Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Book Review: Heat And Light, by Jennifer Haigh




Genre: Contemporary literature
Date Published: May 2016
Publisher: HarperCollins
# Of Pages/Listening Time: 453 pgs

Goodreads

Synopsis: Acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Haigh returns to the Pennsylvania town at the center of her iconic novel Baker Towers in this ambitious, achingly human story of modern America and the conflicting forces at its heart--a bold, moving drama of hope and desperation, greed and power, big business and small-town families.

Forty years ago, Bakerton coal fueled the country. Then the mines closed, and the town wore away like a bar of soap. Now Bakerton has been granted a surprise third act: it sits squarely atop the Marcellus Shale, a massive deposit of natural gas.To drill or not to drill? Prison guard Rich Devlin leases his mineral rights to finance his dream of farming. He doesn't count on the truck traffic and nonstop noise, his brother's skepticism, or the paranoia of his wife, Shelby, who insists the water smells strange and is poisoning their frail daughter. Meanwhile his neighbors, organic dairy farmers Mack and Rena, hold out against the drilling--until a passionate environmental activist disrupts their lives.

Told through a cast of characters whose lives are increasingly bound by the opposing interests that underpin the national debate, Heat & Light depicts a community blessed and cursed by its natural resources. Soaring and ambitious, it zooms from drill rig to shareholders' meeting to the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor to the ruined landscape of the "strippins," haunting reminders of Pennsylvania's past energy booms. This is a dispatch from a forgotten America--a work of searing moral clarity from one of the finest writers of her generation, a courageous and necessary book.


My Rating:
 ★
.....For having so much to offer



My Thoughts:
This is a book I never would have read on my own. The only reason that I even knew of it's existence is that it was a BOTM for one of my favorite book clubs.

This novel fascinated me. I love stories with complex themes, and Jennifer Haigh cleverly wove in multiple perspectives and symbols throughout this whole story. Faith, apocalyptic crisis of faith, addiction, family, personal desire, the power of the individual vs. power of community, the idea that different perspectives of the same object lead to different conclusions (the "Elephant in the dark" idea).....it's all in this book. I really loved the opportunity to pick this book apart and examine its symbolism and thematic qualities.

The writing was excellent, I felt. And the character development was superb. There were almost no flat characters in this novel (due to Haigh's attempt to create a community feel), something that might not be attractive for some readers, but I personally loved.

Overall, this book had a whole lot of depth to it, in literally every way possible. It's not just about fracking and how it can affect a community. It has so much more. I would strongly recommend any fan of literature to read this book, although I do recommend reading it on a Kindle, since I found myself constantly taking notes, searching for characters that were mentioned, and looking up historic events that were given a spotlight in this book. It was certainly very invigorating for the mind. Such an excellent read!

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