Customer Reviews

From the Lighthouse

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From the Lighthouse uses fantastic depictive skills. I can see the personality and even physical description of the characters just through how they talk and act. Amazing job, Chipman!

A book that doesn't talk down to young readers. The language is lovely.

"From the Lightouse" is billed as a novel for young people because the point of view is that of a 13 year old Hudson River schoolgirl, Louise "Weezy" Bloom, in the late Nineteen Thirties. It does belong there, but it is novel that is as rich in its imagery and complex in its relationships as any novel written for adults. The great strength of this book, the lyricism and economy of the language. Liz Chapman has the rare gift of suggesting a totality with just a few disciplined strokes of her narrative brush. There are few, if any, wasted words.
The story itself is compelling, told in the first person, concerning the year following Weesy's mother's leaving her, her three brothers and her Dad alone to make their lives over again in the Hudson River Lighthouse that is both home and workplace. One gets the feeling that this is a story Louise is relating many years after; the language is that of an older person looking back. No reason is given for her mother's abandonment of her, just the sense that she was restless and wanted more than a life as the wife of a lighthouse keeper could give her. During that one difficult year, Weezy finds a way to let her mother go, not just the physical presence that she misses horribly, but also the hope that she will ever return.
She has to take over many of the chores her mother did; the other children are too small and her father can't do it all. He is a good man struggling to keep everything together in spite of the great hole left in the family by his wife's departure. In everything, he is a man who cares deeply about his children and the life they must rebuild. His is a welcome male role in a genre that sometimes doesn't give fathers their due. In spite of his best intentions, though, and his good heart, he is a flawed man. Perhaps a bit too accepting of his lot in life, he grieves, but then quickly moves on, locking the grief inside so he can function in the world. In this, he is very much a man of his time, and he is commendable.
No character is slighted, not the troubled Sid, the impetuous Rudy or Clayton of the eternally running who nose who make up the remaining members of the family, but also given full measure are the grocer, the music teacher and the post-mistress, minor characters, to be sure, but familiar, fully realized, a welcome thing in a genre in which minor characters are often "types."
The greatest compliment that can be given a work of fiction is that it is authentic, a detailed evocation of a specific time and place filled with events and characters that belong to it. There are no jarring anachronisms that take you out of the final days of the Great Depression. You believe these characters and care about them. This is a good read for young people and adults alike.

Ms. Chipman's book was just so well written and although it was a 13 year old girl who suffered a family member leaving, as a grown man, I could totally identify with her. It's amazing that despite the circumstances in life, we all feel the same pain, confusion, joy, regret, resentment, elation, and ultimately love. Ms. Chipman captured all those things and more quite well. Bravo.

Weezie and her brothers all go through quite a growth and maturation process in the span of just a year, as they all have to adjust to the knowledge that not only has their mother left them, but that she is not coming back.
I enjoyed this book for several reasons, one of which is the descriptive and elegant writing style, which is fitting for a setting as lovely as the Hudson River as nature changes it from one season to the next. I also appreciated the growing understanding in Weezie that her father is a devoted, loving parent who will always be there for his children no matter what.

anyone who likes Oprah book club style books will love this story. The characters are great and it is full of interesting historical facts! Loved it!

This is an excellent read for young and not so young adults alike. I enjoyed it very much! Read it with a box of tissues handy.