Reviews with content warning for Racism - This Other Eden

had some incredibly strong moments but failed to really pull me in for any part that wasn't the second section. really didn't learn too much about most of the cast despite most of the book depicting the mundane parts of the islanders' lives. so dull for the majority of the book that i was only truly invested in the painting scene and the occasional tense end of a paragraph. though there were some genuinely striking lines, it felt like harding was trying to hard to be deep in his narrations and descriptions that it just came off as pretentious. the lack of quotation marks and abundance of run-ons just made this a chore to read at times as well.

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thewickermage's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

It seems a lot of people didn't love this. I did. It started out a little rough and I wasn't sure if I would get into it, but once the ark story was finished I found myself fully immersed in the lives of the Apple islanders in 1911. It's an important story and so beautifully told. My favourite part was when Paul Harding referenced an archaeological survey conducted 100 years after the forced relocation of the islanders, where they found that the islanders lived no differently than the people on the mainland... it was a beautiful moment in an otherwise very sad story.

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kk_gotit_goinon's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.0

Nothing happens in this book. I feel that there's no nuance or anything deeper. It just is what it is. The eugenics parts can be interesting if you know the history and the details of it, but I don't think you'll get it if you haven't heard of it/don't have a science background where you learned a lot about it. I couldn't get attached to any of the characters, I felt bad for them but I didn't fall in love either. It's a quick listen at least.

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deedireads's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

As of this writing, This Other Eden is shortlisted for both the Booker Prize and the National Book Award. Still, given that it got some lukewarm reviews in my personal circle, I was surprised by how much I ended up liking it. It’s not perfect, but it is gorgeously written and undeniably moving.

The book is a fully fictional story featuring fictional characters from a real place with a real history: Malaga Island off the coast of Maine, home of a mixed-race community that was evicted and partially institutionalized by the government. There are a lot of characters for a book, but not very many to serve as the sum total of all the island’s inhabitants; still, it’s easy to keep track of them (a testament to Harding’s skill) and even easier to love them.

My main complaint about this book was that it isn’t very researched at all; in an interview, Harding said that he heard about Malaga Island, got inspired, and then essentially stopped researching it (not even visiting), because he didn’t feel like those real people’s story was his to tell. That feels like a cop out to me.

Still, Harding succeeds in much of what he set out to do, at least: paint a devastating picture of eugenics, raise questions about the concept of paradise, and make his readers feel something deeply.

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kathycz's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is the best book I've read in the last couple of years. Gorgeously written without being pretentious, based on historical fact but imaginatively rendered, rich in character with a plot that moves without taking over. I read Paul Harding's Tinkers and liked it fine, but This Other Eden is a gem. When I finished, I was ready to turn around and start over again, just to pay attention to how Harding does it.

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othersociologist's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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