The Lake of Dreams

Summary (from the publisher): Lucy Jarrett is at a crossroads in her life, still haunted by her father's unresolved death a decade earlier. News that her mother has been in an accident brings her back to her hometown, The Lake of Dreams. Late one night, as she paces the hallways of her family's sprawling lakeside house, she cracks the lock in a window seat to discover a collection of objects. At first, they appear to be idle curiosities, but soon Lucy realizes that she has stumbled across a dark secret. It will lead her deep into her family's past, unearthing the history of a powerful and progressive woman whose strengths and convictions resonate deeply with Lucy. The shocking truths she uncovers will change her and her family forever. 

Review: Lucy Jarrett's father died in a random boating accident the summer before she left to go away to college, and Lucy has not returned home to her hometown in upstate New York, The Lake of Dreams, for almost a decade. She's travelled the world, become a hydrologist, and is dating a Japanese man named Yoshi. But she returns back to The Lake of Dreams to visit her mother and brother, in the process confronting her grief, her family history, and her first love. 

This novel had promise. I really enjoyed The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards that I read a few years ago. Additionally, I felt like this book, in some ways, thematically resembles Kate Morton's novels, with their emphasis on uncovering buried family history. However, seemingly like many others who have read this, I was disappointed. 

Much of the writing in this seems really labored. For example, instead of just saying that it was chilly and the main character grabbed a jacket, she says, "It was chilly, the floor cold against my bare feet, so I poked around in the drawers where some of my old clothes were still stored. I hadn't brought enough sweaters; in Japan the heat was already dense, and I'd forgotten about the chill that lingered in the lake air long into the summer. I found an old sweatshirt, dark blue, with the words Night Riders in orange across the front. That was the team name for The Lake of Dreams High School. Dreamers didn't have much punch, and Nightmares had been decreed too negative, so we were the Night Riders" (148). All of this is extraneous detail that does not contribute or enhance the reader's understanding of the story at all. Frankly, I'm surprised the editor didn't force her to pare down her writing. 

Additionally, the main character is pretty awful, a sense I got despite the fact that she's the narrator and so her perspective colors every encounter. Lucy has been gone for years, yet shows up and starts meddling in everyone's lives. She seems to irritate everyone around her, particularly her mother. Talk about tense. Their mother daughter relationship seems stilted at best. For example, "my mother cast me an irritated glance" (144). And later, after Lucy takes the initiative to trespass in areas of her mother's house, Lucy describes her mother saying, "an expression of sadness and then annoyance passing swiftly over her face" (44). But it's not just Lucy's mother that is annoyed by her. Oliver Parrott, the Westrum expert, is clearly irritated by her, seen in a passage where her responds to her pushy behavior saying, "'Well, by all means look into it, then,' he said curtly" (177). Lucy's brother is angry when she spills the beans about his girlfriend's pregnancy. And Lucy's boyfriend is obviously upset when she reveals that she kissed her high school boyfriend in Yoshi's absence. I felt sympathy with her family and the other residents of The Lake of Dreams who were intruded upon by someone who has been gone for years who now shows up thinking she knows best. 

I did love the what Lucy uncovers about her family history and her forgotten great-aunt Rose and her daughter Iris. In finding Rose, Lucy uncovers a forgotten branch of her family tree and discovers a brave woman that fought for women's rights and subsequently lost her rights to raise her own daughter.  Rose had dreams of being a priest that were thwarted by the social norms of her time period; "I could wash and mend the altar cloths or make dinners for the rector or the bishop, but no matter how much I loved the church or God I could not carry the communion wine or bless it or serve it to the people. No woman could" (211). In uncovering more about her family roots, I think Lucy is able to reflect on who she is and for what cause she is willing to take a stand.  And as an aside, as an Episcopalian, I loved the inclusion and description of the Episcopal church and service.

Yet on the other hand, I don't understand what the takeaway of Lucy's discovery is. Why was Rose not uncovered long before this? The papers were sitting in the house for years. Why after so many years does Lucy suddenly have so much interest in her family history? Or as Lucy's brother says, "it's interesting. But honestly - it's not life-or-death interesting. It's not wake-me-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night interesting. Lucy, don't you think maybe you're dwelling on this a little too much? [...] Maybe if you weren't between jobs and here on vacation, this might not seem quite as important as it does right now" (325). Despite how much I loved Rose's story and was glad that her history was revealed, I couldn't help but agree. 

Stars: 2.5