Heat Lightning [Paperback]

L Cohen (Author), Leah Cohen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1998

Like Kaye Gibbons' Charms for the Easy Life and Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, Cohen's hauntingly poignant story deals with remarkable women bonded by strength, loss and love. Told in the lyrical and captivating voice of eleven-year-old Mole, HEAT LIGHTNING chronicles the days of a magical summer when she and her twelve-year-old sister, Tilly, must come to terms with the steady unraveling of the childhood mythology they created to define an incomprehensible world.

Ever since the death of their parents in a boating accident on the Kittiwake River when Tilly and Mole were babies, the girls have lived with their aunt Hy in a small and quiet lakeside town. Their aunt's reluctance to discuss the tragedy in anything more than the most cryptic, fragmented terms has only served to feed the sisters' curiosity--giving rise to secret fantasies and unifying Mole and Tilly in their devoted quest for buried truths about the history that has been denied them both.

But this warm and gentle summer is different from most. In this season of exploration, a subtle change is taking place that draws Mole's close confidant and inseparable companion farther and farther away from her. And others have arrived at Pillow Lake--strangers invading a protected domain--disturbing the delicate tripartite balance Mole, Tilly and Hy have maintained with the past for years, bringing doubt and confusion to two children on the precarious brink of adulthood while, at the same time, offering the luminous promise of understanding.

In Heat Lightning, a superb and sensual novel of innocence lost and found written with wry insight and beautiful, rhythmic prose, Leah Hager Cohen evokes the sights, smells and tentative emotions of a summer of awakening, as she explores with strength and compassion the pain of shattered illusions and the transforming power of coming to terms with the events that shape our lives.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

YA-A novel written from the point of view of an adult looking back at a fateful summer. Remarks and conversations that puzzled her as a child become clear, but without the power of recourse. Mole, 11, and her older sister, Tilly, live with their aunt in a small Maine community. Orphaned since they were very young and given a bare-bones account of their parents' drowning, the girls have speculated and romanticized about the tragedy, contriving a secret story that is almost mythical to them. When the Rouens move in nearby, they seem like a perfect family-professional parents with four children. Mole has already developed strong interests in the local plant and wildlife and is drawn to Mrs. Rouen, who is conducting a study of river mussels. A romance develops between Tilly and teenaged Walter Rouen. Mole experiences her sister's growing away from her and is shocked to realize that Tilly is presenting their parents' death in the guise of a mystery to attract the boy. The girls see Mr. Rouen's abuse of his wife and his inappropriate sexual advances toward them, but also his care for and devotion to his children. As lightning often will result in fire, so the sexual tensions between the Rouen couple and between the young people set off confrontations that end in an actual fire in Mole's house. The summer family departs, ending the tension and clearing the air. The climax is dramatic and believable.
Frances Reiher, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Mole and Tilly lost their parents in an accident when they were babies and have been raised by their Aunt Hy in a small town near Lake Pillow. Their parents' death has always been something of a mystery to the girls. The summer Mole is 11 and Tilly is 12, the Rouens rent "the dead house" down the road; soon, they and their four children invade the previously exclusive haunts of Tilly and Mole. As the summer progresses, it becomes clear that the Rouens' marriage is in crisis. Meanwhile, Tilly begins to exhibit all the signs and symptoms of puberty, to the consternation and confusion of her younger sister. Solid becomes liquid, what is known becomes uncertain?even the stories the girls have made up about their parents' death?and both Mole and Tilly must grapple with a new reality. Vivid description and detail make these characters come alive; Pillow Lake becomes real, and the heat of the summer shimmers throughout the story. Beautifully written and told, this first novel by the author of the acclaimed Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World (LJ 12/93) is recommended for most collections.?Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., Providence
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 326 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (May 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380729288
• ISBN-13: 978-0380729289
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,052,769 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Leah Hager Cohen is the author of four non-fiction books, including Train Go Sorry and Glass, Paper, Beans, and three novels, most recently House Lights. Among the honors her books have received are New York Times Notable Book (four times); American Library Association Ten Best Books of the Year; Toronto Globe and Mail Ten Best Books of the Year; and Booksense 76 Pick.

She holds the Jenks Chair in Contemporary American Letters at the College of the Holy Cross, and teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Lesley University. She is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review.

www.leahhagercohen.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More than nice language., October 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Heat Lightning (Hardcover)

I think what is heartbreaking about Heat Lightning is that Cohen shows so accurately how life eludes our attempts to make sense of it. Her characters are so true; their thoughts and dialogue perfectly rendered. That we are denied an easy solution to the young girls' puzzle seems a definite, skillful choice on Cohen's part. This is not a "potboiler" or a mass market novel, it's a sensitive story full of the tension of ordinary life. The right person picking this book up on the subway will feel blessed.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating exploration of childhood, June 29, 2007

By 

Aliza (Rural New Hampshire) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heat Lightning (Hardcover)

Rarely have I read a book that captured my interest and sympathies so fully.

The author evokes childhood evocatively through the thousand sensual details of summer, and the perplexities of navigating the world of adults without the guidance of parents.

I must have read it decades ago, yet I can feel the pleasure from the experience as if it were yesterday. I highly recommend it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars open-ended, November 3, 2002

By 

Paula Johnson (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heat Lightning (Paperback)

Heat Lightening was one of those books I just happened to pick up, merely because the cover interested me (judging a book by it's cover!!). I didn't expect anything from it, however I came away after reading it, constantly thinking about it - though perhaps not in the way the author intended her readers to.
Hager Cohen certainly has a way with words, and manages to capture quite accurately the thoughts and feeling of a child. However, whilst she so eloquently managed to set the scene (the time and place allow the reader to almost believe they are there, so well are they described), the reader is left pondering at the end of each of those scenes. Hager Cohen leaves things somewhat 'open-ended'; that is, the reader is often left to it's own devices in regard to the 'what happens next' element - she quite often, throughout the text, hints at things, only to brush over them without further detail (a good example of this occurs during one particular scene in the book concerning the two main characters and their neighbour). I found this very frustrating, although it did keep me page turning!!
In all, the book is one which will keep the reader turning the pages if only to find out what happens next... There is a great build up of tension throughout, leaving the reader awaiting a dramatic climax, but be prepared to find out that, quite literally, there isn't!
Depending on what genre of book interests you, this book reeks of autobiography only to flip into fiction halfway through. Brilliantly written - but the storyline may disapoint those who like a substantial amount of 'grit'.