Ancient Lights [Paperback]

Davis Grubb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1992

A modern epic novel about the search for truth in a world gone mad. The founders of an international electronic conspiracy are positioning themselves to take over the world. And there's only one man who can stop them--a country bumpkin from West Virginia named Sweeley Leech.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Kensington Books; Reprint edition (July 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821738070
• ISBN-13: 978-0821738078
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,503,060 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #51 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > United States > 20th Century

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dey's All Debbils, July 23, 2000

By 

Lisa Barber (Berkeley, CA. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ancient Lights (Paperback)

Pleasure. Humility. Incest. Small furry dogs. All of this and more in the once in a lifetime publication from the late Mr. Grubb. Davis, as I am sure he would prefer to be known, is second to none in this epic, mind altering, sexalicious, hedonistic, sensory freefall into the world of Sweely Leech. The world is plenty organized in Sweely's world, truly, truly organized. Too organized, in fact. The surly, reptilian, quagmire that is New York satellites itself to the feral green wilderness that Sweely calls home. Thickets of rose petals, lavendar and comfrey litter the garden of the Gallimaufry, beds are alive with the sharing of ten bodies worth of love, mysterious heirloom clocks time travel, and little people relatives abound in this sumptuous story of Love with a capital L. Sweely celebrates the way of the world, and the evils of complicated living. Equally embracing badness with goodness makes him a very dangerous fellow. TRUCAD is forced to ask itself,what happens if everyone figures out how to be self directed, and fully understand God? How can the behavior of the government be explained then? Machines for heads, hearts and minds make for an unhappy alliance of bad boys looking to do Sweely in. He ascends beyond the mechanism of government known as TRUCAD, openly toying with the stability the modern world hallucinates. Heck, forget toying, Sweeley delivers outright blasphemous good doing! Leaving in his wake a progeny of enlightened daughters, Fifi Leech, his super star, finds herself the center of an immense and thoroughly earthshattering, teeth rattling and jawdropping escapade. Inexplicable coincidence lays itself at her feet, posing Lindy, her younger sister, as the other character in this amazing drama, and guides them all from the safe haven of home, to the writhing pit of Blake's New York. A full fledged miracle of a book, it examines everything in the known world as being connected to this amazing, potent and ridiculous dance we are doing on this spinning ball, and encourages you to remember that "dey's all debbil's beurre." I remind you that you cannot live without reading this masterpiece. Truly the most original and exciting thing I have read in my life. Well, you understand what I mean.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful work with a free, beautiful vision of religion, July 2, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Ancient Lights (Paperback)

The author of this book is, unfortunately, no longer on this
Earth to appreciate my sentiments toward, in my opinion (and
his, I've read), his greatest work of literature. Drawing
from his own carefully built system of ideals as well as the
mythologies and religions of other cultures and the literary
work of William Blake and others, he creates a fictional
universe of characters so numerous and easy to cheer for
that it rivals not only the worlds of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis,
but the real world itself. His almost mad lust for truth,
freedom, and equality lead you on the winding road of a
semi-futuristic mission to rescue the human race from the
false face of Organized Religion.
Sweeley Leech and his daughter Fifi serve the world of
overzealous, materialistic Christians the same way Jesus
Criste (as he is called in this book, so as not to be mistaken
for the cliched "Christ" the churches praise) served the
pompous, ritualistic, and judgmental Hebrews of his day.
The pair loves all people, regardless of whether those people
are on their side or against them, and as they go on a truly
Christian "unrobbery" of a bank in New York, they meet
the colorful inhabitants of the underworld, and say goodbye
to Fifi's lover Dorcas (yes, Fifi is bisexual). Sweeley
receives a divine vision of a great book and completes it
only to have his other daughter, Lindy (a member of the
Organized Church), submit it to the TRUCAD (an amalgamation
destroying the edict of separation of Church and State), thus
organizing and glorifying it against its creator's will.
Lindy means no harm, but doesn't relize that putting it through
"La Machine" (TRUCAD) will cause it to be praised and lauded,
but then forgotten.
On their journey to recreate the divine manuscript, they
encounter some very bizarre characters and situations, but
all of them with an air of quiet mystery and an almost
foreboding sense of apprehension in waiting for the final
climax of the book.
Just read it, It's infinitely better than I can describe in
this little review! But don't get mad at me if it offends
you. It is not for closed minds, but for those willing to
change or modify their vision without sacrificing their
entire ethos. It changed my ideas, and for that I would like
to thank the late author and his charcters, who seemed so
real that I could write a letter of appreciation to them.
This book was possibly the best work of art since the Bible,
and is, in my opinion, to the New Testament what the New
Testament was to the Old. A truly admirable book.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating and challenging book, June 26, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Ancient Lights (Paperback)

This book is unique. It falls roughly into the category of "paranoid politico-religious conspiracy" novels, along with the ILLUMINATUS trilogy and numerous of Philip K. Dick's books, but even in that crowd it stands apart. Grubb's images are so unusual that they stick in your mind long after you've finished reading the book: well, who else could have conceived of horny Hasidic fairies? I sincerely hope that ANCIENT LIGHTS comes back into print, because it has disappeared from my library and I would very much like to read it again