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Remain In Light

by Collin Kelley (Goodreads Author)

4.39 of 5 stars 4.39 · rating details · 23 ratings · 8 reviews

In 1968, Irène Laureux's husband was murdered during the Paris student and worker riots. Thirty years later, she is still on the hunt for the man who knows how and why Jean-Louis died – his secret lover, Frederick Dubois.

Aiding in her search is American expat Martin Paige, a writer still reeling from a love affair gone wrong with a student, David McLaren. Martin meets a yo...more

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Published October 1st 2011 by Vanilla Heart Publishing (first published September 26th 2011)

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Mar 06, 2012 Fran rated it 5 of 5 stars

Remain in The Light: Collin Kelley

A letter to an ex-lover begins this heartbreaking novel. As one man recounts his feelings to another as they part. The feelings expressed and the emotions quite strong as Martin expresses his feeling in a goodbye letter to his ex-lover David. We meet Martin Paige and Irene Laureux. Martin begins by remember David and relating to the reader the story that many of us do not know. A special manuscript of poems and a box of matches as his final remembrance or token...more

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Oct 08, 2011 Marshall rated it 4 of 5 stars

The first book in this trilogy, Conquering Venus, is also reviewed somewhere here, I think. Disclaimer: Collin and I have been following each other's work for some time now, and he sent the Kindle version for me to read. I wouldn't say I'm under any sort of obligation to write a positive review. It will be quite positive, however, because it was such a refreshing book. (If I had hated it, I simply wouldn't have posted a review.) The last few I've read (apart from one manuscript submission for my...more The first book in this trilogy, Conquering Venus, is also reviewed somewhere here, I think. Disclaimer: Collin and I have been following each other's work for some time now, and he sent the Kindle version for me to read. I wouldn't say I'm under any sort of obligation to write a positive review. It will be quite positive, however, because it was such a refreshing book. (If I had hated it, I simply wouldn't have posted a review.) The last few I've read (apart from one manuscript submission for my publishing company Signal 8 Press) were powerfully disappointing. You can only trudge forward through the pages for so long before you crave a book that whisks you along, inviting you to spend time with characters you'd enjoy knowing. Remain in Light is that kind of book.

I won't bother trying to write a synopsis. If you are reading this and don't know what the book is about, I'd like to recommend this really useful thing called the Internet. Fast forward two years, after the tumultuous events of Conquering Venus. Where would these characters be, and why? What's more, what happened in the past that set this chain of events in motion? Collin has done an admirable job here, layering history, mystery, travelogue, and a fair amount of bonking (can't leave that out!) to create a story that is thoughtful and substantial, immensely readable without being fluff. I can't speak to how well the book works as a stand-alone novel: although Collin intended it to be accessible to readers unfamiliar with Conquering Venus, I've read that book and can't experience this one without that background knowledge. My advice would be just to read them both.

One of the reasons this book works for me is that, despite its Paris setting (with excursions to Berlin, St-Etienne, and Chambery), this is Southern writing. Collin comes from that literary tradition, and readers familiar with the literature of the American South will recognize the use of language; the embrace of flawed, cracked characters; and the strong sense of place in this novel. The cover suggests the grotesque being rendered lovely; that's exactly what Collin is doing here. The novel won't be for everyone: it isn't an easy fit in any genre, it's sexually frank, and it thumbs its nose at a few mores that an increasingly right-wing America holds dear. But then, the best Southern writers don't spoon-feed baby food to their readers.(less)

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Oct 07, 2011 Jason Pettus rated it 4 of 5 stars

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

Regular readers will remember the 2009 book Conquering Venus, the debut novel of multiple Pushcart and Lambda Prize nominee Collin Kelley, and how in my original review I found it promising but full of problems as well, a decent enough first novel but that got only a tepid recommendation from me. And now K...more (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

