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bookishjaja's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Oh my word! This book took me ENTIRELY too long to finish. It’s partly due to my disinterest in the story itself, but I also just found myself interested in other things outside of reading that have taken the bulk of my attention most of this year.
The story itself is not bad as it stands. It follows the lives of a handful of characters, each flawed in different ways. The writing isn’t bad, and I did become invested with each character’s storyline.
But like many other reviews have said, the premise that these lives are merely hypothetical felt irrelevant. The basis that these are children who were killed at the Woolworths explosion and these stories are simply imagined “what ifs” was forgotten more and more as the story went on. The book could have just as easily been the actual lived lives described on the pages, no explosion ever need be mentioned or even happened, and there wouldn’t be a thing different about the story. I understand Francis Spufford wanted to honor the real life victims, particularly the children, who were killed in this real life explosion, and I appreciate and respect his empathy in that regard. But the book itself just didn’t emphasize this foundational plot point as much as I would’ve liked.
And though I typically like multiple main characters and the deep exploration of those characters, in this case, the movement from one character to the next felt a bit choppy and abrupt. I’d become interested then poof, on to the next. The characters weren’t connected in any way other than being classmates in grade school, so there was no overlap. With the book showing us glimpses of the characters during a particular year for each section, we’d see this glimpse and then see nothing until the next section which was decades later. It was jarring to become invested and then pulled away so finitely.
The final thing I’ll mention that is purely personal preference but did turn me off nonetheless was that parts of the book are pretty violent. A few characters experience some terrible things, and the writing was just too graphic for me. To each their own, but reader beware.
The story itself is not bad as it stands. It follows the lives of a handful of characters, each flawed in different ways. The writing isn’t bad, and I did become invested with each character’s storyline.
But like many other reviews have said, the premise that these lives are merely hypothetical felt irrelevant. The basis that these are children who were killed at the Woolworths explosion and these stories are simply imagined “what ifs” was forgotten more and more as the story went on. The book could have just as easily been the actual lived lives described on the pages, no explosion ever need be mentioned or even happened, and there wouldn’t be a thing different about the story. I understand Francis Spufford wanted to honor the real life victims, particularly the children, who were killed in this real life explosion, and I appreciate and respect his empathy in that regard. But the book itself just didn’t emphasize this foundational plot point as much as I would’ve liked.
And though I typically like multiple main characters and the deep exploration of those characters, in this case, the movement from one character to the next felt a bit choppy and abrupt. I’d become interested then poof, on to the next. The characters weren’t connected in any way other than being classmates in grade school, so there was no overlap. With the book showing us glimpses of the characters during a particular year for each section, we’d see this glimpse and then see nothing until the next section which was decades later. It was jarring to become invested and then pulled away so finitely.
The final thing I’ll mention that is purely personal preference but did turn me off nonetheless was that parts of the book are pretty violent. A few characters experience some terrible things, and the writing was just too graphic for me. To each their own, but reader beware.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Cannibalism, Racism, and Violence
jesshindes's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I came to this novel with some prejudices for and against the author which I should maybe declare. For: I really loved his previous novel, Golden Hill, so much so that I had to put the book down for six weeks when Something Happened to my favourite character. Con: I got really annoyed by a recent-ish episode where he apparently wrote The Next Great Narnia Novel and then there was an article in the Guardian about how great this book was with all ppl like Philip Pullman saying "Oh this is CS Lewis reincarnate" and then Spufford kicking up a fuss bc the Lewis estate had said he couldn't publish it (not that they had ever said he could, he just wrote it and hoped for the best). Anyway newsflash that is just called FANFICTION and people are writing it every day and he could post it on AO3 if he just wanted people to read it, he just couldn't make money from it!! Sorry but something about middle aged men acting like they invented fanfic drives me nuts ahahaha
Anyway
I came to this book with reasonably high hopes but I was ultimately underwhelmed by it. I should say though that I think the opening chapter is great and very cleverly and skillfully written. It describes a bomb falling on a South London Woolworths during the course of WW2, and it renders the scene in a really effective slow-motion, so you see the building and all the shoppers (including a bunch of children) and the bomb powering towards them, crawling crawling and then suddenly it pulls back with the flash and the bang of the explosion. Really cinematic and great.
