Lake at the lake

(Saturday, 14 March 2009)

I can’t complain about the books I’ve been randomly picking at UPAVIM’s roof bookshelf. This one – A Gathering Light – has been one of my best reads ever, I feel. I can’t believe it’s the author’s first book. She writes as an old master, so well done, quick learner!

I don’t leave too much of a synopsis here – you can probably Google it any way. I just want to share how strongly I felt touched by how much of her own emotions the writer must have put in the narrative. That’s the way it came across to me at least.

The main character of the book is a poor US country-side teenager from the early 20th century, fighting her way away from the fields, to head to NY City and study to become a writer. You do feel the passion she has for words. You share it with her. I bet it was the author’s own heart writing freely through her hand and pen. Not her head - her heart. Only someone who shares the main character’s passion for words and books can write like this.

It flows brilliantly. You get to know the people in the story like in real life: not in a linear way; instead, you find random pieces of information here and there. It all seems incomplete and a bit confusing at start. But you read a bit more here, and you find a few clews there. Some of them will be proven correct later on, others not. Yeah – just like in real life…

The author knits two separate stories together. That of a young murdered girl by a lake, which is a true one. That of the main character, who lives by the same lake, which is fictitious. Knitted together in a perfect and brilliant manner.

I read the book in just two days. I stayed up until really late at night so engaged I was with the story. When I arrived at San Marcos de la Laguna the first thing I did – even before I explored anything of the little village – was to seat by the lake and enjoy the last 20 pages or so of the book.

Reading about a lake, by the lake. With a great finale.

Like my good old friend Mike writes in his blog once in a while: well done! Really: well done…
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Recommended reading. By me, at least...