Regular readers will remember the 2009 book Conquering Venus, the debut novel of multiple Pushcart and Lambda Prize nominee Collin Kelley, and how in my original review I found it promising but full of problems as well, a decent enough first novel but that got only a tepid recommendation from me. And now Kelley has just released a sequel, Remain in Light, which essentially takes the same characters and picks up about a year after the previous book leaves off, examining the long-term repercussions of this group's event-filled lives in the original; and the good news, I'm happy to say, is that this second novel is much better than the first, and in fact Kelley seems almost to have directly addressed the exact issues I most complained about in the previous title. For those who need a recap, the first book details the adventures of two youngish hipsters from Tennessee (one a slightly douchey Jewish woman, the other a gay man whose lover recently committed suicide), in charge of leading a group of rowdy teens through their senior trip to Paris, where a whole series of tumultuous events occur -- the man falls in love with one of the teens, a closeted jock with addiction issues, then accidentally becomes friends with a sixty-something French female ingenue, who has been a virtual shut-in since her own lover was killed in the 1968 student riots in that city, the two coincidentally sharing both an unusual tattoo and a propensity for strange magical-realism dreams, a fascinating milieu but unfortunately with wildly inconsistent characterizations, not to mention the troubling aspect of our "hero" entering into a sexual relationship with an underage boy by basically taking advantage of him whenever he was wasted.

Thankfully, though, it's these exact troubling aspects that Kelley mainly addresses in Light, with much of this book being about the long-term effects of that relationship on everyone involved; the devastated man is now sharing a flat with the ingenue, sexually drowning his sorrows through a series of bathhouse-cruising hookups with strangers, while the boy has since disappeared, with his homophobic parents back in Memphis vowing revenge, while the ingenue has had her own mystery deepen as well, as it starts becoming clear that it wasn't actually de Gaullean stormtroopers who killed her husband but rather one particular individual, a former family friend who may or may not have been secretly keeping tabs on her for the last thirty years, and who may or may not have recently purchased the publishing company where she works for mysterious and perhaps sinister reasons. And that's great, because it keeps up the intriguing and busy plot (the best part about the original Venus) but takes a much more consistent and realistic look at how such events would actually affect characters like these, all of them more sympathetic here in the second volume (including the aforementioned douchey hipster Jewish woman, whose one-year-anniversary vacation to Paris is what kicks off all these new events in the first place), precisely because their actions have such more serious consequences here; plus, it's clear that Kelley's actual extended trip to Paris himself between the writing of the first and second novels had a tremendously positive effect as well, in that the city really comes alive here in a kind of engaging and evocative way that it simply doesn't in the first volume. Great as a standalone book, or even better as part two of a grander whole, this is the rare sequel that easily outperforms its predecessor in just about any way you can name, and it comes with a highly enthusiastic recommendation.

Out of 10: 8.7(less)

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Jul 24, 2012 Will Kenyon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Almost three years ago I posted a review of local poet and LGBT champion Collin Kelley’s first novel, Conquering Venus. Ordinarily, I’d link back to that review, but I’m not going to this time. Why? Because it’s not relevant anymore. That was three years ago, and the way I feel about that book has changed enough that the review doesn’t matter. If you want to go digging for it, feel free, but you’d be better off just reading this - I’ll clarify my repositioning on Conquering Venus in this review,...more Almost three years ago I posted a review of local poet and LGBT champion Collin Kelley’s first novel, Conquering Venus. Ordinarily, I’d link back to that review, but I’m not going to this time. Why? Because it’s not relevant anymore. That was three years ago, and the way I feel about that book has changed enough that the review doesn’t matter. If you want to go digging for it, feel free, but you’d be better off just reading this - I’ll clarify my repositioning on Conquering Venus in this review, in light of having read the sequel, Remain In Light.

Conquering Venus came out to mostly glowing reviews, and my reviews and attention to the book were mostly positive as well. Retrospectively, I think some of that praise might have been premature - for reasons I suppose I now have to explain. First, though, let me assure you that the impending praise I’m about to give Remain In Light is highly deserved - with this follow-up, Collin has given us a book that deserves as much if not more attention than current books of similar pacing, style, and genre.

Despite my ex post facto misgivings, two things make Conquering Venus a unique and worthwhile book. One is Collin’s acumen as a poet. The other is his position in the local gay community as an adamant and prolific messenger, diplomat, and champion.

Unfortunately, those two things also contribute to the problems Conquering Venus has as well. First, Collin had some difficulty, I think, in transforming the powerfully metaphoric and sonorous language that makes him such a talented poet into the precise and practical language often required in prose. Sometimes his artful phrasing added beautiful layers to his scenes, as with the Prologue, (you can listen to him read it here). Other times - many times - scenes got muddied, became unclear.

