Book Review - Lighthouse Nights

Lighthouse Nights by Jake Vander Ark
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was really a bright spot.

I'd gotten to the point where I was reading many books that were slow-moving and just not all that compelling, and then I picked up this slim little volume and all that changed.

Jules and her boyfriend Trevor help people die. Only people that really want to die; they troll a suicide chat room looking for the lost and downtrodden, make a "pact" to die with them, then rob the corpses blind once the other party has departed. It's a good living, and after all, they have their own American dream to pursue. All of it seems pretty easy to deal with, until Jules comes across one guy who doesn't want a suicide pact; instead he wants to convince her to live.

The lack of capitalization in this book is an interesting choice. I suspect that the author was inspired by ee cummings, since the poet is mentioned in the work. If you're a reader of authors like Cormac McCarthy, or spend a lot of time on the internet (hah!) you won't notice after a while. It gives the novel a very casual feel, just like the chatrooms the characters spend so much time in.

I found this book to be a fascinating little slice of work and look forward to reading more by the same author. It's very intersting; he went to college down the street from where I went - him at the Art Institute of Chicago, on whose steps I often ate my lunch while attending Columbia College. And his writing, which is brash and unashamed, sometimes vulgar and sometimes in-your-face and full of the truth of life is unlike much that I've read since my student days in the creative writing program there. There must be something about that city, those schools, that inspires such work :) It reminded me very much of student readings, but only of the very best of those. You know, the guy in your class that you're always jealous of, because you know he has "it" and his work shows it. That's Jake Vander Ark, and his work shows it, too.

*This book was received at no cost through the GoodReads First Reads program.

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