A Sudden Light: A Novel, by Garth Stein
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A Sudden Light: A Novel, by Garth Stein
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The New York Times bestselling “witty, atmospheric” (People) story of a once powerful American family, and the price that must be paid by the heirs as they struggle for redemption: “A captivating page-turner” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis).Twenty-three years after the fateful summer of 1990, Trevor Riddell recalls the events surrounding his fourteenth birthday, when he gets his first glimpse of the infamous Riddell House. Built from the spoils of a massive timber fortune, the legendary family mansion is constructed of giant whole trees and is set on a huge estate overlooking Seattle’s Puget Sound. Trevor’s bankrupt parents have separated, and his father, Jones Riddell, has brought Trevor to Riddell House with a goal: to join forces with Aunt Serena, dispatch the ailing and elderly Grandpa Samuel to a nursing home, sell off the house and property for development, and divide up the profits. But as young Trevor explores the house’s hidden stairways and forgotten rooms, he discovers secrets that convince him that the family plan may be at odds with the land’s true destiny. Only Trevor’s willingness to face the dark past of his forefathers will reveal the key to his family’s future. Spellbinding and atmospheric, A Sudden Light is rich with vivid characters, poetic scenes of natural beauty, and powerful moments of spiritual transcendence. “Garth Stein is resourceful, cleverly piecing together the family history with dreams, overheard conversations, and reminiscences…a tale well told,” (The Seattle Times)—a triumphant work of a master storyteller at the height of his power.
A Sudden Light: A Novel, by Garth Stein- Amazon Sales Rank: #24190 in Books
- Published on: 2015-09-15
- Released on: 2015-09-15
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.37" h x 1.10" w x 5.50" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 432 pages
Review "Remarkable....Stein's prose is assured, gorgeous, and magnificently atmospheric....Cheers to Garth Stein for showing us compassion, empathy, and incredible talent." (The Dallas Morning News)“Wow! I devoured A Sudden Light, a grand, gorgeous, multi-generational epic of the Pacific Northwest. Garth Stein has given us another singular, soulful, and wise narrator for the ages, who tells us a story full of mystery and yearning. I adored this book.” (Maria Semple, New York Times bestselling author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette)“A Sudden Light is the best of many genres: a ghost story, a love story, historical fiction….a truly killer read…a bold, poignant book about wealth, family ties, and the power—and fallacy—of memory.” (BookPage)
About the Author Garth Stein is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels, A Sudden Light and The Art of Racing in the Rain, and two previous novels, How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets and Raven Stole the Moon. He is the cofounder of Seattle7Writers, a nonprofit collective of Northwest authors working to foster a passion for the written word. He lives in Seattle with his family. Visit him online at GarthStein.com.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. A Sudden Light
– prologue –
THE CURSE
Growing up in rural Connecticut, I had been told the name Riddell meant something to people in the Northwest. My paternal great-great-grandfather was someone of significance, my mother explained to me. Elijah Riddell had accumulated a tremendous fortune in the timber industry, a fortune that was later lost by those who succeeded him. My forefathers had literally changed the face of America—with axes and two-man saws and diesel donkeys to buck the fallen, with mills to pulp the corpses and scatter the ashes, they carved out a place in history for us all. And that place, I was told, was cursed. My mother, who was born of English peasant stock on the peninsula of Cornwall, made something of herself by following her passion for the written word, eventually writing the dissertation that would earn her a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Harvard University and becoming the first in her family to receive an advanced degree. Though she never did anything of note with her brilliance, she did carry it around with her like a seed bag, sprinkling handfuls of it on what she deemed fertile soil. She spent much time quoting literature to me when I was young, thus sparking my own avid reading habits. So the theme of the Ancient Mariner and his story, as told by the poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge—and how the Mariner’s story was emblematic of my family’s history—was something I had heard often before my fourteenth birthday. The curse. When one destroys something of beauty and nature—as did the Mariner, who shot the kindly albatross that led his ship out of the perilous Antarctic seas—one will be punished. Cursed. My mother told me this; my father nodded when she did. Punishment will rain down upon the offender and the family of the offender, I was told, until the debt is settled. The debt owed by my family has been paid, and then