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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Did not really enjoy this and in theory it’s totally my kind of book. What was the actual point?
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-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
emotional
funny
inspiring
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
emotional
reflective
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
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, Violence
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
reflective
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
Thanks to NetGalley and Faber and Faber for the advanced copy of this book
I'm always very hit or miss when it comes to literary fiction and unfortunately for me, this was a miss! The concept sounded so intriguing and I was instantly intrigued to read it and I really wanted to love it but it just didn't hit home for me. This is a reimagining of what a group of characters lives could have been like had they not died in an explosion as children but with this happening at the very beginning of the book I had no time to get attached to any of the characters maybe if the explosion was revealed at the end after spending the time getting invested it may have struck home for me better. This book is basically all about the characters but I just didn't care about any of them I enjoyed finding out what they were getting up to at each stage but I didn't care about what actually happened to them. One thing I liked was how it portrayed different people at the same stage in life living completely different lives with completely different problems showing how not everyone travels through life at the same pace. All in all just not for me but I'm sure some other people will absolutely love it.
I'm always very hit or miss when it comes to literary fiction and unfortunately for me, this was a miss! The concept sounded so intriguing and I was instantly intrigued to read it and I really wanted to love it but it just didn't hit home for me. This is a reimagining of what a group of characters lives could have been like had they not died in an explosion as children but with this happening at the very beginning of the book I had no time to get attached to any of the characters maybe if the explosion was revealed at the end after spending the time getting invested it may have struck home for me better. This book is basically all about the characters but I just didn't care about any of them I enjoyed finding out what they were getting up to at each stage but I didn't care about what actually happened to them. One thing I liked was how it portrayed different people at the same stage in life living completely different lives with completely different problems showing how not everyone travels through life at the same pace. All in all just not for me but I'm sure some other people will absolutely love it.
Just a little PSA: this book is nothing like it’s marketed to be.
Endorsed as similar to Paul Auster’s 4 3 2 1 and Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life, Light Perpetual is like neither. I can say this with certainty because the former two are favourites I’ve read several times.
With the knowledge that it was for fans of 4 3 2 1 & Life After Life, I was SO looking forward to this! I made it to about two thirds of the way through but ultimately gave up because the weird (and eventually annoying) time jumps felt misplaced and empty, plus I felt absolutely no attachment to any of the characters.
Endorsed as similar to Paul Auster’s 4 3 2 1 and Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life, Light Perpetual is like neither. I can say this with certainty because the former two are favourites I’ve read several times.
With the knowledge that it was for fans of 4 3 2 1 & Life After Life, I was SO looking forward to this! I made it to about two thirds of the way through but ultimately gave up because the weird (and eventually annoying) time jumps felt misplaced and empty, plus I felt absolutely no attachment to any of the characters.