How the Light Gets In

A Novel

De: Joyce Maynard

Narrado por: Joyce Maynard

From New York Times bestselling author Joyce Maynard comes the eagerly anticipated follow-up to her beloved novel Count the Ways—a complex story of three generations of a family and its remarkable, resilient, indomitable matriarch, Eleanor.

Following the death of her former husband, Cam, fifty-four-year-old Eleanor has moved back to the New Hampshire farm where they raised three children to care for their brain-injured son, Toby, now an adult. Toby’s older brother, Al, is married and living in Seattle with his wife; their sister, Ursula, lives in Vermont with her husband and two children. Although all appears stable, old resentments, anger, and bitterness simmer just beneath the surface.

How the Light Gets In follows Eleanor and her family through fifteen years (2010 to 2024) as their story plays out against a uniquely American backdrop and the events that transform their world (climate change, the January 6th insurrection, school violence) and shape their lives (later-life love, parental alienation, steadfast friendship). With her trademark sensitivity and insight, Joyce Maynard paints an indelible portrait of characters both familiar and new making their way over rough, messy, and treacherous terrain to find their way to what is, for each, a place to call “home.”

©2024 Joyce Maynard (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

Perfection!

Until this profoundly beautiful novel, the prequel - Count the Ways - was one of my all time favorite books. It is possible that When the Light Gets In is even better. Joyce Maynard presents an inspirational, yet human, mother in the character of Eleanor. As in Count the Ways, Eleanor is a creative, loving mother with talents ranging from canning tomatoes and making spaghetti Carbonara to writing and illustrating children’s books all while energetically raising her 3 children who are adults in this novel. There is a daughter who is estranged from Eleanor, a son who was brain injured in childhood, and a brilliant and kind transgender son. There is a love affair with a narcissistic climate activist who cannot accept that, at her core, Eleanor is a mother. I was in awe of this mother. Her sweet son, Toby, has a large role in the story. For this I was so grateful as he is a purely good soul. The story is read with perfect sensitivity by the author herself. This usually worries me as such narrations often strike me as inherently arrogant. Not so with Joyce Maynard. She could be a trained narrator of Audible books! My only complaint- and it was somewhat substantial until I was more fully immersed — was the amount of time spent catching the reader/listener up on all that occurred in the prequel. So don’t listen to When the Light Gets In until a period of time has passed since finishing Count the Ways. Eventually, though, I was so in love with this beautiful book and its characters that I wanted it to never end.

Many interesting characters

Though at times I felt the book became a bit repetitive the story always brought me back. There was always a turn or a twist to make me want to keep listening to see what would happen in the life of one or another of the people. The book is long but I do highly recommend it.

Fully developed, touchingly human characters.

In brief, I loved the metaphor of light filtering through the broken places in the lives of most of the characters. Loss, grief, perseverance, quiet contentment, moments of joy: all pieces that somehow cohere. The glue is love. This is truly an uplifting book.

Would have given this a 5

Good storytelling and well written. Also appreciated the author’s note connecting music to her characters. Didn’t appreciate the author’s need to include so much political grumbling. If I wanted to read about politics I would buy a book about politics. Feels artificially inserted in the story and distracts from what was otherwise a good story.

Breathtaking

I loved everything about this book: the writing, the story, the timeline including true events, the narration.

Heart felt narration, fantastic.

The variety, it is like a patchwork of real life intricacies. Amazing. I want to give it 10/10!!

It takes a lifetime to learn to forgive

Joyce Maynard’s story “How the Light Gets In” and the one that started it all, “Count the Ways,” is a beautiful story of a family like so many. Nothing special and yet everything extraordinary. I loved it. I will deeply miss spending time with the main character, the flawed and perfectly broken Eleanor, and her oh-so-human children, everyone else too. The story of the estrangement between Eleanor and her daughter has been a healing balm for me. Just knowing there are so many others out there like me — gives me hope.

Wonderful!

I came to this book wanting to hear more about the characters (this is the continuation of Count The Ways), and feared the ending - I was surely going to be left wanting more. Instead, it beautifully sends these guys off into the future. And the voice of the author is beyond my capacity to describe - intimate, kind, sure of itself. Loved every second of it, and I am left happy. Thank you!!!

Great narration

I have such mixed feelings about this book. For me it was just too long. I skipped chapters here and there and that helped but just too wordy. I liked the story and characters were interesting so that's why the mixed feelings... story was good, narration excellent but on the other hand also boring and repetitive. I understand why some might be upset with the politics but I agreed with it all so didn't mind it. I would say pass on using a credit

Brava

The ability of the author to capture so many subjects that touch the heart with such skill and accuracy