June 13, 2011
Wilensky-Lanford, whose essays have appeared in Salon, Killing the Buddha, and The Exquisite Corpse, has carved her literary niche as a "private investigator with an open mind," exploring myth and the human social psyche. In her first book, she confronts a foundational Western myth, the Garden of Eden, and humanity's constant search to return there. Part adventure story, part historical narrative, Wilensky-Lanford spins the history of explorers who searched for the Garden's precise earthly coordinates. With adept, well-researched prose, she traces how, from four verses in Genesis naming four rivers flowing from the Garden, scientists and pseudo-scientists, preachers and theologians, have claimed "scientific proof" of Paradise's locationâin Iraq, Sri Lanka, the Seychelles, Florida, Ohio, the North Pole, and elsewhere. Though quick-witted and quirky, Wilensky-Lanford isn't satisfied with asking only "where," she also deftly explores "why?" After traveling the globe on her Paradise quest, she arrives at the stump of "Adam's Tree" in a contested zone near Basra, Iraq, meditating not so much on the Garden, but on humanity's first steps from it.
July 1, 2011
William Fairfield Warren, esteemed theology professor and first president of Boston University, was convinced that Adam and Eve were giant people, 7- to 12-feet tall, who lived in Eden among prehistoric sequoia trees at what is now called the North Pole. Hong Kong businessman Tse Tsan Tai's 1914 research placed the garden somewhere in Mongolia. Maybe the fabled confluence of Eden's four rivers lies in southern Ohio. Examining the perennial quest to locate the Garden of Eden on earth, Wilensky-Lanford introduces a diverse cast of believers who sought to create a new world by finding the biblical garden somewhere amidst the imperfect geography we know. Given the unalloyed weirdness of some of their theories, expect a certain degree of authorial snark. But while Wilensky-Lanford's tone is indeed light and entertaining, she portrays her obsessed subjects with respect and even a little sympathy. In the end, the book is less about Eden-finding or myth-busting than it is a study of the undying human need for meaning, symbolism, and unity in a fractured and profane world.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)
June 1, 2011
A freelance journalist debuts with a spirited chase through history, geography and religion as she chronicles the myriad and sometimes mad attempts to locate the Garden of Eden.
Wilensky-Lanford has certainly done her homework for this summary and analysis of the search for the "actual" Eden. Her journey began with a family story about a great-uncle who had toyed with locating Eden. As she began reading about the subject, she discovered its vast dimensions. After sketching the many earlier searches, she focuses on those within the last century, beginning with Boston University president William Fairfield Warren, who, in the late 19th century, placed Eden at the North Pole. Next: Friedrich Delitzsch, a German professor of Assyriology, argued for present-day Iraq and suggested that two of the four rivers mentioned in Genesis were actually canals. In 1901, the Rev. Edmund Landon West was convinced Eden had once lain in the area of Ohio's Serpent Mound. A Chinese businessman proposed a China site in 1914; in 1919 William Willcocks saw the possibility of two Edens; and so on. Besides her chapters on the various theories of Eden's location, Wilensky-Lanford offers sections on the recent history of the debate between science and religion, the explorations of Thor Heyerdahl, Mormonism, the use of satellite imagery to help pinpoint locations and the enduring meaning of "Eden." She ends back in Iraq, in Qurna, site of the remains of the so-called "Tree of Knowledge." Although the author occasionally cracks wise--she jokes about a gopher and Noah's Ark--she generally treats the seekers with respect, sometimes more than they deserve.
A lively journey, though getting back to the Garden turns out to be even more complicated than Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock" lyrics imagined.
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