What readers think of This Other Eden, plus links to write your own review.

This Other Eden by Paul Harding is a carefully crafted novel based on the true story of the mixed race and varied intelligence of the inhabitants of this coastal Maine island of Malaga. A previous novel of Harding's won the Pulitzer Prize. The story line is disturbing due to the prejudice and harsh treatment toward some of the island's inhabitants. I did not find this a pleasurable book to read in any way, but it certainly deserves merit and attention for it's writing style and revelation of something I knew nothing about. I would think other readers would find this to be true also.

In writing this book, the author took the facts that were available about this actual incident in our American history and using his imagination created a story as it might have happened. It has been described by others as lyrically beautiful and as a book of astonishing poetic prose. I feel compelled to clearly state in the beginning that I did not find the prose astonishing or the story beautifully written. In fact, it was quite a struggle for me to read it. I guess this book just was not meant for me.

I am indeed grateful, however, that the First Impression program of Bookbrowse.com gave me the opportunity to read Paul Harding's book and thus initially introduced me to a part of the history of our country that I otherwise would have missed.

As a result of being introduced to the existence of such a community, I have since researched the history of Malaga Island and have confirmed for myself that this totally fictionalized story was indeed inspired by an actual historical event.

During my research, I discovered that another author took those same facts and imagined an entirely different sequence of events. I am reading that other book now (The Shadow in Our Bones by Tamara Merrill). In my opinion, this author is a much better storyteller and I feel confident that when I finish reading her book, I will give it a 4 or 5 rating.

The story in Harding's concerns an interracial community that successfully eked out a living in peace and harmony on a small island off the coast of the state of Maine for several generations from the late 1700's until the early 1900's. Then, in the hey day of the eugenics movement, a group of such believers convinced the governor of Maine that the community was a threat to society and all the people living on the island must be removed (using force if necessary). Otherwise, according to the group, the state of Maine would find that the mixing of the races had produced future generations of imbeciles, morons, and degenerates.

The truth is that there were some perverse relationships in the community and some eccentric citizens, but the findings of the eugenicists overlooked the fact that the current young people living on the island also included a mathematical genius, a little girl who was fluent in Latin, and a boy with an amazing artistic talent.

My problem with the book is the writing style of the author, however, I must admit that I probably don't have the credentials to criticize his style of writing when the authorities named him the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his debut novel which, as far as I can determine, was written with the same writing style.

Nevertheless, I found that many of his sentences were a source of confusion. Many of them are a paragraph long and at times during a sentence the author drifts off subject to throw in other extraneous information. Further, it bothered me that the author did not follow the normal pattern of writing such as use of quotation marks when appropriate.

I have decided to give this book a rating of 3 – but this may be an inflated rating.

This historical novel interested me because it was based on events in the early 20th century I had never heard of before. The characters were well developed and the author did a great job depicting the inhabitants of Apple island as well as the racist scientists and greedy politicians who disrupted their lives.

I found the first half of the novel to be a bit of a slog with sentences that were overly long and many descriptions of the physical island. But if you are a reader who loves books in which a place is one of the characters, you will enjoy the extreme details. I am glad I kept reading, though, because the second half moved more quickly and really highlighted the characters.

While I was not a huge fan of Harding's writing style, I am pleased that he wrote on this topic. I wanted to read more about the real history of Malaga Island, Maine after finishing the novel.

I was interested in reading "This Other Eden" both because the topic of eugenics is unique and because it was based on a true story of a settlement on an island off the coast of Maine. The book was at its most interesting to me when it turned to the treatment of the mixed race people living on the island by local health officials. I was horrified when the officials arrived with instruments to measure head diameters and the like, followed by their expulsion from the island (and the transfer of seven families members to a home for the feebleminded. But I was frustrated by the author's failure to provide any insight into how the various families felt about being subjected to this treatment. Do we take from this that they have been beaten into acceptance of whatever is doled out? It doesn't really make sense to me because they've been living on the island self-sufficiently for generations. Wouldn't people suddenly coming onto their land to poke and prod them with no explanation warrant some discussion? Similarly, we were given no insight into the character of Matthew Diamond, a reverend who preached and taught on the island and became their advocate despite an articulated hatred of adult "Negroes." What was driving him? How was he able to overcome his detest when dealing with the adults? There was no indication of his feelings other than a statement to this effect. These issues are two examples of the reasons why this book fell short for this reader.
I also am not a fan of Harding's writing. Some call his style lyrical or poetic. I call it wandering, as his sentences would go on for what seemed pages without really getting to a point.
So, not a book for me. In fact, for me, the "average" rating is a bit inflated, but Harding does have a Pulitzer to his name.