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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
Spectacular writing. Plotting and story were less successful than the concentrated vignettes.
I'd give it more a 2.5.... I loved the first few pages, the premise of the story but the middle of the book was quite tedious. The characters were a struggle, somewhat unlikeable at times or just not compelling. The ending was good but not good enough to make reading the book worth it. But others loved this books based on reviews....so if you are curious or interested, give it a try. Maybe it's just me and not the book.
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really wanted to give this book 5 stars because it is mostly a work of literary genius. It is the sort of book that if I was going to write a novel, I would want to achieve something as original, poetic and with the majestic impact Light Perpetual has. The opening chapter describing the atomisation of a ten thousandth of a second in time is jaw dropping and breath-takingly stunning. It is an opening I will never forget because it is beautiful, terrifying, powerful and so cleverly written. It immediately captures the reader's attention, arrests the mind and from thereonin you have no choice but to surrender to the wonder of Time itself and the intelligent way Spufford has portrayed alternative lives for the 5 children whose young worlds end in one bomb blast in Woolworths, in Bexford High Street, November 1944.
The reason I could not award 5 stars was because in some parts I felt many readers could be lost if they do not share the passions the author himself does. Extensively researched or intimately known through personal lived experience, there are moments when some of the prose is a bit heavy going. This won't appeal to everyone. I was mostly simply swept away by the enormity of time and how the characters' imagined lives could have developed, however there was one notable section, about music, which even I found a little tedious. Sorry!
The headings of the chapters show time as a very simple mathematical equation and the last heading and very last line of the book was perfect in my opinion, finishing the novel as powerfully as it started.
There is plenty of nostalgia, lots of references to particular things found in certain decades that took me back and although I have never lived in London and very rarely visited the capital city, I could appreciate a social commentary which made landmarks of key events into a sort of political history.
A constant turning, spiralling, spinning world where perpetial motion can lead to any destination at any point in time, Light Perpetual is a book I am so very grateful to have read and one I highly recommend to others.
Thanks goes to the author, publisher, Pigeonhole and Netgalley for providing the opportunity to read a novel I so very nearly glanced away from.
4.5 stars.
The reason I could not award 5 stars was because in some parts I felt many readers could be lost if they do not share the passions the author himself does. Extensively researched or intimately known through personal lived experience, there are moments when some of the prose is a bit heavy going. This won't appeal to everyone. I was mostly simply swept away by the enormity of time and how the characters' imagined lives could have developed, however there was one notable section, about music, which even I found a little tedious. Sorry!
The headings of the chapters show time as a very simple mathematical equation and the last heading and very last line of the book was perfect in my opinion, finishing the novel as powerfully as it started.
There is plenty of nostalgia, lots of references to particular things found in certain decades that took me back and although I have never lived in London and very rarely visited the capital city, I could appreciate a social commentary which made landmarks of key events into a sort of political history.
A constant turning, spiralling, spinning world where perpetial motion can lead to any destination at any point in time, Light Perpetual is a book I am so very grateful to have read and one I highly recommend to others.
Thanks goes to the author, publisher, Pigeonhole and Netgalley for providing the opportunity to read a novel I so very nearly glanced away from.
4.5 stars.
3.5 stars...really wonderful depiction, spanning across a generation - revealing the lives that could be. A powerful journey about success, love, and life - what could be and how one moment can change everything.
Cherish life.
Cherish life.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
2021 Booker Longlist
The opening chapter of this book, describing a bomb exploding in the middle of a South London Woolworths (in a fictional Bexford), has to be one of the best opening Chapters I've ever read.
"The light is grey and sullen: a smoulder, a flare choking on the soot of its own burning, and leaking only a little of its power into the visible spectrum. The rest is heat and motion......"
then later moving into the sliding glass door moment
Come, other future. Come, mercy not manifest in time; come knowledge not obtainable in time. Come, other chances. Come unsounded deep. Come, undivided light.
Come dust.
The children who's lives were to be snuffed out in an instant, instead are given time to grow and make their way through to the remainder of 20th Century London, into the next century, however, I never felt very connected to any of them. I never really felt emotionally invested, despite the brilliant writing and the interesting characterisation. So for me, all I wanted to do was get to the end of this book so I could read something I was more engaged with. Maybe it's me not the book. I did pause it partway through because I really wasn't connecting but that didn't really help either. I'm pleased I read it, maybe it would improve on a reread, however, back to the library with it now.
The opening chapter of this book, describing a bomb exploding in the middle of a South London Woolworths (in a fictional Bexford), has to be one of the best opening Chapters I've ever read.
"The light is grey and sullen: a smoulder, a flare choking on the soot of its own burning, and leaking only a little of its power into the visible spectrum. The rest is heat and motion......"
then later moving into the sliding glass door moment
Come, other future. Come, mercy not manifest in time; come knowledge not obtainable in time. Come, other chances. Come unsounded deep. Come, undivided light.
Come dust.
The children who's lives were to be snuffed out in an instant, instead are given time to grow and make their way through to the remainder of 20th Century London, into the next century, however, I never felt very connected to any of them. I never really felt emotionally invested, despite the brilliant writing and the interesting characterisation. So for me, all I wanted to do was get to the end of this book so I could read something I was more engaged with. Maybe it's me not the book. I did pause it partway through because I really wasn't connecting but that didn't really help either. I'm pleased I read it, maybe it would improve on a reread, however, back to the library with it now.