REVIEW: The Lake of Dreams - Kim Edwards

THE LAKE OF DREAMS 
Written Kim Edwards

ON AUDIO – read by Anne Marie Lee
genre: literary fiction

2.5 STARS

Currently unemployed, Lucy Jarrett returns home to Lake of Dreams to see her mother who has injured her arm.  She leaves behind her boyfriend Yoshi in Japan. While at home she revisits her past and her family's.  She suffers guilt over her father's death 10 years ago when she did not go fishing with him; her regret over the high school boyfriend she left behind and stopped talking to when her father died; her uncle and cousin that are greedy and maybe leaving her brother in a dead-end position vs. his fair share; and feeling lost in her own life.  She discovers pamphlets stored away from the early 1900s and a connection to the glass windows in the church.  This starts a mystery into her family history and who this woman was that hid these pamphlets.  This starts to give her a purpose that seems to upset everyone in her life

I consider The Memory Keeper's Daughter one of my favourite novels.  It had me from the beginning to end and I have recommended it to many people.  I was looking forward to Edwards’ next novel and saw this audio was available.  It is read by Ann Marie Lee - an actress.  I was a bit disappointed with both to be honest. Edwards writing was too descriptive and actually repeated her own sentences a few times.  I tended to drift away and am sure I missed some things.  I liked the story of Rose and Iris more than present day stuff (and found Lucy a bit annoying because of overconfidence in herself).  I think this novel needed a bit more editing and tightening

Anne Marie has this breathy voice that sounds like she is either try to whisper or seduce someone...and when she read the letters I was not sure when they ended unless there was a clear "sincerely, name".  Maybe Anne Marie was bored with Edwards’ descriptions as she had a monotone voice through them.


love,
kris