Lighting the World, by Merle Drown … the action takes place in
Rumford, New Hampshire in 1985 in this brilliant novel about a boy (Wade Rule) emotionally
and verbally abused by his mother … he falls in love with a girl (Maria) who
has befriended him (she has equally traumatic and terrible issues at home with
her father) … Wade has nothing but good in him … he has a crippled uncle he
loves in Vermont he hopes to run away to live with … he’s a well-read kid who
can live off the land and has little use for a life that requires others doing
his work for him … he has a job washing dishes at a diner where his mother
works (and takes half his pay each week), he has friends he can sometimes count
on, friends he has sympathy for, and there’s a bully he has no use for … he
wants to bring Maria with him to live with his uncle in Vermont, and when he
brings a shotgun to school to expedite their escape, well, suffice it to say,
shooting first and asking questions later is just the wrong way to go … no
spoilers here, but this is another brilliant novel from the author of The Suburbs of Heaven (a superb book)
… Drown is a master of dialogue, simile and metaphor … his down home tales of a
hidden Americana, of people trying to keep pace with a world moving way too
fast for its own good, are literary masterpieces. I was floored by The Suburbs
of Heaven when I read it a few years ago and have been very anxious for his
next works.
I read the Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) Lighting the World … it’s a brilliant,
brilliant book that will be available March 15, 2015 from Whitepoint Press …
… and read more about the author here:
Unrelated … this British film has it all …
Italy, the torture of a woman’s mid-life crisis … sixteen year old growing
pains … kids being kids … father-son issues … aging issues … and did I mention
Italy? There’s even a dinner table spread that reminded me of The Big Night … oh, baby, this was a
good film, and one that at times is painful to watch, but what’s life without a
little pain? Very highly recommended … A family’s Tuscany holiday (vacation to
us Americanos) wherein a friend of the Mom and her husband were invited (but the
friend shows up minus the husband) … like I said, Very Highly Recommended. A
Netflix gem.
This movie also features a little piano treat, one of Momma
Stella’s favorites, Mala Femmena …
With English subtitles …
And one for the Andrea Bocelli fans …
Hey, check out John Turturro’s Passione while you’re at it …
it’s all about Napoli …
—Knucks
Big Lou in a duet from La
boheme … O soave fanciulla …
