Waking Up in Eden: In Pursuit of an Impassioned Life on an Imperiled Island

When my review copy of "Waking Up in Eden" arrived from the publisher, I took one look at it and thought, "oh, another female-midlife-crisis memoir." I didn't think about it again until weeks later. I was leaving for a weekend getaway and needed a paperback to bring along. I picked up Lucinda Fleeson's book and practically couldn't put it down for the next 48 hours. What a lovely memoir. Mesmerizing. Her personal narrative of navigating a creatively fulfilling life is balanced with a journalist's unrelenting efforts to report on Kauai's horticulutural world, past and present. As a garden writer, I swallowed it, inhaled it, and imagined the Kauai she described. I visited the island once, 25 years ago. But I feel like Lucinda gave me a personally-guided tour in the pages of "Waking Up." It was a tour I never would have discovered on a vacation visit.

Lucinda Fleeson's memoir "Waking Up in Eden" is no navel gazer - thank you very much - but the true adventures of a women who, nearing middle age, woke up to smell the coffee and instead of freaking out took a giant gulp of it and got on with her life. Leaving her job at the Philadelphia Inquirer and her home with its English rose garden Fleeson moves to the Hawaiian island of Kauai and its 1000 acre tropical garden. This is a volitile and damaged isle whose natural order is fast disappearing. What is also disappearing is her youth and some of her choices. In a chatty and unselfconscious way Fleeson re-examines her heart's desire and tallies up her wins and losses, all the while packing her trekking boots. The adventure is on and soon enough it is not so much the exotic isle and its fragile flowers or even the colorful characters dedicated to saving them, but Fleeson's inherent interest in, well, everything, that makes her journey a page turner. Officially, Fleeson job is to raise funds for the National Tropical Botanical Garden - an Eden that is in serious risk of imploding. Proposal writing and coaxing money out of rich people could sound rather dry but Fleeson is a deft writer. The people, politics and history surrounding the NTBG is intriguing enough, but its how Fleeson grabs onto her new life that swept me up. She gets her hands dirty in the island's red clay, rides horseback along its beaches, treks up mountains climbing through dense jungle, tries surfing, learns to row like hell with the Kawaikini Women's Canoe Club and before she leaves plants her own tropical garden. Along the way Fleeson introduces herself, and us, to a gaggle of interesting and passionate people and its here that we see the true depth of Ms. Fleeson's nature, her search for her authentic self reveled by her insight into others. One telling example is her description of Alan Wong, a celebrated Hawaiian chef, "....he scans your eyes, as if looking to see if the information arrived. It's a listener's trait .... indicative of a great teacher." And Ms. Fleeson appears to be both. Fleeson teaches us a lot about exotic flora (which is more interesting than you might think) but she shows us that taking big risks, forcing one's passions and keeping on your big girl panties (most of the time) may not answer all of life's questions but it is the only way to live them. From Kauai Ms. Fleeson moves on to Budapest - I can't wait for the sequel. Elva Malone August 20, 2009

Many dream of dumping everything and going off to live on a tropical island. Lucinda Fleeson actually did it. "Waking Up in Eden" tells her story and it makes for a lively, engaging tale. Fleeson was a top-notch, award-winning journalist who found the profession she loved undergoing massive, distressing changes as the digital age reconfigured the newspaper industry. Offered a job at the Nation Tropical Botanaical Gardens in Kauai, she sold her house, shed years of routines and belongings and left her old life behind. Fleeson ruminates on many personal topics, from the sudden loss of both parents to her thoughts on being a single woman confronting a future without the traditional husband and kids that she had always assumed would be there. But it's the investigative reporter in her that provides some of the most colorful moments of "Waking Up in Eden". Her description of the death-defying botanists who climb to high mountain ledges to rescue endangered plant species is an eye-opener. And her research into the wealthy, original owners of the estate which has become the National Botanical Garden reveals a colorful, jazz-age tableau of underground gay history in Chicago before the Great Depression. Fleeson also uncovers the writing of Isabella Bird, a 19th century woman writer who's adventures in Kauai both echo and inspire Fleeson's own. Interspersed throughout the book are moments of workplace intrigue, romance, tragedy and humor (the ladies rowing team story is a delight), told with a reporter's skill and insights. I highly recommend "Waking Up in Eden" as an interesting, entertaining and worthwhile read.

Fleeson's autobiographical account of her time as a fundraiser at a botanical garden in Kauai is a classic of its kind. Many themes are woven together into an engrossing account of several years in her life. The botany itself is a fascinating story, well told and illuminating. The machinations of life behind the scenes at a non-profit organization are likewise informative, if sometimes depressing. The story of the two gay men whose estate was the basic foundation of the garden reads almost like a detective story, as this bit of history had been quite effectively hidden for many years and was, in large measure, unearthed by Fleeson. The way of life in this, one of the more remote of the Hawaiian islands, is engrossing and vividly told. Finally, the author's account of her personal journey through these places and times is rewarding. The title itself has meaning on many levels. Highly recommended.

I ordered this book a few days ago, and can't put it down. The writing is beautiful and the story captivating. If you've ever dreamed of chucking it all and escaping to paradise to sort it all out, this book is for you. Ms. Fleeson's observations about her paradise, and herself, will remain with you long after you've closed this book. John A. Fetto Oakland, California