A review by alexrafinski
Enlightenment by Sarah Perry

hopeful informative sad slow-paced

4.75

I loved the writing style of this book - very lyrical prose.  The downside of that of course is that the dialogues between characters don't really sound like anything people that I know would ever say.  There are two main strands to the story, both with Thomas Hart as the main character.  One revolves around his current life and his struggles to reconcile his faith (the local Baptist church features heavily in the book) with his sexuality, and the other covers his attempt to work out what happened to a lady who disappeared from a nearby large house nearly 100 years ago.   The main thrust of this latter story is about the discovery of a comet, and chapters are interspersed with newspaper articles written by Thomas that are largely about comets and the universe in general - this might sound dry, but it actually works very well.    The investigation into the disappearance does rely on a series of crazy coincidences that I initially didn't like, but then decided it was very deliberate - and a commentary on faith/pre-destination.  There are great characters in this book, and I think this is even better than The Essex Serpent