Customer Reviews

Night Blind

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This vivid book stands up to any recent novel published through the mainstream press -- maybe this suggests the "indie" movement is gaining momentum, finally, in the fiction world. Night Blind is arrestingly and convincingly absorbing from its first contention, "The Kingdom of Tonga wanted me to wake up," to its final affirmation. While this is a book about a Peace Corps murder, it is not just for former Peace Corps volunteers. It's for women with sexual vitality, men who want to understand them, and anyone who loves great writing, authentic character development, and a compelling journey into what it means to survive.

Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (1/07)

Raised as a preacher's daughter, Charlotte is finding her way. She joins the Peace Corps and is sent to the Kingdom of Tonga. As she learns about the language and customs, she feels herself bonding to the island and the people. She also has several liaisons along the way. One night, a woman in her group is murdered by another Peace Corps volunteer. This casts a huge shadow over Charlotte's experience in the islands. Essentially, the murderer's wrists are slapped. He is sent back to the United States for voluntary treatment in a mental hospital. When the group finds out that he signed himself out, they are distraught over the injustice and also feel concerned for their own safety.

A psychologist comes to the island to help the Peace Corps volunteers. Charlotte falls in love with him. They try to keep their relationship low key, but on the island, secrets are hard to keep. One secret that was kept was that he is married. Charlotte doesn't find out until he has to leave because his wife is having difficulties with her pregnancy. She is very distraught because she has fallen in love with him, and he is able to satisfy her needs like no other man. Charlotte always drew the line at getting involved with married man. At the same time that she discovers her lover's marital status, she also learns that her mother has discovered that her father has been having an affair. Charlotte learns a lot about forgiveness at this time. When a huge earthquake rocks the island and destroys most of her belongings, Charlotte really discovers what is important.

"Night Blind" is an excellent book. The author, Jan Worth, draws upon her experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Polynesia to richly create a background that makes you feel like you are actually on the island with Charlotte. In addition to reading a great story, I loved learning about the island language and customs. Charlotte's inner growth is aided by the people that she encounters on this journey. I highly recommend this novel.

Received book free of charge.

From the title, we already sense this is a novel about seeing and not seeing - and the particular nature of night blindness, which is a permanent wound that hinders one in darkness from being able to see what is straight ahead. On the surface it's a novel based on the author's Peace Corps volunteer time in Tonga in the South Pacific archipelago, 30 years ago. But just underneath this enjoyable account of her delightful band of characters, each unique and memorable, is a deeper strain of classic themes - sex, love, death, the question of evil, betrayal, and ultimately forgiveness - all seamlessly interwoven within the envelope of those unique times in American culture called the 1970's. Central to the story is a tragic and gruesome murder. But this isn't a who-dunnit, the identity of the perpetrator is readily known. I'd rather characterize this work as a carefully crafted (so well done that it's barely noticeable) account of capital L "Life". Perhaps it's a novel about human character development, if there's such a genre. It involves those many themes that we must personally visit in our own lifetime in order to become a fully mature human. As such, it could be also be considered as an initiation novel - but again disguised within the beguiling simplicity of good storytelling. As the reader, I started out just reading a chapter each night before bedtime. But very quickly discovered that wasn't enough - I was being drawn into a more intense involvement so I set aside some lengthy quality reading time to do the work justice. I became fully engaged with Charlotte, the protagonist, and her cadre of characters. But I also felt a strong involvement at a deeper level as well - which is itself the sign of good writing. I knew something important was happening deep within me as I kept reading. As I've noted, there's sex - she's a delightfully sexual being from a time in our history when such as her could more easily surface. But it's not a "sexy" book. There's death (murder) and the question of evil - which unsettles all innocence, and becomes the quiet transport for the greater narrative. Love, and the yearning for love has many facets and levels here, running the gamut from "free" love to a redeeming deep love that collapses into betrayal and then struggles for forgiveness. It's all there in this odd assortment of Peace Corps and local Tongan folks. Through it all, I fell in love with Charlotte (not the author, but the character), and had no difficulty allowing her to take me through the everything that was her life there (and she does seem to share everything). Yet as her reader, I had no experience of being enticed or seduced. My affection became one respect; and I genuinely came to like her. The author, Jan Worth, is a good storyteller, and I fully enjoyed being a captive of her art - this her first novel. After setting it down for the final time, I was reminded of Stephen King's comment that no good book reveals all its secrets in just one reading. And this is a good book.

Charlotte Thornton's often sordid accounts of her life and times in the Peace Corps during the aftermath of a brutal murder are rarely if ever pretty, but neither is life at the poverty line in a foreign culture. The unabashed frankness and honesty of this book will likely take you right back to the South Pacific if you've ever been there. For those who haven't, it's guaranteed to make you feel like you have. And many more readers will be taken back to their restless past, no matter where it may have been spent. Like young Charlotte, you'll no doubt consider yourself fortunate to have survived it all, and you'll also feel much richer for having lived the raw and uncensored experience.

Experience and savor this book.. you'll be glad you did.