some. My mother believes our family’s story was settled with that debt—she has always maintained an unyielding faith in the cathartic power of denouement—which is why she has chosen to go for a walk this morning, rather than stay with us to hear me tell our story again. But I disagree with my mother: there is no tidy end to any story, as much as we might hope. Stories continue in all directions to include even the retelling of the stories themselves, as legend is informed by interpretation, and interpretation is informed by time. And so I tell my story to you, as the Mariner told his: he, standing outside the wedding party, snatching at a passing wrist, paralyzing his victim with his gaze; I, standing with my family at the edge of this immortal forest. I tell this story because telling this story is what I must do. Twenty-some years ago, before technology changed the world and terrorism struck fear into the hearts of all citizens. Before boys in trench coats stalked and murdered classrooms full of innocent children in schools across this fair land. Before the oceans were thick with oil slicks and the government ceased to govern and Bill Gates set out to love the world to death and hurricanes became powerful enough to stagger entire cities and toxic children were drugged into oblivion to drive up the profits of Big Pharma, and genetically modified foodstuffs were forced upon us without us knowing we needed to care. Before smoking marijuana at gay marriages became passé—before gay people became, eh, just like anyone else, and weed became, eh, just another source of tax revenue. This was even before another famous Bill, the one surnamed Clinton, became famous for his choice of cigars. It seems like ages ago, looking back on it. No smartphones. No On Demand. Nary an iPad in sight. So long ago. Yes. This story begins in 1990. On a hot July day in Seattle, a sickly pea green rental car drives from Sea-Tac airport northward on Interstate 5, through the sprawl of neighborhoods hidden by hills, tucked away behind bridges and bodies of water. Its passengers, a father and a son, don’t speak to each other. The boy is nearly fourteen, and he is unhappy. Unhappy with being displaced from his childhood home and forced on an unwanted road trip. Unhappy with his mother for not being with him. Unhappy with his father for simply being. So he doesn’t speak; he concentrates on Pink Floyd’s The Wall, which he listens to intently through the headphones of his Walkman. His father looks over at him frequently, nervously. He seems to crave the boy’s approval, which the boy will not give. As they approach the city from the south, the boy glances up and notices the Space Needle, that ubiquitous and baffling Seattle icon. He winces at the irrelevance of the monument—who on earth would build such a thing, and what kind of citizenry would keep it?—and lowers his eyes again to his shoes, which are far more interesting to him. He doesn’t notice as they drive through the city, but drive through the city they do. They emerge on a high bridge. “Don’t you want to see this?” the father says, finally, desperately, tapping the boy’s shoulder and indicating the glory of Seattle all around them. The boy lifts his eyes and looks around. Bridges, lakes, bland buildings, radio towers, floatplanes, mountains, trees. He’s seen it. “No,” he says and returns his focus to his music. The voices chant at him: Tear down the wall. Tear down the wall. And so my story for you begins.
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Most helpful customer reviews
107 of 111 people found the following review helpful. A ghost story, a story about family & a coming-of-age story, and a great read By Carol S. I hadn't read any of Garth Stein's previous work, so I had no preconceived notions about "A Sudden Light." I wasn't prepared to be so moved by the novel -- it grabbed me, especially toward the end, and I stayed up late one night because I had to finish it. The narrator is Trevor Riddell, who is looking back at the summer he spent with his father, visiting the family home outside Seattle. It turns out that Trevor's great-grandfather was a lumber baron, who made a fortune clearcutting vast swathes of land in the US. Trevor's dad has returned to the family homestead to see his sister Serena and his father Sam; Trevor's parents are on the verge of divorce, and everyone hopes that time apart will help them reconcile. Trevor's grandfather suffers from increasing dementia, and Trevor's father wants to get a power of attorney so he can sell the land that the family home is on."A Sudden Light" is probably best read without knowing much more than that going in. It's a story, of course, about a boy's coming of age; about dysfunctional families and how they still cast long shadows over even adult children; it's a ghost story; it's about solving family mysteries; it's a story about what it means to be part of a family; it's a story about keeping promises and having faith (in the general sense, not in a specific religious sense). The characters are offbeat but believable and the setting is fascinating. The story really sucks you in, at times surprises you, and frequently touches you. Reading this book was an unexpected pleasure and I recommend it highly.
