetuous. Within the text, Aidinoff does everything she can to underscore this characterization, even having God encourage Adam to rape the virgin Eve. This rape is Eve's first sexual experience. God, have you stopped telling your son to rape your daughter? Andrea Dworkin must be applauding, someplace.

Second, Aidinoff brings to the table a conception of the Almighty that matches how she sees the scientists at Los Alamos who developed the world's first operating nuclear weapon during the Second World War. That is, as she writes in her Afterword, "geniuses...that never considered the moral implication of the [atomic] bomb, or the suffering it would bring."

Put aside for a moment that the author apparently is not a nuclear scientist, was not part of the Manhattan Project, and therefore would have no idea about what scientists talked about in their living rooms or in church. The fact is that the writings and speeches of such scientists as Robert Oppenheimer make it clear that there was no dearth of moral struggle over the creation of the ultimate weapon. "I am become as death," Dr. Oppenheimer famously muttered, quoting the Bhagavad Gita phrase about the Hindu death god Shiva, while witnessing the May 1945 nuclear test at Alamagordo, New Mexico.

Third, Aidinoff is intrigued by the Snake in the Adam and Eve story, and wants to recast the serpent as hero instead of villain. The snake becomes Eve's tutor, teaching her an idealistic view of equality amongst the creatures of the world: "The Serpent says we're all equal, us and the creatures and the plants and the land. We all have the same right to live and use the things around us." Nice sentiments, yes. But this is the same sort of moral claptrap that leads kids to deadlock when asked: "A dog and a child are drowning. You can only save one. Which do you save?"

Some will certainly dismiss The Garden as blasphemy, causing others to rush to its defense on the grounds of artistic freedom. Yet God is hardly beyond reproach and I'd be the first to say there is sanctity in our God-given ability to create art -no subject too sacred. I laughed hard at George Burns in Oh, God! and Jim Carey in Bruce Almighty. I hardly think that Harry Potter promotes the worship of the devil. I thought The Red Tent was terrific and The Da Vinci Code a cracking good read. Blasphemy isn't the issue. Some of the world's greatest thinkers were supposedly blasphemers - the brilliant philosopher Spinoza was excommunicated for blasphemy.

My fear is that Aidinoff's audacity is going to turn this novel into the literary equivalent of the Andres Serrano "Piss Christ" furor at the Brooklyn Museum a few years back - a brouhaha over a work of art that isn't good enough to merit the hubbub. What matters more to me than blasphemy, and what's going to matter most to the young readers for whom this novel is purportedly intended, is that The Garden turns out to be a muddled mess of New Age pseudo-wisdom that is not fun to read; four hundred pages with little forward thrust toward what we will know will come near the end: the consumption of the apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Even that climactic moment is undercut when you stop and think how many moral judgments Eve has made during the preceding ninety percent of the novel - a logical inconsistency from which the text never recovers.

Yes, it's good to be audacious. More writers should be audacious. But it's more audacious to be good.

Rating:
Summary: Northern European Eve?
Review: Ms. Aidinoff has apparently written a book about Eve and the Serpent in a vacuum--unaware of the existence of exegetical and literary sources which could have helped her immensely. One doubts she has even bothered to read "Adam, Eve and the Serpent" by Elaine Pagels. No, one suspects after reading this book that Ms. Aidinoff is a religious snob--content to appropriate the characters of the Judeo/Christian tradition but loathe to actually get her hands dirty.

There was one aspect of this book which went beyond mediocre: something that is truly shocking given the author's background. According to the author's biography, Aidinoff has spent many years working with poor and underprivileged people in Harlem, New York. If this is true, one wonders why she has (seemingly without a trace of irony) created an Eve with pink nipples, long flowing blonde hair, and even blonde pubic hair. Sadly, even after all those years in Harlem, Ms. Aidinoff cannot conceive of an archetypal woman that is anything other than the northern European ideal. All shoddy theology aside, for that reason alone I cannot recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: a beautiful exploration of the problems of human existence
Review: THE GARDEN is a retelling of the events in the Garden of Eden from Eve's point of view. Elsie V. Aidinoff's Eden will be recognizable to those who have read it in Genesis or heard the story retold elsewhere, but she adds some completely original twists. Adam and Eve are raised separately: Adam by a controlling, jealous and angry God who insists on total obedience, and Eve by the wise and gentle Serpent, who encourages her to ask questions and challenges her to think for herself.

It is no surprise that such drastically different characters come into conflict. Eve cannot understand a god who refuses to accept her questioning. Adam does not know how to disobey God who, in Aidinoff's Eden, is not always looking after the best interests of his creations. A quarter of the way into the book, this conflict leads to rape. The rest of the story deals with Eve's recovery from the violation, and how she comes to make her decision to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, a choice that Aidinoff equates with freeing humans from the hands of an angry god.

Aidinoff's ideas are compelling and poetic, but even in the hands of a clearly gifted writer there are unavoidable conflicts in the narrative. One of the largest narrative problems is the rape itself and the necessity for Eve to forgive her attacker who, after all, is the only man in all of creation.

Still, this book explores a number of interesting ideas and is an excellent place to begin asking many of the difficult questions that are a part of human existence: the problem of evil, science vs. mythology, the hierarchy of living beings and, ultimately, freewill. It is beautifully and lovingly written. The characters of Eve and the Serpent are especially well-realized. The Serpent is not equated with Evil or Satan, but with Justice and Wisdom. When Eve asks him who he is, the Serpent replies, "My role on this earth: to counterbalance the excesses of a jealous god."

One of the most interesting questions that THE GARDEN asks is how much Adam and Eve knew before they ate from the Tree of Knowledge. In this story, Eve has learned a great deal about the nature of good vs. evil, not to mention suffering and the soul, before she makes her choice. As part of her healing process, Eve and the Serpent travel outside the garden to see the rest of the world. Even before she has eaten from the Tree of Knowledge, Eve experiences the desert, the mountains, the ocean and the volcano, and learns the skills she will need to survive outside the garden.

Ultimately, Aidinoff's novel makes a powerful case for Eve's choice and for the idea that the introduction of knowledge, and the death that comes with it, is necessary for human development. "If there were no death," the Serpent tells Eve, "most beings would be very old. The ancient would rule, for they would have power. And they would believe they know best ... The Earth would be quickly overrun. You could not have a succession of beings progressing through life, each generation learning and growing and giving in its own way, rediscovering beauty, taking joy in the world around them. Death makes way for the young."

This is a powerful message for readers, some of whom will be experiencing these questions for the first time. THE GARDEN is an excellent place to begin their journey, and would also be a good choice for an intergenerational book club. There is likely to be controversy about Aidinoff's version of the Judeo-Christian creation myth, but this also makes for good discussion and reading.

--- Reviewed by Sarah A. Wood