Review of "The Lake of Dreams: A Novel" by Kim Edwards

Twenty-nine year old Lucy Jarrett left her upstate New York home town - called 'The Lake of Dreams' - soon after her father accidently drowned a decade ago.



Lucy went to college, became a hydrologist, and took a series of overseas jobs. Two years ago Lucy met Yoshi in Jakarta, and they fell in love and settled down in Japan - where Yoshi has an engineering job.



Lucy is looking for work and teaching English to Japanese students to stave off boredom.

When Lucy learns that her mother had a minor accident, she debates returning to 'The Lake of Dreams' for a visit. Yoshi encourages Lucy to go, and plans to join her after he concludes a scheduled business trip.

When Lucy arrives back in 'The Lake of Dreams', she decides to stay in her old upstairs bedroom, even though her mother shut up the house's second story after her husband's death, because of the painful memories.



While Lucy is nosing around in the upstairs window seats - using the lockpicking skills she learned from her locksmith father - she comes across a batch of pamphlets and a few notes that belonged to a long-dead relative named Rose.



None of Lucy's relations have ever mentioned Rose, who seems to have been deliberately erased from the family tree a century ago, during the era of Lucy's great-grandfather.

Some of Rose's unearthed leaflets are about the women's suffrage movement, and others contain information about women's biology - a subject that was discouraged, or even forbidden (can you imagine!! 😕), during Rose's time. In fact, in one of Rose's notes she mentions that she never saw her own naked body until she visited an aristocrat's house that had a large mirror - a visit that had dramatic consequences.





When Lucy's mother, Evie, sees Rose's dusty pamphlets she remembers a packet she found hidden in an old trunk years ago, and brings out a beautiful silk scarf and another note in Rose's distinctive handwriting.



Lucy becomes intensely curious about Rose's story and goes to great lengths to learn more about this long-lost relative - researching church documents, visiting historical societies, and so on.



Lucy learns that Rose was born in England and came to the United States under difficult circumstances. Moreover, Rose was a rebel who supported the suffragette movement, dreamed of being an Episcopal priest, and may have modeled for an artist who made stained glass windows for churches.



Lucy begins researching the stained glass windows in an old abandoned church.....



.....and is helped by her old high school boyfriend, Keegan Fall - who's a glass artisan and the owner of a glass-blowing factory. Lucy is strongly attracted to Keegan, but she loves Yoshi, so she has some issues to work out.



Meanwhile, an old army depot in 'The Lake of Dreams' has been decommissioned, and there's intense disagreement about what to do with the land. Native Americans think they have a claim on it; ecologists want to establish a nature preserve; and developers want to build houses and commercial establishments. As it happens, Lucy's Uncle Art - her father's brother - is in the developer camp, and thinks his proposed projects would make him very rich.



Not only is Art hoping to purchase the depot land, he's also trying to convince Lucy's mother to sell him HER property, which abuts the depot.



However, Art cheated his brother (Lucy's father) out of his inheritance years ago, and there's been bad blood between Art and Lucy's family every since. It's true that Art has been 'nicey nicey' since his brother drowned - helping with house repairs and the like - but he's not been forgiven by a long shot.

All these issues - the story of Rose's life; Lucy choosing Keegan or Yoshi; and the future of the depot - play out as the story unfolds. Other things are going on as well. Lucy's mother has a new beau; Lucy's brother and his girlfriend are expecting a baby; and Lucy's obnoxious cousin stirs up bad memories. All this gets Lucy speculating about her past.....and her future. There are also startling revelations about the death of Lucy's father, an incident that has haunted Lucy for a decade.

The book has a solid plot and engaging characters, but moves much too slowly. A big chunk of the narrative is about Lucy researching Rose's history, which includes a lot of driving around, talking to people, and philosophizing about life. There's also a lot of blather about a pattern of overlapping circles woven into Rose's silk scarf. For me, all this is less than riveting.



Moreover, the author is heavy-handed about imbuing her characters with feminist ideals, which is so pronounced as to be unrealistic. Both Rose and Lucy daydream about being an Episcopal priest, and there's an actual female priest (Suzi - a lovely woman) in the story.



In addition, Rose's support for women's suffrage has consequences that seem extreme. I'm an ardent feminist, but writers need to be careful about overly politicizing novels - which can detract from the story.

I'm probably not the target audience for this novel because I find it just so-so. However fans of historical novels, feminist literature, and/or chick lit might be more enthusiastic, and I'd recommend the book to those readers.

Rating: 3 stars