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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
A bleak, but quickly moving tale of the impending global ice age, Fagan's fable is frequently poetic and moving, but just as often oblique and sometimes impenetrable. The central character of transgendered Cael/Stella is stunningly realized, but the adults don't quite fare so well, being delineated mainly by their quirks than any recognizable humanity.
I enjoyed this until the end. Just feel like there wasn't a real ending?
Apocalyptic visions of the future usually brim with dramatic conflict amidst large-scale destruction in society. Jenni Fagan takes a much more soft-treading and realistic approach to representing probable outcomes of climate change in her novel “The Sunlight Pilgrims” where a group of characters hole up in a Scottish caravan park for the onslaught of a cataclysmically cold winter in the year 2020. Rather than any explosive end to civilization, it seems much more likely that in the future life will still continue much as it is until the effects of rising global sea levels make an unavoidable difference to our daily lives. Here it’s represented by a slow-moving iceberg making its way to the British Isles. Meanwhile many huddle within the commercial comfort of IKEA hoping that it’s not really happening. Amidst this coming crises, a fascinatingly unique group of characters at the margins of society deal with their own personal struggles while preparing for coming of another Ice Age.
Read my full review of The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan on LonesomeReader
Read my full review of The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan on LonesomeReader
This is a terrific novel, set in 2020 when extreme climate changes are world-wide and are sending the Scottish village of Clachan Fells into a very deep, frozen winter. Author Jenni Fagan has seemingly magicked her characters into existence. Dylan MacRae is a 6'7" giant of a guy who loses his mom and grandmother within 6 months and then loses the family business, a small art house theatre in Soho. He travels to an inherited caravan (mobile trailer) in Scotland to lay his family's ashes to rest and finds a quirky village of odd, lovable, and strange people. His neighbors are Constance, a beautiful tomboy who juggles love affairs, and Stella, her amazing 12-year trans daughter who is trying to find her way in the world as a girl.
The language and descriptions of nature are gorgeous, the survivalist theme is a page-turner, but in the end, it's the love between the people in this story that's truly captivating. There are other good books with similar themes, but this one is told with so much heart that it seems new and fresh and very unique. Recommended!
Note - I received an advance reader copy of this book from LibraryThing.
The language and descriptions of nature are gorgeous, the survivalist theme is a page-turner, but in the end, it's the love between the people in this story that's truly captivating. There are other good books with similar themes, but this one is told with so much heart that it seems new and fresh and very unique. Recommended!
Note - I received an advance reader copy of this book from LibraryThing.
In the year 2020, climate change has produced a startling effect -it's the beginning of the coldest winter ever recorded (forecasts predict -50 in parts of Europe) and an iceberg has appeared off the coast of Clachlan Fells, Scotland. Just when it is of paramount importance that humanity work together for mutually assured existence, we meet a diverse set of loners living in a tiny caravan park, hoping to survive what appears to be the inception of a new Ice Age.
But the weather isn't the only thing that's cold and foreboding. Dylan is mourning the back to back deaths of his mother and grandmother -the only family he's ever known. Constance is a rugged, self-reliant woman who lives in a kitted out caravan, fully prepared to outlast the winter. But she is stuck between two on-again, off-again lovers, and is also grieving the loss of her 13-year old son, who has recently announced that he is a transgender girl named Stella. Stella is feisty young lady who is so warm and genuine, she proves the spark to pull together these lost souls. Although this book does a good job of showing a transgender person without sensationalizing, there are lots of references to porn and substance abuse that seem calculated to add a bit of outre modernity, but simply seem contrived.
Jenni Fagan does a wonderful job of illustrating how arduous it can be to connect with others, and how much we need the warmth and acceptance that only love brings, especially when the world around us is cold and barren.
But the weather isn't the only thing that's cold and foreboding. Dylan is mourning the back to back deaths of his mother and grandmother -the only family he's ever known. Constance is a rugged, self-reliant woman who lives in a kitted out caravan, fully prepared to outlast the winter. But she is stuck between two on-again, off-again lovers, and is also grieving the loss of her 13-year old son, who has recently announced that he is a transgender girl named Stella. Stella is feisty young lady who is so warm and genuine, she proves the spark to pull together these lost souls. Although this book does a good job of showing a transgender person without sensationalizing, there are lots of references to porn and substance abuse that seem calculated to add a bit of outre modernity, but simply seem contrived.
Jenni Fagan does a wonderful job of illustrating how arduous it can be to connect with others, and how much we need the warmth and acceptance that only love brings, especially when the world around us is cold and barren.
emotional
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The characters. This book is all about the characters. Stella and Constance are women who I would love to know in real life.
I got involved with the characters and the story seemed interesting. It just didn't seem like it was going anywhere.
“I was taught how to by the sunlight pilgrims, they’re from the islands furthest north. You can drink light right down into your chromosomes, then in the darkest minutes of winter, when there is a total absence of it, you will glow and glow and glow.”Reading this was almost like a magical experience. I read it in one afternoon and finishing it felt like coming out of meditation. I was fascinated by the characters and the setting. The only short coming is that it ended too soon.
Couldn't tell how much of this was interesting and how much was hitting buzz-themes of trans narrator and global warming /disaster. It was an interesting look at trans pov though