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How the Light Gets In
By Joyce Maynard
William Morrow, 9780062398307. June 2025, 432 pp.

The Short of It:

Wow, wow, wow.

The Rest of It:

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. ~ Indiebound

How the Light Gets In is the follow-up to Maynard’s much loved Count the Ways. The family has grown, there are new losses to navigate. Eleanor is still Eleanor but still struggling with motherhood and marriage and what tragedy can do to a family.

In this story, it’s presented early on that Eleanor’s son Toby suffers a brain injury. Although Toby suffers in some ways, he thrives in others. He’s the most caring, loving individual and quite the qualified goat farmer. Eleanor is of course, very protective of him and that drives how she interacts with nearly everyone he meets.

This is a layered, family drama that spans the pandemic years and those very difficult election years so it is heavy in places. Maynard touches on sexual identity, infidelity, drug and alcohol use, the prevalence of school shootings, and political unrest. I feel that Maynard did her best to pack everything into this book, and by the time you turn that last page you will have been through it. It’s heavy and weighty.

There are some beautiful, quiet moments though. I think that is what most of us come to expect from Maynard and she does not disappoint.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Lemon
By Kwon Yeo-sun, Janet Hong (Translated)
Other Press, 9781635423310, August 2022. 160pp.

The Short of It:

At its heart, Lemon is a crime novel, but it’s actually so much more.

The Rest of It:

In the summer of 2002, when Korea is abuzz over hosting the FIFA World Cup, eighteen-year-old Kim Hae-on is killed in what becomes known as the High School Beauty Murder. Two suspects quickly emerge: rich kid Shin Jeongjun, whose car Hae-on was last seen in, and delivery boy Han Manu, who witnessed her there just a few hours before her death. But when Jeongjun’s alibi checks out, and no evidence can be pinned on Manu, the case goes cold. ~ Indiebound

If you pick this book up expecting it to read like a typical crime novel, you will be disappointed. It slowly unfolds but if you aren’t careful, you’ll miss all the tiny details. The author tells the story with great detail, and yet you will be slightly puzzled when you turn the last page because it will appear as if nothing has been determined, but as someone in my book club said, the clues are right there.

This is a short novel at only 160 pages but it’s so full and satisfying to read. It can be read in one sitting but you will want to savor it a little to catch all the nuances the author so skillfully crafted. I don’t want to share too much here but it’s very good. I highly recommend it.

Source: Purchased
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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