Eden, Ohio

A town created by runaway slaves in the mid-nineteenth century remains inhabited by generations of their descendents. However, will past sins lead to the town's demise in the twenty-first century? Caroline Clay's husky voice sets the perfect tone for this gothic tale. She easily slides from the dialect of the slave traders to the contemporary speech of their troubled great-grandchildren. Clay manages to give each character a distinctive voice so that, no matter how rapid the exchange of dialogue, we never lose an individual in the fray. Most importantly, she never makes this audiobook a showcase for her narrative talents, but gives a true ensemble performance. P.R. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

January 26, 2004
The sins of a town's forefathers are visited on future generations in Johnson's muddled second novel (after Getting Our Breath Back
). In 1860, led by "magic woman" Eliza, a dozen runaway slaves found Eden, Ohio. One night 25 years later, whites living nearby set fire to two of the homes, leaving no survivors. In retaliation, armed black men, led by Jeremiah Baker, slaughter and bury the entire white population, and Eliza has a glimpse of the town's tragic future. The curse manifests itself physically as a nearly permanent atmospheric haze, and its corrosive emotional force leaves in its wake families scarred by unhappiness, damaged lives and death. Generations later, Baker's namesake, Jeremiah, leaves Eden for New York City, where he lives an enviable life of leisure, until he is drawn home by a need to confront his past. His childhood friends, Aspasia and Hawk Eye, have remained in Eden, where they wrestle with private demons: Aspasia cannot escape the consequences of a violent incident in her youth, and itinerant Hawk Eye has a vision in which many deaths are foretold. The friends were forever bound by a shared secret, but when Jeremiah returns home, Aspasia's sister Eliza, born with the healing gifts of her namesake ancestors, helps him make peace with the past and prepare for the future. Five generations of Elizas challenge the reader to distinguish among them, and the author's verb-dropping attempts at lyricism ("People in her family, especially the men, quick to die and died fantastic, horrible deaths") fall flat. Despite the promise of Johnson's conceit, her story flounders in murky waters. Agent, Jimmy Vines.