Customer Reviews

Children of Light

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This novel is my favorite of all of Stone's disturbing and powerful works (I haven't read "Outerbridge Reach" yet). It's so beautifully and evocatively written that I somehow find the roll of the prose soothing and pleasurable, despite the all but unbearable sadness and desperation of the characters. I still, after several rereadings, find myself puzzled and disturbed that these characters can't get their acts together, act so selfishly, have so little self-control and respect for one another--just like people in real life, unfortunately. (Certainly in Stone's view, and I suppose also in mine). Drugs, booze, insanity, and cruelty abound, and are not punished. As the unforgettable conclusion reveals, there is ultimately no justice for these characters--they either survive or they don't. This is Stone's harshly beautiful world at its best, in my opinion.

This was the first book by Robert Stone I read. Damscus Gate was the second, though I prefer Children of Light.

Stone's mind, his craft as a writer and a narrator, drew me into the story from the outset. In spite of the bleak, unrelenting theme, it is the writing above all-- the quality of the insights, the invention, and the prose, so economical and searing in its images -- that left me inspired.

Some memorable moments were the letter Gordon receives from his son and his interpretation of it; the scene on the mountaintop with Lee Verger -- Malcolm Lowry and Stone would have gotten along well.The scene with the doctor in Mexico, when Gordon seeks drugs, was also well depicted -- the doctor's observations of his screen world patients, etc. Irony is everywhere in this book.

The film people, the Drogues were a brilliant, seedy lot: the driven son and the father who made him looking on with "gypsy eyes, passive and watchful."

I would agree that the ending was a bit tacked on. Lee must go down, but Gordon escapes too easily -- though it happens in life. I've known some incredible human wrecks who've turned on a dime and ended up leading AA meetings, etc. Still in a novel we need more.

All in all, you are spending time with Stone the fine writer in this tale of Hollywood and the savagery of the image world: light that reveals, images that devour.

This was a great book for me.

(Damascus Gate was so different, more erudite in its approach to a very different story.)

The last fifteen or so pages of this fine novel dissapointed me to such a degree that I had to sit back and analyse why. One reason is that the ending is simply trite compared to the rest of the book in my opinion. Another is that it may not have been able to end in a way that would have pleased me no matter how it ended. But yet another, and perhaps the most important: I was enjoying it, and ending the book meant that the journey I also took with the characters came to an end, like a good party. This book rates three and a half stars for me, but closer to a full four than three.

I found this book by chance at a discount book store in the mid west and truly enjoyed it for one overarching reason: few times have I read a book by an author who made one profound gift so palpable in his creation of despair driven characters. And that gift of craft is simple: Robert Stone has a beautiful way of displaying, without judgement, the near transcendental lucidity that exists in madness. At so many times you knew exactly what his characters were going to do, but you knew it the same way you knew the plot of THE GODFATHER before you popped it in the VCR for the upteenth time. It was the dance of his characters in the context of their love affair with everything damaging within the world and themselves; their multi-layered wheel-within-a-wheel dance of insanity on top of artistry on top of genius on top of lonliness on top of despair, on top of anger, on top of rage, on top of beauty, on top of addiction, and codependency, on top of modern and Hollywood society, on top of true love, ON TOP OF INSANITY... At its lowest moments, the book is a soap opera with an ending seemingly designed to be followed by commercials. At its highest moments however, the book is a spellbinding maze that I would gladly walk through again, as knowing where it begins and where it ends has no bearing on the journey on which it takes you in between.

Defintiely a good weekend summer read.

'Children of light' is not Stone's most famous book, but it is my favorite,by far. It doesn't have the breadth of 'A Flag for Sunrise', or the ambition of 'Outerbridge Reach' or the commerciality of 'Dog Soldiers'. And, good. Because, freed of the burdons of those scopes, 'Children of Light' is focused, detailed, funny, shocking, right-on-thr-money, and unforgettable.

You figure, Stone's got his themes. Every one of his novels ends in a hallucinitory, tripped-out sequence (and this novel has the best one yet). Each of his books has a main character on dope and booze (none better crafted than these two) Gordon is Reinhardt in the 80's. Even 'Bear & His Daughter' has them: every single story. But never are the meanings and lessons of these themes more eloquently communicated.

Each of Stone's books is getting progressivle more realistic. I don't love his first two, for their surreality (I still don't quite see what happens at the end of 'A Hall of Mirrors'). And 'Outerbridge Reach' is so real you can't believe its the same author.
This is a great middle-passage, with realistic plot and people, but surreal hallucination/madness scenes. The writing/plot os Fitzgeraldian, the dialogue ripples and sparkles, and the romance is amazingly renedered, and very moving.

I'll quit here, but just in case you're reading this one day Robert, these are my favorite Stone creations: Strickland, Pablo, and this whole book. You keep us waiting 6 years between books. Man, I hope your next one is this good.

Robert Stone has written so many GREAT novels (Hall of Mirrors, Dog Soldiers, Flag for Sunrise) that his true followers -- I consider myself one -- expect brilliance every time. Children of light is good, but not great. Perhaps its the Hollywood subject matter; it's much less compelling than Vietnam or Central America. Although beautifully written, as is everything by Stone, the characters are so wan and unaware of themselves that the book is unrelentingly depressing. Still, despite the drawbacks, its still Robert Stone. This will be one of the best books you read this year.

A failing actress slides into insanity on a Mexican movie set, the coke addled screenwriter arrives to lend assistance. The director, directors father, actress understudy, PR man, Mexican writer, all clearly 2 dimensional stock characters . This book is poor by every specification; characters drawn with such wide strokes that they are cartoons, speaking in running clichés, characters from the movie "Against all Odds", setting from the movie "10". Throw in some errant Shakespeare quotations and a reference to an old Ernest Borgnine movie and you have what critics call "richly literate".

By page 140 you are convinced that the book is a common stinker; but maybe Stone can pull it off in the last third. Don't waste your time. Its a failure in all aspects.

Don't put this book on the shelf, put it under your dog dish.

P.S. typo on page 207.

A failing actress slides into insanity on a Mexican movie set, the coke addled screenwriter arrives to lend assistance. The director, directors father, actress understudy, PR man, Mexican writer, all clearly 2 dimensional stock characters . This book is poor by every specification; characters drawn with such wide strokes that they are cartoons, speaking in running clichés. Characters from the movie "Against all Odds", setting from the movie "10". Throw in some errant Shakespearian quotations and a reference to an old Ernest Borgnine movie and you have what critics call "richly literate". By page 140 you are convinced that the book is a common stinker; but maybe Stone can pull it off in the last third.

Don't waste your time. Its a failure in all aspects.

Don't put this book on the shelf, put it under your dog dish.

P.S. typo on page 207.

The copy I have is full of quotes praising the novel. After reading and enjoying Dog Soldiers and Outerbridge Reach, I thought I was in for a treat. What a boring novel! Maybe it would have made a great short story, but it goes on far too long to keep the reader interested. Perhaps it was "shocking" or "insightful" in its day, but now it very common place. There is one well written scene early in the book where the actress's husband encounters a weird Hollywood threesome; but the scene ends and the story goes no where.