Customer Reviews

Rainlight

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The first novel I read by Alison McGhee, SHADOW BABY, touched me more than most of the books I have read in the last few years. After reading RAINLIGHT, I'm certain that I've discovered a writer who ranks as one of my favorites.

This novel is set in the same small town as SHADOW BABY, in the Adirondacks, in upstate New York, and features some of the characters who appeared briefly in the other novel. One of the most appealing things -- at least to me -- about McGhee's writing is her ability to create such believable, LIKABLE characters. This is not to say that all of them are perfect, that they make no mistakes in their lives -- they are human, after all. The author builds her characters so completely -- and yet so gently -- that we come to know them at depths which allow us to understand WHY they act as they do, to see the good that exists in all of them, making it easier to overlook or forgive their foibles.

RAINLIGHT is a unique look at the way human beings deal with death and loss -- and that should not imply that this is a depressing, maudlin book, for there is much happiness and joy and love contained in these pages. It is rather a caring look at our humanity, at the things that are really important, about how we remember those who have touched our lives and are no longer with us in the flesh -- a story about remembering.

Even though the two novels are connected in setting and some characters, I don't think it's necessary to read one before the other -- but if you enjoy well-written, touching fiction, please read them. If you pass these by, you're missing an incredible experience.

I read an average of 10 to 20 books a month. While most of these books are good and a few of them may be very fine novels, very few of them make me excited about an author and about the novel. Rainlight is such a book. The writing is incredible, not just for a first novel, but for any novel. While the multi-narrator format has been in use since at least William Faulkner, Alison McGhee makes it feel fresh and insightful.

The story is fast paced and while the novel is emotionally charged by the many viewpoints of the characters, this is such a well told story. This book really is that good. This is a somewhat difficult review to write because it is hard not to gush about this book...and i don't gush very often. This is worth your time and money.

A tragic accident brings out musings from 4 different characters and reveals secrets between each other that some goes a long way.

This book is beautifully written. It's poignant, delicate, touching ... reading it feels like having a soft velvety whisper of air on your skin. Each character grows on you that you feel like you know them very well. Each secret is revealed flawlessly. And after reading her 2nd novel -- Shadow Baby -- I think Ms. McGhee is very good in writing about child characters.

I read Alison McGhee's "Shadow Baby" just last month and fell in love with her characters, and went right back to the library and put a search in for "Rainlight". I am so glad I did! This is such a tender and thoughtful book - one of the best I have ever read. McGhee leaves no stones unturned in her books. Every word will come to mean something later-even though her books are not long they are PACKED with meaning and emotion so only read when you are ready to pay attention! But one of the most delightful parts of her books was that some of the characters from "Rainlight" carried over into "Shadow Baby" and I was so glad to "see" them again! I hope her next book takes us back to Sterns, NY again-I can't wait to make the trip!

I enjoyed reading Rainlight! I love the way you captured the mourning process that each of the characters went through. I was especially moved by Mallie and the way she dealt with her fathers' death. I found it so interesting the way each of the characters had been keeping a secret about the others, a secret that could have freed that character from some emotional pain they had been harboring for a long time. I was relieved when they finally opened up to one another. I looked forward to reading the book every night at bedtime - it was both easy reading and very moving. I cried quite often.

"Rainlight" is a little novel that will probably go unnoticed in the long run, simply because it's delicate, and does not stomp on your conscience with the grand issues of this world, it has nothing that may attract a sensation-looking reader, nor it has any revelations to offer. Instead, "Rainlight" is a small gift to be unwrapped and read, an invitation to a small world of just a few people living in upstate New York, trying to cope with the ordinary. A bit gray, like life of most of us, the book focuses on the faltering memories of our kin whom we had lost long ago, in another era, when we were barely able to speak and walk. How much is there left? How accurate are our memories? Lucky indeed are those of us who only casually think about it every blue moon, for some reason that is as external to us as almost anything else that happens in our life. Our memory goes through a period of renaissance when our children are born, and we have a nagging opportunity to compare three generations and the mysterious ways of ever-evolving genes. Then amongst us there are those who are not that lucky, young children who lost their parents for this or that reason, old enough to understand the loss, young enough to partially forget. Lots of water must flow under the bridge until the scars heal, mostly they just fade away to linger somewhere in the subconscious. It's a hard thing to do - to live through the breakthrough: at one moment there he is, at another moment, there is not; not anymore. All that is left is memory. And so we try, try to recall the traits, customs and habits that made the suddenly departed - unique. How much is there left for us to gather? In "Rainlight", a small girl, Madeleine, is trying to preserve the memories of her father while she still remembers, and to recover her lost memories. She's working on it, working very hard, there is nothing more important than memories. In this delicate story of loss and longing, Alison McGhee shows how different various members of the family react to their own, private variety of loss, and to one big loss that unites them in ways unspoken - through understanding that comes in time. The Moose, of course, tenderly recommends.

I grew up in exactly that part of Upstate New York, and McGhee captures perfectly what life is like there, the insularity, the long winters, the ever-present mountains. She names places and towns I know well, and fictionalizes others I also know.

Beyond that familiarity, her book is crowded with real people whose lives are constrained by where they live, the limitation of small town existance. I've been recommending this, and her other books, to everyone I know.

RAINLIGHT is an expertly woven tale of a town in the Adirondacks torn apart by the freak death of its beloved Starr Williams. As vividly portrayed characters work to find ways to manage their grief, the magic is in the details. Although these characters are dealing with sadness, McGhee manages to make them appealing. I found myself wishing I could sit down in Crystal's diner for hamburgers and milkshakes, spending some leisurely time with Tim and Mallie--maybe even give the gift of something shiny to Crystal's retarded son Johnny. McGhee's world is one that is difficult to leave behind. A wonderful wonderful book!

>In Rainlight, McGhee weaves a complex narrative around a small town in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains, switching in part to the Yellow Emperor's tomb in China. Four alternating voices - nine year old Mallie, her mother Lucia, grandfather Tim and waitress Crystal - recall the events surrounding the death of their beloved Starr Williams. As each character struggles with their grief, the truth about Starr and the relationships between the main characters is gradually revealed.

The wonderful character voices created by McGhee show, simply, how small things in life can be big and how we all deal with the SAME things in different ways. Examples of true human nature abound, while exploring grief and what it takes for some of us to move on. This novel is wonderfully written, really great character composition, which I find is lacking in too many books. Malle, especially, is someone who will stay with me a long time. Will definitely read McGhee's next work.