And There Was Light: Autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran, Blind Hero of the French Resistance [Paperback]

Jacques Lusseyran (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1998

Selected as one of USA Today’s 100 Best Spiritual Books of the Century, this astonishing autobiography tells the gripping, heroic story of the early life of Jacques Lusseyran, an inspiring individual who overcame the limitations of physical blindness by attending — literally — to the light within his own mind. Through faith in the connection between vivid inner sight and outer events, he became a leader in the French Resistance and survived the horrors at Buchenwald.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Glimpse both heaven and hell through the eyes of a man who has lived through both." -- The Los Angeles Times

"This is a magical book, the kind that becomes a classic, passed along between friends." -- The Baltimore Sun

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

Product Details

• Paperback: 316 pages
• Publisher: Morning Light Press; 2nd edition (April 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0930407407
• ISBN-13: 978-0930407407
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #55,412 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #73 in Books > History > Europe > France

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Touch of a Master's Hand, February 14, 2004

By 

Loftin Harvey (Kearns, Utah) - See all my reviews

This review is from: And There Was Light: Autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran, Blind Hero of the French Resistance (Paperback)

I found Jacques Lusseyran in 1969 when he became my teacher and advisor in the graduate program of French at the University of Hawaii. He also became one of my dearest friends. I lost him two short years later when he and his wife were killed on a lonely French country road in a car wreck. The terrible irony of having survived the Nazi occupation of France, as well as his betrayal, capture, torture and the final years in Buchenwald becomes self-evident as one reads this book. But more than the irony, this book portrays Jacques' great capacity for joy and hope and faith.
He taught me to have faith and hope, in God and in others, as well as in myself and in those gifts which each of us possess. I have shed many tears because I lost him. I loved him and his wife, both for what they taught me and what they gave me: joy in life and living; faith that even in the worst of human pain and suffering there is still always hope.
I have also shed many tears since then of gratitude for those two brief years of my life. And I continue our conversations about all things good and joyful through reading And There Was Light. Jacques Lusseyran and his life have changed my life and I rejoice and am grateful.

72 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book for Giving, January 18, 2000

By 

Allan Gorochow (Baltimore, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: And There Was Light: Autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran, Blind Hero of the French Resistance (Paperback)

Harper Collins just came out with their list of the 100 best spiritual books of the 20th Century. Yes, another list, but this one intrigued me enough to want to sample the books on the list. And that is how Icame across this remarkable book. Jacques Lusseyran was blinded in an accident at the age of 8, yet was a major force in the French Resistance during World War II, was betrayed and spent time in a Concentration Camp.This is NOT anotherholocaust memoir. Insteadit is an odd, inspiring, beautifully and simply written story, detailinghow one man lived a full spiritual life despite blindness and the presence of great evil. Blindness was not a "handicap" to Lusseyran, instead he reacted to the world in amazing ways. It was a mysticism born out ofcircumstances, not theology. Few books can overwhelm the cynic in me.For a time, this one did.I have sent this book to friends and relatives, who were as surprised and moved as I was. And There Is Light may change you.

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars light unto the darkness, June 30, 2004

By 

kaioatey (Awatovi, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: And There Was Light: Autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran, Blind Hero of the French Resistance (Paperback)

"in 1935 in a lycee in Paris..our work was divided into two equal parts: the world of today and the world of yesterday, the dreams of the ancients and the dreams of the modern man. I can't believe that was a bad thing. At least we were not in danger of falling into absurdity, so common nowadays, of confusing the era of Sputniks and Polaris rockets with the era of Genesis".

It is hard for me to categorize this book; it is a spiritual book, illuminating one man's relationship with the Spirit; it is a profound meditation on the nature of truth, morality and friendship, and it is a priceless analysis of human nature. Blindness was no impediment to Lusseyran - on the contrary, he learnt to use his senses with an uncanny precision to represent facts by creating visual imagery, to identify the motives that drive people and countries and to establish contact with the transcendental essence of all Being. "People were not at all what they were said to be, and never the same for more than two minutes at a stretch. Some were, of course, but that was a bad sign, a sign that they did not want to understand or be alive, that they were somehow caught in the glue of some indecent passion. ... It is strange that when laws men make are so ticklish in matters concerning the body, they never set limits to nakedness or contact by voice. Evidently they leave out of account the fact that the voice can go further than hands or eyes in licit or illicit touch."

This book is very valuable for its insights on the nature of blindness and sensory-emotional reorganization that accompanies it. "Blindness works like dope, a fact we have to reckon with. ...Like drugs, blindness heightens certain sensations, giving sudden and often disturbing sharpness to the senses of hearing and touch. But, most of all, like a drug, it develops inner as against outer experience, and sometimes to excess" (p.49).

I just cannot help myself from quoting from this book, it is so full of unforgettable passages. This is from the time he was caught, as a member of the Resistance, by the Gestapo: (p. 245): "One small piece of advice. IN a spot like this, do not go too far afield for help. Either it is right near you, in your heart, or it is nowhere. It is not a question of character, it is a question of reality. If you try to be strong, you will be weak. If you try to understand, you will go crazy. No, reality is not your charaqcter which, for its part, is only a by-product - I can't define it, a collection of elements. Reality is Here and Now. It is the life you are living in the moment. Don't be afraid to lose your soul there, for God is in it."

As you can see, this book was written by a remarkable man, who could "see" life and truth and humaneness better than many of his fellow men. Now, when our times in some ways resemble the late 30ies and we again seem to be descending into the darkness of ignorance, when the world is run by corrupt, greedy and cynical men who value their comfort above and beyond the dignity of their souls and happiness of their fellow men, Lusseyran's book provides a ray of light and a courage. I salute this amazing man.