The rest of the novel, though, deals with the lives of those children in another universe in which the bomb hadn't fallen, so you trace the five of them effectively across the latter half of the twentieth century, up until old age and in one case death; and this was the part that just didn't persuade me so much. I can understand the concept - these five ordinary lives stand in for all the other ordinary lives cut short by war, you see these deaths as the end of all this possibility - but Spufford suffered for me by comparison to Kate Atkinson, whose Life After Life and A God in Ruins (a pair of novels) kind of look at something similar but do it in a way that for me was much more fully realised and did much more with the form of the novel. Light Perpetual has that great opener and then turns into basically just a straightforward novel skipping between these five protagonists - some of whose stories I enjoyed at points, some of whom I was less persuaded by (there's a guy called Vern who is a Fat Man and this is a key element of his character, which I always find quite annoying). By the end it sort of gestures back to where it started with but I just didn't think it did quite enough with the idea. Also this is a very minor petty point but it's set in a made-up area of South-East London called 'Bexford' which is somewhere between Catford and Lewisham and Deptford and New Cross and the imaginary geography of the thing drove me NUTS, the whole time I was like 'but where IS it', why could he not just set it in New Cross (where a real Woolworths really did get bombed) I do not know ahahaha
However this was a minor issue and the bigger thing for me was that I just felt like this didn't push its big idea far or hard enough for what I wanted it to do. But it was nominated for the Booker so obviously many people disagreed!
Anyway
I came to this book with reasonably high hopes but I was ultimately underwhelmed by it. I should say though that I think the opening chapter is great and very cleverly and skillfully written. It describes a bomb falling on a South London Woolworths during the course of WW2, and it renders the scene in a really effective slow-motion, so you see the building and all the shoppers (including a bunch of children) and the bomb powering towards them, crawling crawling and then suddenly it pulls back with the flash and the bang of the explosion. Really cinematic and great.
The rest of the novel, though, deals with the lives of those children in another universe in which the bomb hadn't fallen, so you trace the five of them effectively across the latter half of the twentieth century, up until old age and in one case death; and this was the part that just didn't persuade me so much. I can understand the concept - these five ordinary lives stand in for all the other ordinary lives cut short by war, you see these deaths as the end of all this possibility - but Spufford suffered for me by comparison to Kate Atkinson, whose Life After Life and A God in Ruins (a pair of novels) kind of look at something similar but do it in a way that for me was much more fully realised and did much more with the form of the novel. Light Perpetual has that great opener and then turns into basically just a straightforward novel skipping between these five protagonists - some of whose stories I enjoyed at points, some of whom I was less persuaded by (there's a guy called Vern who is a Fat Man and this is a key element of his character, which I always find quite annoying). By the end it sort of gestures back to where it started with but I just didn't think it did quite enough with the idea. Also this is a very minor petty point but it's set in a made-up area of South-East London called 'Bexford' which is somewhere between Catford and Lewisham and Deptford and New Cross and the imaginary geography of the thing drove me NUTS, the whole time I was like 'but where IS it', why could he not just set it in New Cross (where a real Woolworths really did get bombed) I do not know ahahaha
However this was a minor issue and the bigger thing for me was that I just felt like this didn't push its big idea far or hard enough for what I wanted it to do. But it was nominated for the Booker so obviously many people disagreed!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Violence, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Eating disorder
dasha_musa's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I liked the prose of this book and enjoyed running through the course of each character's life. However, I wish more was done with the concept set up in the beginning (children die in the bombing, but what would their lives be like if they lived)?
I don't know how it couldve been done differently, but I'm a little disappointed because the beginning of the book gripped me completely, but then the rest of the book just proceeded as the stories of the lives of various characters (irrespective of the set up in the beginning).
I liked it, but it's missing something for me.
I don't know how it couldve been done differently, but I'm a little disappointed because the beginning of the book gripped me completely, but then the rest of the book just proceeded as the stories of the lives of various characters (irrespective of the set up in the beginning).
I liked it, but it's missing something for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Eating disorder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Homophobia, Rape, and Xenophobia
jiwiz's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
I really love stories that explore what would have happened alternatively if different choices were made, or if a certain event didn't occur. I know I'm always giving out 5 stars but I enjoyed this so I don't care. It was really easy to forget that all the events in this book were what-ifs. I like that their lives were unexpected but hopeful but realistic, and even in the end the lives of the people they knew and loved still carried on. They would be close to someone at one time and then in the next 15-year interval that person was just a passing mention with no explanation as to how they fell apart. It tripped me up as a reader but I guess that's how it is when you pull these fragments from a life. Also, the representation of intrusive thoughts was one of the most accurate I've ever seen and hit so close to home.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Xenophobia, Violence, Toxic relationship, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Racial slurs, Antisemitism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Hate crime
Moderate: Ableism and Eating disorder
Minor: Pedophilia and Sexual content
lydia123's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
A very good book! The style in incredibly minute and poetic which can get frustrating but ultimately really works for the subject matter. I wish the author had done all of the protagonists viewpoints in 1949 as it feels like we don’t properly get an idea who they are until 1964 but oh well!
Read if you feel stuck in life or really like the television programme : Seven Up.
