The book is full of diverse characters representative of stereotypical 1950s Southern American people. The prose paints a picture of the landscape and character surroundings, and minor characters are introduced and fleshed out enough to show their merit to the story and helping the main characters along their paths. The book is a quick read with a clearly defined plot and easy reading flow. Fans of historical fiction full of miss opportunities and hope for a story's characters will enjoy this work.

I wanted to enjoy this story, but I couldn't find anything in the characters that made me care about what happened to them. Moments of failure followed by moments of failure chapter after chapter until the final pages where the main character, Rowen, finally decides to grow up (as a middle-aged man) just didn't make me love this book. That being said, I can see how and why this book would appeal to other readers that enjoy this type of literary fiction.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the darc of this work in exchange for my honest review.

Im not sure how to feel about this book. The title character “Eden” when we first meet her is a precocious 10 year old who is testifying at her Daddy’s murder trial. It would appear that she is the only witness to his murder- was it self defense, as claimed by her uncle or murder? On the stand Eden swears that her Uncle murdered her daddy, Her mother, calls her a liar, and as a result tosses her into the street. She is rescued begrudgingly by our Narrator Rowen and the strong women in his life- Adelaide their black maid, and his momma Miss Rita. They have troubles of their own- his daddy recently committed suicide, leaving them destitute.
This is Rowen’s coming of age story- but he is such a pathetic character- stuck in his mindset, and blown which way and that by the women in his life. He makes no decisions of his own, and even when his knows in his heart what is right, his goes along to get along. Others suffer because he wont speak up or take action. I was hoping for more growth from him, but sadly by the end of the book there is just the faintest glimmer. Finally, he does whats right regardless of the consequences. Rowan is a coward, who becomes a man, in middle age.

This was an engrossing and interesting read. It was refreshing to read about a character (Rowen) who tries to do the right thing for the people in his life but does not become a superhero in the process. He makes mistakes and receives more criticism than praise for his efforts. He is a very human, flawed character who can't seem to satisfy any of the women in his life and more importantly can not please himself. The characters are well developed and the way the story unfolds is absorbing.

An interesting story about a young man Rowen and his relationship with a young girl who comes to live with his family. Eden had testified against her uncle for the murder of her father. She was not believed by the townspeople. Her mother who had never been a good mother to her became worse and Eden ran away from home ending up with Rowen’s family. The story follows Rowen’s life and Eden’s unfortunate life and their unrequited relationship. All the characters in the story were well developed and interesting. Rowen’s mother, his eventual wife Juliette, his mother’s negro maid Adelaide, , a young negro. Samuel and other characters reflect the 1950’s in North Carolina. This is a about inertia, missed opportunities, prejudice, and racial tensions. The story is basically depressing. The ending was not predictable

This was a fair book, somewhat predictable. Set in 1950’s North Carolina, Rowen Hart is a young man who seems to meander through life allowing himself to be swayed by the events of the moment. He never seems to question anything and accepts everything at face value for what it is even if it means missed opportunities and experiences. To be sure, he does always try to do the right thing, but he just drifts through life. This wasn’t a badly written book and took into account a lot of the issues of the era, but I found it mediocre because of the predictability of the story.

Eden is a coming of age story of a young man seeking to find his place in society. Life doesn’t turn out the way he thought it would when he became an adult. It’s not until many years later that he realizes he has allowed himself to be a silent onlooker. Missed opportunities for righting wrongs plague his life. Woven throughout this book are themes of racial and economic prejudice, identity and family value systems. Although parts of it were emotionally draining, Eden was an enjoyable read,

#pronghornpress #netgalley #goodreads

In “Eden”, the two main characters both lose their fathers to violence resulting in dramatically altered circumstances for both. In the case of Rowen, an 18 year old boy from a middle class family, his father committed suicide leaving Rowen and his mother destitute. For 10 year old Eden, she claims at trial that her maternal uncle killed her father in cold blood. No one believes her, and she is banished from her home by her uncaring mother. For some unexplained reason, she comes to live with Rowen, his now reclusive mother, and their African-American housekeeper Adeline. What ensues is a depressing tale of characters being driven by fate, without any actions on their part to forestall that fate.

In particular, Rowen gets pulled along by life never really making his own decisions or charting his own course. For example, before his death, Rowen’s father had planned for Rowen to attend college, but when the father’s partner, Rowen’s maternal uncle, cheats Rowen of his inheritance, Rowen does nothing to reclaim it. As a result, Rowen abandons his college plans and he and his mother are forced to live in a shack on the outskirts of town. A stranger arrives to fix their gate post and offers Rowen a job in construction, so Rowen takes it, not out of any desire to learn construction but merely because the offer came his way.

When Eden comes to live with Rowen and his mother, there is some hope that her strength and resilience will influence Rowen, but sadly this does not seem to happen. She only lives with them for a year, then disappears from the book for several years, reappearing occasionally throughout the book. This raises the question why the book was named “Eden” instead of “Rowen.”

Overall, the book had good characterizations, and although the prose was somewhat spare it occasionally had some lyrical qualities. However, the descriptions were sketchy at best—the house Rowen and his mother live in is called a “shack” but there is no description of it. Moreover, although Rowen had come from a fairly successful middle class family and was destined for college, his speech patterns early in the book are those of an illiterate, lower class person. Generally, the book did not seem to have an overarching point. While some people may find the book appealing because of its colorful characters and emotional themes of poverty and loss, I was disappointed with the depressing story of a passive main character and an absence of any apparent point to the whole book.