''A Sudden Light'' is the fourth novel by American author

Garth Stein Garth Stein is an American author and film producer from Seattle, Washington. Widely known as the author of the novel ''The Art of Racing in the Rain,'' Stein is also a documentary film maker, playwright, teacher, and amateur racer. Early life ...

published in 2014 by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pub ...

, set in 1990 in

Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washingto ...

Inspiration

The novel is based on Stein's 2005 play ''Brother Jones'' which was presented at the Theater of Angels in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

. Stein initially shelved the play after its first run, but he says that "I really want dto spend some more time with these characters that I'd worked on in the play...The theater is really about the immediacy of the drama as it plays out on a stage in front of us.. But with a novel you're allowed to go into the history of how we got to the 'now' of it and really dig down very deep."

Plot summary

In 1990, 14-year-old Trevor Riddell tried to save his parents marriage following a trial split. He and his father Jones arrive at the family's huge tree mansion overlooking

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected m ...

where he meets his seductive aunt Serena and grandpa Samuel suffering from dementia. His father and aunt plan to sell off the house and grounds to divide up the profits and to send Samuel to an

assisted living facility An assisted living residence or assisted living facility (ALF) is a housing facility for people with disabilities or for adults who cannot or who choose not to live independently. The term is popular in the United States, but the setting is si ...

. Trevor finds that the house is inhabited by a ghost who wants the family patriarch Elijah to return the house and surrounding forest to its original natural state as a penance for Elijah's exploitation of millions of trees harvested over the years...

Reception

*'' Kirkus Reviews'' regards the novel as being preposterous and concludes that "The fatal flaw here is the author’s decision to have a teenager narrate this complex, sprawling story; though a prologue indicates that Trevor is recalling it from adulthood, he stays essentially within his teen perspective, and no matter how precocious he was, he couldn't possibly have had the vantage point to describe the whole situation. To solve that problem, the author supplements Trevor’s knowledge with letters, diaries and ghostly speeches that magically pop up where explication is needed. A repetitive, poorly conceived work of pulp fiction. Frankly, we're stumped." *''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' is more positive: "Stein dramatizes the various tensions between his characters well, although narrator Trevor comes off as a tad precocious for 14. The history of the Riddell family fails to shock after a while, even as events in the present lead to the tragic denouement."

References

External links

Garth Stein’s Flash Point
from interviewmagazine.com
Author Garth Stein to discuss 'A Sudden Light' in Danbury
from ''

Connecticut Post The ''Connecticut Post'' is a daily newspaper located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It serves Fairfield County and the Lower Naugatuck Valley. Municipalities in the Post's circulation area include Ansonia, Bridgeport, Darien, Derby, Easton ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Sudden Light 2014 American novels Simon & Schuster books Novels set in Washington (state) Fiction set in 1990 Ghost novels Novels set in the 1990s