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Loading... The Lake of Dreams: A Novel (edition 2011)by Kim Edwards
Work detailsThe Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards
 melissarochelle | Apr 10, 2013 |  Loved, Loved this book. A little history, a little mystery and intrigue, family angst and LOVE! (  ) dragonflydee1 | Apr 3, 2013 | I had high hopes for this after having read The Memory Keeper's Daughter and Secrets of A Fire King, and The Lake of Dreams fell a bit short of my expectations. The writing, the characters, the story was not as high-quality as Edwards' previous books, and altogether the first half of the book rang untrue to me. There were a few false and jarring notes, such as a oblique reference to The Memory Keeper's Daughter (the main character's mother is reading a book, the cover image of which is "an ethereal baby dress against a background of black," p. 142), and the behavior of a supposedly bright 6- or 7-year-old seemed more appropriate to that of a 3- or 4-year old, as if the author was unfamiliar with typical child development stages. There was also a character named Joan Lowry (p. 180) - possibly a coincidence, or possibly a nod to YA mystery author Joan Lowry Nixon. These things made me more aware of the author than of the book, and took me outside of the story. However, eventually I did become wrapped up in the story, as eager as Lucy to find out her great-aunt Rose's history, and what happened to Rose's daughter Iris, and the nature of Rose's relationship to the stained glass artist Frank Westrum. The author is a bit heavy-handed with the feminist themes - Rose was involved in the women's suffrage movement - as well as the environmental/ecological ones. "Good" prevails in the end, and the ending is satisfying, but perhaps too neat. "For this is what I have learned, in my short life: do not act out of anger. Act from love, or not at all." (273) (  ) JennyArch | Apr 3, 2013 | The Lake of Dreams is a story of love, loss and redemption that delves into the darkness of one family’s grief stricken past uncovering a history of lies and secrets. When Lucy returns home to the Lake of Dreams she is quickly entangled in uncovering the story of an unknown distant relative and her quest to solve the mysteries of her family’s past takes her on a journey that ultimately allows her to come to terms with her own grief around the passing of her father when she was a child. This was a good read and quite interesting at times when dealing with the topic of women’s suffrage. The plot is strong and the characters are both well developed and believable. Not amazing, but I definitely enjoyed The Lake of Dreams and it was an easy read. (  ) pj77 | Mar 31, 2013 | Audio version....I'm not impressed with the narrator. Her reading it too breathily dramatic. Too manner story lines. I didn't finish listening to it so I'm not sure if the ends were all gathered together and made sense. (  ) alizarin | Dec 5, 2012 |
 Her fans won't be disappointed with her second novel. Though a little long-winded and too heavily metaphorical at times, The Lake of Dreams is as enchanting as her first novel...Edwards' emphasis on metaphors and symbolism does slow the story down. Readers may also notice that the characters' dialogue tends to be overly long and detailed, so not always realistic. She also relies too heavily on coincidence and luck in her plot. But in the final analysis, this novel is a dream. Kim Edwards has, in fact, done it again, riveting us to her story. And if one can take issue at all with the book, it would be a need to carp over the touches of political correctness that pervade each of her characters! This tendency in the author’s delineations does take from them a certain credibility. It tells us as well that Edwards, while a natural in the telling of a tale, has yet to learn that characters are wholly convincing when they act within a story’s limits and not by advertising their “green” credentials, “do-goodism” or socially-minded intentions. Nor, are “bad guys” necessarily defined by those who would change the landscape, build towering buildings, or profit by their enterprise..Even so, Edward’s The Lake of Dreams is a notable contribution and a worthy successor to her first novel.  Edwards’s pen has a wanderlust, a restlessness that propels the narrative from past to present and from New York City to England and Jakarta. The novel is rich in historical detail, clearly the fruit of decent research into early New York feminist circles...This is both a good and a bad thing. Though Edwards has a trademark ability to spin a good yarn, the plot often snags and drags as its distracting tangents multiply.....And while The Memory Keeper’s Daughter got page-turning power from a shocking premise, Edwards seems almost determined to keep her new tale from being too implausible. In the process, she has denied it some spark.... The Lake of Dreams is a kind of mystery novel of the self, about a woman caught in the undertow of history. It may not have the blockbuster potential of Edwards’s first book, but it grips in a quieter, gentler way.
References to this work on external resources.
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Dear Readers,
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter was that rare thing, a true word-of-mouth best seller, and I want to begin this letter by thanking all the readers who have been part of this amazing experience. I appreciate your passion for books and for stories, your intense and thoughtful conversations, and the comments you have sent to me from across the country and across the world.
Now, I’m really pleased and excited to introduce you to my new novel, The Lake of Dreams. Set in the beautiful Finger Lakes area of upstate New York, this novel is the story of Lucy Jarrett and her discovery of a hidden past, glimpsed first through fragments of old letters and traces left in stained glass windows. Lucy’s quest through the artifacts of history brings her face to face with the dynamics she fled the summer after her father drowned; it compels her to make an inward journey, too, one that will alter her understanding of herself and change the course of her life.
The Lake of Dreams is a book I’ve been imagining for a long time. Years ago I wrote a 400 page draft of a different novel that had some of these same thematic concerns, including a complex family history, the importance of the land, and the comet connecting generations. That early novel ended up in a box in my basement, as so many first novels do, though I did return to it from time to time, and once I even made it 200 pages into another version before I put it aside again. Meanwhile, I finished my story collection, The Secrets of a Fire King. I wrote The Memory Keeper’s Daughter.
Yet the essence of the earlier story persisted, and shortly after The Memory Keeper’s Daughter was finished, but before it was published, I started writing The Lake of Dreams. Those earlier, discarded drafts had finally brought me to the heart of the story, and this time I had the voice, which is always the crucial discovery. Then the characters from the past began to emerge, with all their fascinating revelations. I immersed myself in the writing, and this new novel was well underway before the excitement of the best seller lists and book tours began. When things began to quiet down again, it was a real pleasure to return to The Lake of Dreams, to Lucy and her family and the mysteries of glass, and to the story that was waiting for me there.
I’ll be going on tour for The Lake of Dreams in January.
Best wishes to my readers! I hope you enjoy The Lake of Dreams.
Warmly,
Kim Edwards
(Photo of Kim Edwards © Deborah Feingold)
(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 03 Jan 2013 07:41:29 -0500)
In this book, the author tells the story of a woman's homecoming, a family secret, and the old house that holds the key to the true legacy of a family. At a crossroads in her life, Lucy Jarrett returns home from Japan, only to find herself haunted by her father's unresolved death a decade ago. Old longings stirred up by Keegan Fall, a local glass artist who was once her passionate first love, lead her into the unexpected. Late one night, as she paces the hallways of her family's rambling lakeside house, she discovers, locked in a window seat, a collection of objects that first appear to be useless curiosities. But soon they reveal a deeper and more complex family past. As Lucy discovers and explores the traces of her lineage from an heirloom tapestry and dusty political tracts to a web of allusions depicted in stained glass windows throughout upstate New York, the family story she has always known is shattered. Lucy's quest for the truth reconfigures her family's history, links her to a unique slice of the suffragette movement, and yields dramatic insights that embolden her to live freely. With surprises at every turn, this is a saga in which every element emerges as a carefully place piece of the puzzle.… (more)
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I prefered this over my previous Kim Edwards' read (The Memory Keeper's Daughter). Though I did skip over a lot of (what I feel to be) excessive dream "footage" and description.
Bottom line: a good book, but not great. (