49 of 51 people found the following review helpful. Good read. By just kath Yes, I did like A Sudden Light: A Novel by Garth Stein. At first I was a bit baffled, not so much by the story, but the language in which it was told It didn't seem to be the language of a boy barely fourteen years old. But I kept reading, because there were twists, there were turns, and there were insinuations that I needed to follow to the end. I'm glad I did.A Sudden Light is a good read. good read, very descriptive, and dark. Very dark in some very sad and tortured ways.The main character Trevor Riddell. He goes off to Riddell House with his father, Jones Riddell for the first time after his parents separate. The family has had financial reverses and they have lost their home.. There are some touching interactions between Trevor and his grandfather Samuel. Samuel seems to be suffering from mild dementia, but is still able to put up a fight against his children who want to put him into a nursing home and sell the home where he and his family lived for generations.Serena seems a little unstable, and edgy. That is what I thought at first, but as it turns out, she is much more than that.Written in the first person, and my only quibble with this book is that the words used to describe certain passages were very odd for a boy just turned 14 years old. For instance when he enters a small room and describes the carpet colors as rich crimson and tobacco, and the lamps as having kerosene reservoirs. There are many of these slight deviations but still, I read on until this too, was explained.There are family secrets, there are spirits, ghosts and there really was a sudden light. But I think I will leave it to you to find it. I think you will be glad you did. I like a book that has a good solid ending, this gives you that, and more.
53 of 58 people found the following review helpful. A Beautiful Mess By SandyCB I previously read and enjoyed "The Art of Racing in the Rain" and "Raven Stole the Moon", so I was excited to get the chance to read and review this novel. I found it to be a bit of a mess, but an interesting one.Garth Stein is a marvelous writer, but skill alone can't triumph over the unwieldy structure upon which he hangs his story. There are simply too many layers.It's the story of Trevor Riddell, a 14-year-old who, together with his father, Jones Riddell, visits the Riddell family estate following his parents' separation and bankruptcy. Trevor meets his grandfather Samuel and Aunt Serena for the first time and spends his summer getting to know his new relatives and exploring the estate, a massive and unique home built of logs so that it seems to be part of the forest itself. Trevor soon realizes that his father plans to help his aunt convince his grandfather to sign over the property to them so they can sell the land for top dollar and use the money to start new lives. Trevor definitely wants his parents to have a chance to start over, but as complications increase, he must decide what really hangs in the balance.This alone would be an interesting story, but there's more. It turns out that his grandfather doesn't seem demented all the time, Serena doesn't act like a blood relative most of the time, and then there are those pesky ghosts to consider. Add to this his father's relationship with his birth family, the past he's never shared with Trevor, and his increasing reliance on alcohol. It already feels like Eugene O'Neill meets Ghost Story, but there's still more. because we're reading an adult Trevor's memories of that summer. The reader is so far removed from the action it is hard to feel any sense of immediacy.The ghosts are not frightening. Their presence is more like a Greek chorus than a visitation from The Undead. The reason this matters is that there is precious little to drive the story forward. I didn't find many surprises, as most of the answers to the novel's mysteries weren't hard to discern. The ghosts and one of my least favorite plot devices -- diaries that come to light just when needed, having been ignored for decades -- add yet another layer to an already convoluted plot. Now we have undying love and a promise at odds with Trevor's relatives' plans.Trevor's story as a teen reads the same as his reflections as an adult. The diaries read like a novel, complete with dialog. Benjamin's request seems too much, dating from a time when Teddy Roosevelt's establishment of a National Park System was seen as radical. Trevor's father's ethics were so questionable I found it hard to see him sympathetically. Who would jump into this situation without consulting his parent's physician? For that matter, who would leave a young family member in the care of a depressive alcoholic and never look back? These problems bothered me far more than the family secrets which were revealed.Even so, Trevor's exploration of the estate and his struggle to come to terms with the real cost of his father's dream is interesting reading, beautifully written.
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