Title: WHERE ALL LIGHT TENDS TO GO
Author: DAVID JOY
Genre: FICTION
Type of Book: SOFTCOVER
Length: 260 PAGES
Publisher: PUTNAM – A DIVISION OF PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE
Release Date: 2015
ISBN: 978-0-425-27979-3
Price: $16.00 USD / $21.00 CDN
Rating: 5 OUT OF 5 STARS πππππ
This story is set in the beautiful, and wild Cashiers Mountains in a remote corner of North Carolina.
Jacob McNeely is the son of the meth kingpin of the area. He is not like his father, but because his lastname is McNeely, most of the people in the area have him pegged as a no-good criminal.
All kinds of people inhabit the mountains and many of them can be considered ornery, but Jacob’s father is more than just ornery, he is downright mean. To add to his charm, he is violent, demeaning to women and completely terrifying when someone crosses him.
Jacob describes the area in which he lives by noting; “The Creek was a beautiful place, but it was lawless and always had been. The land was of little use for farming, so the folks who settled way back when were mostly drunkards and thieves. I was generations away from those earliest outlaws, but things like that have a way of staying in the blood.”
Jacob feels like he has no choices in the way his life will turn out. But, as sure as he is that he is stuck in The Creek forever, he is equally sure that his girlfriend is destined for bigger and better things.
You will have to read this novel to discover if one of them escapes or if they both do, or if, in the end, neither of them are destined to leave the clutches of their pasts.
The language that author David Joy uses in this book is beautifully written prose that somehow continuously has the ability to strike a chord with his readers.
It doesn’t matter what it is that author David Joy describes, he does it with such vividness that the reader is instantly able to form a picture in his or her mind. For example, when writing about the paint in the jail, he describes it as follows:
“The concrete was painted a warm kind of gray, something not so depressing as snow clouds but more of a gray like an old woman’s perm.”
If David Joy can make the description of the crappy, gray paint in a jail cell into something I actually quote in my review, than as far as I am concerned, he has some serious writing chops.
The characters come alive through David Joy’s skillful writing and even though the vast majority of those who read this book will have nothing in common with them, readers will find themselves hoping for a happy ending for the two lovers.
I rate this book as 5 out of 5 Stars πππππ and recommend it to those readers who enjoyed “Hillbilly Elegy” or who are fans of character driven fiction that seems so real that even after the final page, a small part of you will wonder if these are actually true events rather than fiction.
Critically acclaimed author David Joy, whose debut,Where All Light Tends To Go, was hailed as βa savagely moving novel that will likely become an important addition to the great body of Southern literatureβ (The Huffington Post), returns to the mountains of North Carolina for his second novel, a powerful story about the inescapable weight of the past.
The Weight Of This World is set for release on March 7, 2017 from Putnam Books and I am very much looking forward to reading it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
David Joy is the author of the Edgar nominated novel Where All Light Tends To Go (Putnam, 2015), as well as the novelsThe Weight Of This World(Putnam, 2017) and The Line That Held Us(Putnam, TBD). He is also the author of the memoir Growing Gills: A Fly Fisherman’s Journey (Bright Mountain Books, 2011), which was a finalist for the Reed Environmental Writing Award and the Ragan Old North State Award.
His work is represented by Julia Kenny of Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency, with film rights by Dana Spector at Paradigm.
Joy is the recipient of an artist fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council. His writing has appeared in numerous magazines and journals, and has been nominated for awards such as the Pushcart Prize. His latest short stories and essays have appeared in The Good Men Project, Still: The Journal, and The Pisgah Review.
Joy lives in Webster, North Carolina. For a full curriculum vitae click here.
To learn more about this author visit the following links:
Amie's Book Reviews 