Rules of the Lake: Stories

by Irene Ziegler and Cleo Qian

Book Overview

Rules of the Lake is a collection of linked stories about growing up on a lake in "pre-Disney" central Florida in the 1960s. The stories trace the maturation of smart, funny Annie Bartlett, who... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087074447X
• ISBN13: 9780870744471
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Southern Methodist Univ Pr
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 0.8" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

A Unique Pespective on the Forgotten Florida

Irene Zeigler's "Rules of the Lake" is written with a clean, simple style which goes hand in hand with the subjects the author has chosen. More elaborate prose would spoil the rural nature of these stories, and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings did something similar in "Cross Creek." But unlike Rawlings, Ms. Zeigler's narrative never becomes precious. It's a look into the past from a contemporary and adult perspective. The stories involve Annie, a preteen girl living on a lake in rural Florida. Annie watches her older sister, Leigh, experiencing adolescent angst, only to find herself suddenly facing it as well. Annie and Leigh's father is a central figure, equally charming and inept in both his relationships with his daughters and his various brainstorms which rarely amount to anything.My favorite of the 13 stories is "The Raft," and its companion piece, "The Stranger." In these two tales, Ms. Ziegler fascinates her readers with a balance of power between the sexes. In "The Raft," Annie challenges a neighbor boy, Petey, to a swimming race. If she loses, she agrees to strip naked for him. Annie knows that she is more than capable of beating Petey, and so totally controls him. Yet she remains vulnerable to the siren song of compassion and sexual attraction. Ms. Zeigler creates a situation that is filled with feminine power, yet allows Aniie to give young Petey a thrill that's both visceral and vicarious at the same time. In "The Stranger," she subtly shifts the balance of power in Petey's favor. Now more mature, Petey is in far more control of Annie than in the previous story. But after a short time in her presence, she has a palpable impact. By the end of the story, they have a whole new relationship that's built on the foundation of the old and a promise for the future.

Serendipity

I can't believe how close I came to missing out on this wonderful book. I checked it out of the library and started reading it the day it was due, thinking, "I'll give it a page, then it's outtahere." I paid the late fee. Ziegler has created in Annie Bartlett one of the most poignant, hilarious and beautifully crafted characters I have ever met and plunks her down in a setting so seductive, nostalgic and rich I can't wait to go back there to breathe underwater again, and experience Annie's imagined transformation into a mermaid. Not only did I buy this book for myself, but I'm buying it as gifts from now on. And to think I almost gave it back.

review from a reader in florida

In its sensory details, Rules of the Lake recreates an earlier, largely undeveloped Central Florida. There's a backyard lake and an undiscovered natural spring. The pre-Disney tourist attractions are tacky. And in orange groves and the pleasures of fishing and walking barefoot, Irene's Ziegler's stories of childhood take the reader to a Florida that is now much harder to find. And, if that's all there was to the book, it would still be a pretty good read. But into this Florida Ziegler puts Annie Bartlett. To discover her is to rediscover the experience of being a child. Annie longs to be one of the popular girls with an ache that will make the reader relive terrible preadolescence. She longs to be loved by her father. She longs to understand adult mysteries that are as elusive as the shadows that swim in the backyard lake. And if the stories stopped there they'd be well worth reading. But of course there's more. The thread that holds together the stories and the images of Florida and Annie is the author's voice. It's a great voice. Sometimes it speaks in kid-real dialect and inner thoughts and sometimes it changes mid-sentence to deliver a zinger. Sometimes it's poetry. I saved my reading of Rules of the Lake for late evening just before sleep, and always closed the book with the "Ah!" of discovery.

I Love This Book

I love this book.When I finished it, I closed the book, took a deep breath, then opened it and read the prologue again: ("When my sister, Leigh, was in junior high and still enamored of Widow Lake, and I was in fourth grade and still enamored of Leigh...") I forced myself to put it down, and to wait a few days before reading it again. I am in the middle of my second reading as I write this. Irene Ziegler has managed to bring to life the developing pre-adolescent Annie in such a delightful way. (One suspects that Ziegler was once a developing pre-adolescent girl herself, and that she was paying close attention to her feelings during that time.) She has a gift.I normally read fast. But this book is a Slow Read. I felt the need to slow down, and to savor each sentence, each phrase, as I read it. ("Leigh?" I said through my tears. She drew near, her face close to mine. "Take me with you," I whispered, and in the single tear that moved in a slow, erratic path down her cheek, I saw my lonely, wounded self reflected.)Thank you, Irene Ziegler. I love this book.

Rules of the Lake: An Outstanding Debut

Irene Ziegler's Rules of the Lake is a deeply moving and often hilarious submersion into the murky waters of childhood and adolescence. Our heroine and tour guide is a remarkable young girl named Annie Bartlett who can only be described as the girl Scout Finch would have become had Atticus been an irresponsible, womanizing S.O.B.. Annie draws us into her amazingly vivid world on Widow lake in a small central Florida town back when it really was a small world after all. Despite her father's "rules of the lake" she learns all about the dangers of diving alone into the unknown waters of love and betrayal, dreams and harsh reality, mermaids and drag queens, death and rebirth. She reminds us how it feels to run through summer days and nights utterly defenseless against both joy and sorrow. Through a uniquely structured series of "connected stories" Annie's memories flow across the pages the way memories are meant to, not in neat chapters, but in vivid images and epiphanies. Annie's nameless fears drift like sudden cold shadows just beneath the surface of Widow Lake, but the mermaids are waiting there too, if you only have the faith to close your eyes and hold your breath. Rules of the Lake is a finely crafted piece of storytelling with totally engaging characters and an extraordinarily vivid sense of place. It resonates with humor and hope and the mysteries that always drift just beneath the surface.