Paradise lust : searching for the Garden of Eden

 by Brook Wilensky-Lanford. 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. --Booklist (Check Catalog)