Rating: 
Summary: Not Shreve's Best Work
Review: This is the fifth book by Ms. Shreve that I've read in the last year and a half. Although I like her writing style and her ability to construct a very vivid scene with interesting characters, I felt that this book just fell flat. It has an air of mystery but I predicted the outcome very early on. Andrew comes back to his hometown for his mother's funeral at the beginning of the book. From there the story weaves it way back to the past. We find out about Andrew and his childhood friend (and next door neighbour)Eden Close and the relationship that existed between them. We learn that Eden was adored by her father and ignored by her mother. We soon discover that there was more going on in that house and that it all culminates in a murder on a hot summer's night, the night that the beautiful Eden loses her sight. The mystery is never fully solved and so when Andrew does return home many years later, he feels he cannot leave without finding out the truth about Eden and what happened on that fateful night. It's an okay story but I found it slow to read. It just didn't grab my attention. I will however continue to read Shreve's other works, I just won't re-read this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Bittersweet answers to a painful past
Review: Anita Shreve captures an east coast small town so well in this tidy story of a man returning home for his mother's funeral. After the book is done, the images of the house, the pond, the town and the people seem to linger in one's mind, a compliment to her writing style. The story revolves around Andrew returning to his boyhood farm home to take care of his mother's final buisness and prepare to sell the house. It is the first time he has been home in almost 20 years. His homecoming also dredges up the memories of one hot summer night that provoked unresolved questions and images that haunted him still. Andrew was spending his last summer at home before leaving for college when the town's world was rocked by horrific events at the farm house next door. The shocking murder of his next door neighbor and the sexual assault of his 14 year old daughter, Eden was heady news for the townsfolk to grasp. No one ever knew what exactly happened that fateful summer night, where women screaming woke up Andrew and his parents. Andrew, at 17, was especially affected. Eden and he had become close friends since she was 11. He struggled with feelings of affection and being a protective "brother. That night also marked the last time he saw Eden. Delicately played out, the story unfolds with generous images. Suspicions are implied, and the reader may guess at the perpetrator, but this in no way negatively impacts the impressive delivery. This is a lovely, tender story of bittersweet answers to a painful past.
Rating: 
Summary: Can't go wrong with Anita Shreve!
Review: Anita Shreve has once again enthralled me with her wonderful writing. Eden Close enthralled me from beginning to end. This novel entertained and engrossed me in a way that a novel of this sort hasn't done for a long time. The story centers on Andrew and his journey to self-discovery after his mother dies. While I guessed what the "secret" was early on, and I won't go into deal so as not to ruin it for the potential reader, it did not matter at all to the enjoyment of the novel. Full of twists and turns, what really makes this novel incredible, as well as all of Anita's other works, is her character development and her unique style of writing. She really makes me care about the characters in a way that you wish them well in their endeavors. Not only do I recommend this novel, I guarantee that it will pull you in and won't let go until its final page. Also try The Pilot's Wife and The Weight of Water.
Rating: 
Summary: Extremely Slow Reading
Review: This book was not very captivating at all...it was extremely slow reading. Half way through the book I wasn't even sure what, exactly, it was about. Plus, the ending became very predictable about two-thirds into the book. I actually skipped about 50 pages just to be finished with the thing. I wouldn't recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: In the dark velvet of night....
Review: the shouting, the gunshots reverberate in Andrew's brain. Out here in the country there are only the two houses. The one in which he lives with his parents and the one where Eden lives with hers. His father grabs his gun and runs to the other house as he and his mother slowly make their way though the darkness. From that night on the idyllic childhood life Andrew and Eden shared is gone. Eden has been raped, shot and blinded. Her father is dead and the screaming sirens of police and ambulance pierce the night air, forever changing the future that might have been. Andrew, now divorced, returns to his childhood home to bury his mother and revisits, in his memory, his youth and life before and after that horrific night. He does all this while the shadowy figure of Eden is ever-present in the upstairs window of her house 'seeing' as only blindness can see. Ms. Shreve writes a sensitive and searching novel. Her prose is a vehicle which transports us to the innermst thoughts and yes, deep into the souls of Andrew and Eden, their mothers and fathers and all those that the darkness of that night engulfed. For a wonderful story and a journey you won't easily forget, set aside the time to enjoy the first of many splendid novels by this prolific author.
Rating:
Summary: A TOO -GOOD- TO- PUT- DOWN Book!!!
Review: I started this book one night. Read for 30 minutes. Woke up the next morning and didn't stop reading until the very last page!! Eden Close is a compelling story of Andrew and his beautiful next door neighbor Eden. Andrew, after many years away, returns to his hometown to plan his mothers funeral. Planning to stay only a few days, he is never the less drawn into the memories of a tragedy that occured one hot Summer night seventeen years ago. A gunshot. Piercing screams. A tormented girl. This story is mesmerizing, compelling, haunting and a story you won't soon forget. I loved this book!!
Rating:
Summary: A book you may skip
Review: I don't recommend this book to people who are looking for a truly literary experience. The book is boring, predictable, and shallow. The characters are fully described to the point that there is no more room for the audience to imagine another side/attitudes of the characters. There is no more room for imagination! Everything is already offered to the reader. The plot is typical (a lot of writers do this plot). The title is inappropriate because it is not in the perspective of Eden (except small parts in the ending of each chapter which, by the way, are out of place and do not help in the development of the story). It is more on the perspective of Andrew. This loses the mystery of the persona of Eden. The ending is so disappointing. If you place the ending in the middle of the book, you would still get the story and it won't make a difference!
Rating:
Summary: Typical!
Review: Another example of Anita Shreve's excellent work! One of my favorites! A must read for any fan of Anita's or even a fan of good books! :)
Rating:
Summary: Eden Close
Review: Shreve did a magnificent job detailing a man's journey to truth. The book was a great look into a life.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Book the Second Time Around!
Review: The first book I read by Anita Shreve was Where or When. The year was 1993 and I came across this book while browsing at the library. I remember thinking when I closed this book that this title was the book, which deserved all the praise or at least sales that Bridges of Madison County was receiving at the time. I thought the book Where or When better written in comparison to Bridges and that Eden Close had a more intriguing plot as well as a chilling outcome. After reading Where or When I went back and read Shreve's earlier books, Eden Close, Strange Fits of Passion and then Resistance. I remember thinking that Anita Shreve was one of the most overlooked new writers of that time. Then a woman named Oprah selected Shreve's book The Pilot's Wife for her television book group and overnight, one of my favorite authors became a household name. And her succeeding books, Fortune's Rock, The Weight of Water, The Last Time We Met and her latest title Sea Glass continue to illustrate why Shreve's books are such rich reading experiences. Now that I have read all of this author's books at least once I gave some thought to rereading some of her books. But it wasn't until one of my online book groups selected Close, Shreve's first novel, that I actually picked up this book and began reading it for the second time. I did wonder what I would think about a book I read close to ten years ago and one that I remembered enjoying so much that I always recommended it to others looking for a good book. I am happy to say that my second reading of the book Eden Close if anything has improved with age. The plot of this book, the characters and descriptive passages glued me to my seat once again. I found the subject matter continues to be as relevant today as it was when it was first published and the lives of the characters still as heartbreaking. And as Shreve does with all of her books, this time she puts you smack into this midwestern town where within two farm homes side by side we watch innocent lives torn apart by an unspeakable tragedy. If you have enjoyed Anita Shreve with her more recent books, be sure and go back and read her earliest novels like Eden Close, Strange Fits of Passion and Where or When and see why I considered Anita Shreve a favorite author before she was as popular as she is today.
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