Light from Heaven (The Mitford Years, Book 9)
by Jan Karon
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jan KaronEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-10-31
ISBN: 0143037706
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Penguin
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780143037705
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Light from Heaven (The Mitford Years, Book 9)
Book Review: the exhaustion of stories in Mitford
Summary: 3 Stars
It is a truth generally acknowledged that good characters (fictional or biographical) are more difficult to render attractive and interesting than bad characters, for whatever reason. Jan Karon has found a literary career in making this difficult accomplishment look easy. Her Father Tim, Cynthia Coppersmith, Miss Sadie Baxter, et al, manage to be not only good but attractive and interesting, various in their goodness, not merely conforming to some saintly stereotype. Light from Heaven extends Karon's examination of the many different ways it is possible to be good, introducing us to the shy but brave Rooter, the persevering Agnes, the pugnacious but vulnerable Jubal, etc., in a new setting: Father Tim's one-year interim pastorate in the freshly-reopened mountain church of Holy Trinity. Unlike some other reviewers on this site, I find the new characters appealing for the most part, and if sisters Mary and Martha (for instance) are a bit unbelievable, so is Barnabas, and has been from chapter one of book one (a dog obeying the sound and not the sense of Scripture? You'll never ever ever find one in real life).
But gracious, isn't that plot flimsy?
Light from Heaven isn't a cohesive book at all, as it turns out. I base this opinion not on the bulk of the book, which my wife and I enjoyed on CD thanks in part to John McDonough's always excellent narration, but on the end, which has almost nothing to do with the rest of the book. Although one of my friends somewhat justifiably complains that nothing ever happens in the Mitford series, something usually does; Karon does usually provide some kind of tension that makes a story out of a year or two hanging out in Mitford. Usually the end of the book is the end of something. Somebody gets saved, rescued, found, etc. Listening through Light from Heaven, I kept searching for a kind of overarching tension. Was it the halting progress of Holy Trinity church under Father Tim's benevolent leadership? The chicken thief? The final fate of the Barlowes? Agnes's retrospective rehearsal of her past? None of these, by itself or in tandem with other plot lines, appears capable in Karon's mind of sustaining a book. Each of these common threads is more or less as finished as it's going to be by the time Father Tim begins his grand finale sermon at Holy Trinity, and a good chunk of the book is still to go. If I were you (and this is the first book of thousands in my life that I'd suggest this of), I'd just stop right there when Father Tim begins to preach. All the good stuff has already happened: the exposure of the chicken thief, the exhilaratingly awkward humorous funeral, the mysteriously tended empty church, the three-headed housekeeper, the news at which Dooley retches. You don't need the ending. Endings are exactly what this book isn't good at: answers to any questions. Apparently Karon decided to jump the main narrative track of her book (Holy Trinity), wrapping it up with a flush not a bang, and celebrate the Mitford series with a reunion of its characters at Father Tim's Christmas gathering. A pretty good idea, time to catch up, an epilogue, where-and-who-are-they-now?, except that we meet practically none of them in any other way than a list of guest names. The final fate of the Barlowes gets "resolved," but in a way that is utterly unprepared for by the body of the book and deserves its own seventy-five pages of explanation which it does not get. Even the future of Holy Trinity gets ignored, as if it had existence only in relation to Father Tim's sojourn there. As a wrap-up to the Mitford series and to itself, this book is a waste.
Does this mismatched book and ending show Karon's own difficulty in assimilating a story not about Mitford to a series called "the Mitford Years"? Does Karon's own flight from Mitford in books seven and nine of the series show that Mitford itself has become imaginatively salted ground, unable to sustain stories of any more weight than a minor plot line (nine thousand dollars) about somebody already dead? Now that Karon has thought up all these good characters, does she find it difficult to use them in a second story or a third, to imagine not only goodness but growth? Has Karon converted to a different, avant-garde model of storytelling which resists closure? Until now, I wouldn't have thought it. The strength of the first five books of the series were stories grounded in Mitford, and chronicling how Tim and those around him mature from a solid basis in goodness already. But this last book really has me scratching my head. Such a (to me) disastrous narrative miscalculation from an author who is so good at what she does, and who operates at peak form during certain central portions of the book, leaves me at the end of her great series with more questions than resolution.
Summary of Light from Heaven (The Mitford Years, Book 9)
It's never too late.
Father Tim Kavanagh has been asked to "come up higher" more than once. But he's never been asked to do the impossible-until now. The retired Episcopal priest takes on the revival of a mountain church that's been closed for forty years. Meanwhile, in Mitford, he's sent on a hunt for hidden treasure, and two beloved friends are called to come up higher. As Father Tim finds, there are still plenty of heartfelt surprises, dear friends old and new, and the most important lesson of all: It's never too late.
Father Tim Kavanagh has been asked to "come up higher" more than once. But he's never been asked to do the impossible-until now. The retired Episcopal priest takes on the revival of a mountain church that's been closed for forty years. Meanwhile, in Mitford, he's sent on a hunt for hidden treasure, and two beloved friends are called to come up higher. As Father Tim finds, there are still plenty of heartfelt surprises, dear friends old and new, and the most important lesson of all: It's never too late.
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