Second, and this is just circumstance - it reflects less on the author than it does the world in which we live - the subject matter simply proved unwieldy for people who are not in or deeply sympathetic to the LGBT community. That, BTW, does not include me - I am and for many years have been a staunch ally of my gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender peers.

Still, and I am loathe to admit this, but the incontrovertible fact is: if you are not a member of the LGBT community or an ally thereof, you might not find much in Conquering Venus to identify with. It’s a sad fact, but it’s true: although the feelings and angst that protagonist Martin Paige and his lover David experience are indeed universal, and ought to transcend boundaries, we live in a society that finds it difficult to transcend with them.

Conquering Venus was a sort of coming-of-age story, the tale of two boys who need to grow past certain things and become men. It’s filled with all the pathos and emotional upheaval you’d expect from any such tale. Honestly, it’s not the kind of story I gravitate toward, and for many others who do gravitate toward that kind of tale, it’s appeal is potentially lessened by their inability to find commonality with a gay couple in Paris.

Still, Conquering Venus was and is an impressive debut novel. The characters, particularly the chief protagonist of Martin and the two female leads of Irene and Diane, are thoughtful and multi-layered portraits of complex and fascinating people. And the setting of 1990s Paris is a character unto itself - you can sense in every overly poetically-phrased description Collin’s love for the City of Light and the people who inhabit it.

The strengths of Conquering Venus are present in Remain as Light as well. Martin, Irene, and Diane are back and as splendidly portrayed as ever. The weaknesses, however, are gone.

Whereas Conquering Venus was a coming-of-age tale full of emotional circumstance, Remain In Light is a murder mystery and a thriller. The stakes aren’t astronomical here - we’re not talking government conspiracy or secret society adventures that will determine the fate of the world. But that doesn’t matter. What’s at stake is the fate of these characters, and Collin gets us so invested in what could and will become of them that we turn every page with as much interest and involvement as we would any story in a similar vein. And honestly, I care more about Martin Paige and Irene Laureux than I ever have Jack Ryan, Jason Bourne, or Robert Langdon.

Finally, with this second excursion into long prose, Collin has adapted an efficient style which gives you pacing and plot in abundance, but a distinct and cohesive sense of place and time. The little ornamental trappings of poesy are still present here and there, but they add to the story now rather than distract and detract. There is also an air of mystery that drives the plot - something amorphous and enigmatic that hangs around each scene like a ghost, giving you the sensation that someone important was there before you, and that you just missed something that could change you and your perspective fundamentally.

Stronger in voice, more sublime in style, and ultimately more intriguing than its predecessor and many of its contemporaries, Remain In Light stands as a great second entry in what Collin is calling his Venus Trilogy.
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May 21, 2012 Bob rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: gay-fiction, m-m

Second part of the Venus Trilogy. This one has more suspense and mystery as we follow the expats story in 1968 and 1998. Kelley is a great stylist and poet. Excellent read.

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May 15, 2012 Mary V rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads

I won REMAIN IN LIGHT,by Collin Kelley, on Goodreads. This book had a complex plot, with several main characters all having their individual story lines. It was the second book of a trilogy. I didn't read the first book but I had no trouble following this story ond getting into the book. There were only a couple references that made me wish I had read the other book, but most were totally explained. It was a story of love, friendship, loss, and mystery. I enjoyed reading it very much. Thank you...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Libby rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a fast read because I got caught up in the story. It fulfills its promise of revealing what really happened to Irene's husband and the whereabouts of David. The characters aren't always likeable, especially Diane, but that's what makes them believable. Taking different viewpoints works and short chapters add to the rush of the story.

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Jun 21, 2012 Damian Serbu rated it 5 of 5 stars

As with the first book in the trilogy, Kelley proves himself a masterful writer. Engaging plot, wonderful characters, and beautiful settings amidst the mystery and intrigue. Add to that a divine sense of humor, and this is the best of literary works out there today. I can't wait for the third and final installment!

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About Collin Kelley

Collin Kelley is the author of the mystery/suspense novels Remain In Light, a 2012 finalist for the Townsend Prize for Fiction and Conquering Venus, both from Vanilla Heart Publishing. He also recently released an Amazon exclusive eBook of short stories, Kiss Shot. His poetry collections include After the Poison, Slow To Burn, Better To Travel and the forthcoming Render (2013, Sibling Rivalry Pres...more

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