’Eden Close’ is Anita Shreve’s first novel and carries with it her trials at making an entire package of romance, intrigue and substance.
The main protagonist, Eden Close, is kept under wraps at the beginning only to unravel her unusual life through the eyes and memories of Andrew, her childhood friend who returns to his hometown and his’past’ after the death of his mother.
From the start of the novel, Andrew lives in a series of flashbacks that involves his family, neighbourhood, friends and most importantly, Eden. The readers also understand the fact that he is a divorcee with a son. Andrew, in his recollections, mentions about a fateful night when gunshots were heard in his neighbourhood where Eden lived. The vivid descriptions of a shocked community over what happened in Eden’s house - rape, murder and a break-in - are so intriguing that Shreve succeeds in hooking the reader to the rest of the novel with aplomb. Shreve also excels in character descriptions of some like Eden and two of Andrews’ childhood friends. We cannot help feel something more than pity for the innocent, unwanted Eden as a baby and the same feeling lingers on as she steps into her’tomboyishness’ to impress the boys. Her need for acceptance is subtly decoded here. We watch with dismay and horror, the metamorphosis of this innocent child to someone daring and edgy, without losing our sense of her vulnerability. But this time around, we realise that there is something more to Eden than it appears. Andrew, as Eden’s lover, is something the readers discover early on, except Andrew himself or so he wished to believe till late. He doesn’t impress as much as others due to his procrastination(probably) and his attempts to seduce her at such a wrong time!
Eden has a devastating effect on the people close to her whether she wishes it or not. Was it her beauty? Or her birth? What was it about Eden that made Andrew obssess about her all these years? What was that woeful mystery that wrecked a family, yet, upon the disclosure of which, Eden becomes more desirable than disgraceful to Andrew? To top it all, where was her guardian angel who could have saved her early on from her pitiable existence? There are so many questions at the end of the novel and only a few remains answered.’Eden Close’ is not fairy tale though it depicts the romance between Andrew and Eden as one such. We only hope for the shocking chronicle of Eden’s life( to a certain extent, we suspect it) to be a thing of her past but considering the trauma that she’s borne all these years and the perverseness of it all, will she ever lead a normal life? The Prince rescues the Princess; "is it’happily ever after’? " is the question.