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What Others Are Saying:
March 18, 2006
Excerpts of reviews of Jennifer Donnelly's A Northern Light (and
A Gathering Light in Britain):
Lisa Prolman, School Library Journal: This is a breathtaking tale,
complex and often earthy, wrapped around a true story. ... The
protagonist tells her tale through flashback and time shifts from
past to present. Readers feel her fears for her friend Weaver
, the first freeborn child in his family , when he is beaten for
being black and his college savings are stolen, and enjoy their
love of words as they engage in language duels. Finally, they'll
experience her awakening when she realizes that she cannot live
her life for others. Donnelly's characters ring true to life,
and the meticulously described setting forms a vivid backdrop
to this finely crafted story. An outstanding choice for historical-fiction
fans, particularly those who have read Theodore Dreiser's An American
Tragedy.
Gillian Engberg, Booklist: In an intelligent, colloquial voice
that speaks with a writer's love of language and an observant
eye, Mattie details the physical particulars of people's lives
as well as deeper issues of race, class, and gender as she strains
against family and societal limitations. Donnelly adds a crowd
of intriguing, well-drawn secondary characters whose stories help
Mattie define her own desires and sense of self. Many teens will
connect with Mattie's deep yearning for independence and for stories,
like her own, that are frank, messy, complicated, and inspiring.
From kidzworld.com: If you're a fan of mystery novels, A Northern
Light really delivers a nice twist. The story is set in the early
1900s, so at first you might find it hard to relate to Mattie,
but in the end, she's facing the same dilemmas that we all face.
Are we dating the right person? Are our parents being unfair?
Should we follow our dreams? It's definitely worth picking up.
Dinah Hall, The Sunday Telegraph, London: Nobody got fed while
I read A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly. If George Clooney
had walked in to the room I would have told him to come back later
when I'd finished. When I slept I returned to it in my dreams.
It's an extreme reaction to a book that is on the surface as placid
and gentle as the lakes and hills of the turn-of-the-20th-century
Adirondacks where it is set but then this novel is the very definition
of "all-consuming." ... Donnelly captures period and
place with almost supernatural skill, and even the most minor
of her characters are so vivid that you find yourself talking
out loud to them.
Payal Kapadia, The Japan Times: Donnelly finds scope for fiction
within the confines of fact by asking one question: What if? What
if Grace Brown had met a girl called Mattie the evening before
she died? ... It's as though Donnelly uses her imagination like
a shovel and goes digging. Buried in all those "what if"
questions, she finds the story of an ordinary farming girl called
Mattie and makes us care about what happens to her. ... Cleverly,
Donnelly draws out an artful parallel between the lives of Grace
and Mattie. In Grace's conflicts, Mattie finds resolution for
her own dilemmas. It is as though in Grace's dying, she learns
to live.
Courtesy of Batavia Newspapers Corporation
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