Read if you feel stuck in life or really like the television programme : Seven Up.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Racial slurs, Pedophilia, Murder, Violence, Sexual violence, Eating disorder, and Racism
thequeenofsheba3's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Eating disorder, Racism, and Vomit
Moderate: Drug use, Sexism, and Violence
Minor: Pedophilia
leekaufman's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Murder, and Violence
jouljet's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual assault, Violence, and War
serendipitysbooks's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Light Perpetual is inspired by a real life incident in World War II when a German V2 bomb fell on a Woolworths in South London killing 168 including children.
Francis Spufford opens this novel with the bomb falling destroying everything and everyone. But then he asks the questions ‘What would happen if some of those children survived? What sort of life might they have gone on to lead?’
When people die young those left behind often imagine all the wonderful things they would have accomplished. At the very least they envisage their loved one would have lived a long life filled with love and laughter. What the author imagines for his five characters is a lot less clear-cut. We visit them once every fifteen years, just for a day at a time, until they are in their seventies and watch as their lives unfold. Alex becomes a typesetter and later retrains as a teacher; Vern a property developer. Ben suffers from schizophrenia. Jo becomes a music teacher after ending her relationship with a rockstar; Val, her sister, falls for a skinhead.
This brief summary in no way captures the power of this book. What really grabbed my attention was the writing. It was so richly detailed whether focusing on the ordinary and the mundane or the more significant and extraordinary. The section where Ben suffers from a breakdown, desperately trying to fight off the voice in his head was incredibly immersive and powerful. Totally riveting. As was the violence and fear we experienced with Val courtesy of her skinhead boyfriend. Yet just as much detail and power of a different sort was to be found in a scene of Alex washing dishes one morning. Sometimes such detailed writing can overpower the story and almost send the reader to sleep or at least have them skimming pages. Not here. I savoured every word and found myself fascinated by all sorts of subjects - things like the intricacies of typesetting - that I would have sworn would have been of no interest to me.
Despite spending relatively little time with each character over their life time the richly detailed writing means they are all fully-formed and multi-faceted with plenty of depth and complexity - possibly none moreso that Vern the property developer, seemingly without a moral compass, with an inability to maintain meaningful relationships, but with a huge and possibly unexpected love of opera.
As well as the personal, this novel also highlights matters of wider significance. Through the imagined lives of the characters we experience the music scene of the sixties, the labour disputes centred around increasing mechanisation in the printing industry in the seventies and eighties, the educational reforms of the twenty-first century, not to mention the overall changing face of working class south-west London.
Final verdict - A richly detailed, lushly written, thoroughly absorbing novel spotlighting all the many moments and interwoven strands that make up a life; one that emphasises the preciousness, the wonder and fragility of life.
Francis Spufford opens this novel with the bomb falling destroying everything and everyone. But then he asks the questions ‘What would happen if some of those children survived? What sort of life might they have gone on to lead?’
When people die young those left behind often imagine all the wonderful things they would have accomplished. At the very least they envisage their loved one would have lived a long life filled with love and laughter. What the author imagines for his five characters is a lot less clear-cut. We visit them once every fifteen years, just for a day at a time, until they are in their seventies and watch as their lives unfold. Alex becomes a typesetter and later retrains as a teacher; Vern a property developer. Ben suffers from schizophrenia. Jo becomes a music teacher after ending her relationship with a rockstar; Val, her sister, falls for a skinhead.
This brief summary in no way captures the power of this book. What really grabbed my attention was the writing. It was so richly detailed whether focusing on the ordinary and the mundane or the more significant and extraordinary. The section where Ben suffers from a breakdown, desperately trying to fight off the voice in his head was incredibly immersive and powerful. Totally riveting. As was the violence and fear we experienced with Val courtesy of her skinhead boyfriend. Yet just as much detail and power of a different sort was to be found in a scene of Alex washing dishes one morning. Sometimes such detailed writing can overpower the story and almost send the reader to sleep or at least have them skimming pages. Not here. I savoured every word and found myself fascinated by all sorts of subjects - things like the intricacies of typesetting - that I would have sworn would have been of no interest to me.
Despite spending relatively little time with each character over their life time the richly detailed writing means they are all fully-formed and multi-faceted with plenty of depth and complexity - possibly none moreso that Vern the property developer, seemingly without a moral compass, with an inability to maintain meaningful relationships, but with a huge and possibly unexpected love of opera.
As well as the personal, this novel also highlights matters of wider significance. Through the imagined lives of the characters we experience the music scene of the sixties, the labour disputes centred around increasing mechanisation in the printing industry in the seventies and eighties, the educational reforms of the twenty-first century, not to mention the overall changing face of working class south-west London.
Final verdict - A richly detailed, lushly written, thoroughly absorbing novel spotlighting all the many moments and interwoven strands that make up a life; one that emphasises the preciousness, the wonder and fragility of life.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Racism, and Violence
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