I received a copy of Abbott Kahler’s Eden Undone free from Goodreads.  I didn’t realize at the time that it had just been turned into a movie, directed by Ron Howard.  I still haven’t seen that film, which I haven’t really heard much good about.  Yet, I am curious.  I certainly understand why someone was compelled to turn the grim tale of a bunch of weird, broken people who tried to find themselves on a hostile island in the turbulent Between War years, into a Hollywood film.  Other than a satisfying conclusion, it’s got all the things that make for a good movie.

Our core cast of weirdos are Freidrich, a philosophically minded crank with a lot of weird ideas.  Dore, his devoted apostle.  The Baroness, a brazen, half-mad huckster.  And the Wittmer’s, an ALMOST normal family.  The supporting players include wealthy Americans, young men under the spell of the Baroness, local officials, ships’ captains, and more.  Oh, and red flags.  There are red flags at almost every turn, as so much strange behavior and bad life choices goes into nearly every event that unfolds.  

The elements of the book most likely to bring folks in are, of course, the ultimate deaths (including likely murders) of several people.  However, what I find more compelling is the world from which these people sprung, which they fled, and which ultimately followed them…or was carried by them, into their wannabe Eden.  While the events on this distant island play out, the Great Depression descends upon the world, the Nazis take power back in Germany, and for many, it seemed like the end of everything.  

It’s hard to actually sympathise with Freidrich, as he seems to have been not only a self-important prick, but also abusive and profoundly hypocritical.  Yet, I saw in him things that I have felt, about the world, about the possibility of making something better, about frontiers.  However, at least as he’s presented in the book, he was, at best, naive.  Dore is, perhaps, more sympathetic.  A true believer, she seems to have struggled with her place in the world, but also with the version of Freidrich she wanted to be real.  Though, how much of that was of her own invention?  The Baroness.  What can you say about the Baroness?  I kept thinking about the biography of Sidney Reilly (Ace of Spies) I read several years ago.  I was torn between her audaciousness and talent for manipulation, and repulsed by her unscrupulousness and likely madness.  A fascinating villain.  The kind of person that if you put them into a novel, folks would find unbelievable.  How could someone act like this?  How could a person like this be real?  Yet, it seems like in that era of chaos that was the early 20th Century, many strange, mad, dangerous, and adventurous folks were out there, doing their thing. 
Though it took me a darned long time to read the book, I will say that it reads very fast.  When I actually devoted any time to reading, it was amazing how quickly the pages flew by.  I found the ending of the book somewhat underwhelming.  I’m not sure that it’s the fault of the author.  After all, it’s how things played out.  But I came away a bit cold.  Still, it was a good read overall.  

For a tabletop roleplaying geek like myself, I found the people in this book wildly inspiring.  I kept thinking of the Call of Cthulhu campaign Masks of Nyarlathotep, and the Carlyle Expedition.  These people, driven by their own broken psyches, travel to the far ends of the world to try to build something new.  While the circumstances are different, and obviously there is no Cosmic Horror present in Eden Undone, their mindsets and the extremes to which they’ll go definitely put me in mind of Carlyle and co.  I suspect that if I ever actually get around to running that, I’ll base my portrayal of a character on the Baroness.  

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