Ruth and Chandler had met while on a humanitarian mission in
Columbia; they were out to change the world; they knew of
the risks involved. But Ruth Neufeld had never envisioned
being widowed at thirty with two young daughters. The Afghan
hospital, where Chandler and his father both been worked,
was bombed and both men declared dead. Ruth has nowhere to
go, and Mabel—Ruth's mother-in-law—thought it
preferable to have the men buried in Wisconsin; she has
family there where they would both be welcome. Driftless
Valley is a Black Bumper Mennonite community, entirely
foreign to Irish-born Ruth, but it will do until she picks
up the pieces of her life. Cranberry farmer Elam Albrecht
has dreamed of a life of adventure, the life of his late
cousin Chandler's, pretty wife and children included. At
thirty-nine, for the first time in his life, Elam has found
someone who makes him want to come out of his shell, and she
obviously feels something for him. Ruth represents
everything he's ever wanted, but where does that leave them
when her husband comes back from the dead?
What intrigued me at first was the Mennonite context in
relation to the plot which, however, does not play as large
a part as I anticipated. I loved the environment, the
cranberry farm, and the tight-knit community, where there
was no shunning of the Englisch stranger. The rather sedate
pace suits the melancholy tone, as the Neufeld widows try to
come to grips with the tragedy. The characters are
exceptionally nuanced, and Mabel was entirely different from
what I had imagined her to be. Elam just broke my heart! He
has worked hard all his life; he is a painfully shy
introvert, terribly ill at ease around people. He is such a
good man, but so alone and so lonely, it hurts.
HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN is written for the most part in the
third person, and I loved the glimpses of Ruth's history
told in a few letters and diary entries. It conferred much
intimacy to the narrative while avoiding info dumps; Elam's
and Chandler's stories occur as the story moves along; it
all meshes seamlessly. The writing is crisp and clear, yet
at times, of such evocative incandescence, it nearly takes
your breath away. Although I was pleased with how it turned
out, I resented the literary device used by the author. I
felt I had been duped, and that the heartbreaking and
extraordinarily moving story I had read was merely an excuse
for a moralistic fable. I knew going in HOW THE LIGHT GETS
IN that it was Christian Fiction; it's not the contents I
disapprove of, it's the delivery. I found it offered
profound insight into the institution of marriage, most of
which seems to have gone by the wayside, but I did not
expect to be deceived. Until the plot twist that angered me,
I thought that HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN was unlike any "back
from the dead" story I had ever read. It is riveting, sad
and beautiful, with characters of unusual depth, and that
kept me guessing and hoping until the revelation at the end.
It might be a matter of preference and, unfortunately, it
was not to my liking. In any case, be sure to read A Note
from the Author; it is most enlightening.
From the highly acclaimed author of The Outcast and
The Alliance comes an engrossing novel about marriage
and motherhood, loss and moving on.
When Ruth Neufeld’s husband and father-in-law are killed
working for a relief organization overseas, she travels to
Wisconsin with her young daughters and mother-in-law Mabel
to bury her husband. She hopes the Mennonite community will
be a quiet place to grieve and piece together next steps.
Ruth and her family are welcomed by Elam, her husband’s
cousin, who invites them to stay at his cranberry farm
through the harvest. Sifting through fields of berries and
memories of a marriage that was broken long before her
husband died, Ruth finds solace in the beauty of the land
and healing through hard work and budding friendship. She
also encounters the possibility of new love with Elam, whose
gentle encouragement awakens hopes and dreams she thought
she’d lost forever.
But an unexpected twist threatens to unseat the happy ending
Ruth is about to write for herself. On the precipice of a
fresh start and a new marriage, Ruth must make an impossible
decision: which path to choose if her husband isn’t dead
after all.
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