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lonelytourist's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
txreader's review against another edition
5.0
I won this book through a Goodreads giveaway.
This review has been difficult to formulate, not because of concerns with the caliber of the book but because I’d like to do it justice. With the setting and underlying themes, Ms. Haigh has managed to not only explore her characters with empathy for even minor players but to have their lives reflect so many issues facing us today. This is what good fiction is all about, isn’t it? You become involved in someone else’s story and think more deeply about why people do the inexplicable.
I live in Houston, a place many of the characters call home. I disagree completely with the description of Houston as "a charmless, treeless, damp sinkhole with urban pretensions”. There are plenty of trees, parks and all the urban amenities one could wish for even if the climate in summer is a little hard to handle. The stereotypes of the “bubba” businessmen were also a little hard to stomach. This section of the book almost made me quit reading but I am glad I didn’t.
But this isn’t a story about Houston; this is set in former coal country in Pennsylvania. The latest round of extractive industry begins with a “landman” approaching local residents, most of whom are struggling to get by. For an upfront payment, these residents sell their mineral rights for a payment per acre with promises of income down the road once drilling begins.
So begins what is really a second or third wave of exploitation of resources in the area of Bakerton, PA. As the author puts it: “Rural Pennsylvania doesn’t fascinate the world, not generally, but cyclically, periodically, its innards are of interest”.
Ms, Haigh explores the remnants of coal mining, family history and its impact on decisions made today, The forces for and against fracking who are either off to the next cause or on to the next unexplored terrain are contrasted beautifully with the people who live in Bakerton and must live with their decisions for long after the business people and activists are gone.
The lives of the locals are explored in a very real way and without preaching about it; the ills of a town left behind by the 21st economy are explored through a number of characters you can’t help caring about. This is true even if you become frustrated with their choices. In other words they are human and as most of our friends and family are in real life.
There are no tidy endings here, again as in our real lives and where the people we have grown to care about is unknown. The story will stay with you though and inform the brief news stories and commentary we see about industry and environmental concerns. After all, there are people living in these areas and the news stories have very real world consequences for their present and their future lives.
This review has been difficult to formulate, not because of concerns with the caliber of the book but because I’d like to do it justice. With the setting and underlying themes, Ms. Haigh has managed to not only explore her characters with empathy for even minor players but to have their lives reflect so many issues facing us today. This is what good fiction is all about, isn’t it? You become involved in someone else’s story and think more deeply about why people do the inexplicable.
I live in Houston, a place many of the characters call home. I disagree completely with the description of Houston as "a charmless, treeless, damp sinkhole with urban pretensions”. There are plenty of trees, parks and all the urban amenities one could wish for even if the climate in summer is a little hard to handle. The stereotypes of the “bubba” businessmen were also a little hard to stomach. This section of the book almost made me quit reading but I am glad I didn’t.
But this isn’t a story about Houston; this is set in former coal country in Pennsylvania. The latest round of extractive industry begins with a “landman” approaching local residents, most of whom are struggling to get by. For an upfront payment, these residents sell their mineral rights for a payment per acre with promises of income down the road once drilling begins.
So begins what is really a second or third wave of exploitation of resources in the area of Bakerton, PA. As the author puts it: “Rural Pennsylvania doesn’t fascinate the world, not generally, but cyclically, periodically, its innards are of interest”.
Ms, Haigh explores the remnants of coal mining, family history and its impact on decisions made today, The forces for and against fracking who are either off to the next cause or on to the next unexplored terrain are contrasted beautifully with the people who live in Bakerton and must live with their decisions for long after the business people and activists are gone.
The lives of the locals are explored in a very real way and without preaching about it; the ills of a town left behind by the 21st economy are explored through a number of characters you can’t help caring about. This is true even if you become frustrated with their choices. In other words they are human and as most of our friends and family are in real life.
There are no tidy endings here, again as in our real lives and where the people we have grown to care about is unknown. The story will stay with you though and inform the brief news stories and commentary we see about industry and environmental concerns. After all, there are people living in these areas and the news stories have very real world consequences for their present and their future lives.
joreadsbooks's review against another edition
4.0
For people who are interested in learning about fracking and how it can affect an entire community, Heat & Light is a must read. The prose is simple and devastating. Haigh clearly has a grasp of the people and community she has created in this book. I love how elegantly she revealed the ties among the cast of characters. The author does a good job integrating personal relationships with the economic decision to start drilling and the history of fuel manufacture in the area.
While I liked the overall pacing and flow of the story, my problem is the sheer number of characters. For the most part, I didn't need half of them. Fracking and long-term illness were enough to tackle. I'm not sure Darren's addiction and the exploration of Mack's sexual orientation were truly necessary to understand the other characters and Bakerton as a whole.
Heat & Light gives a refreshing perspective to an issue I had only read about in papers and seen on bumper stickers throughout my college town in upstate New York.
While I liked the overall pacing and flow of the story, my problem is the sheer number of characters. For the most part, I didn't need half of them. Fracking and long-term illness were enough to tackle. I'm not sure Darren's addiction and the exploration of Mack's sexual orientation were truly necessary to understand the other characters and Bakerton as a whole.
Heat & Light gives a refreshing perspective to an issue I had only read about in papers and seen on bumper stickers throughout my college town in upstate New York.
sistermercury's review against another edition
5.0
Powerful, poignant writing, with a seamlessly blended (and very timely) plot. Will definitely be looking into Jennifer Haigh's other books!
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