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Light Boxes

by Shane Jones (Goodreads Author)

3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 · rating details · 1,623 ratings · 354 reviews

A poignant and fantastical first novel by a timeless new literary voice.
With all the elements of a classic fable, vivid descriptions, and a wholly unique style, this idiosyncratic debut introduces a new and exciting voice to readers of such authors as George Saunders, Kurt Vonnegut, and Yann Martel.
In "Light Boxes," the inhabitants of one closely-knit town are experien...more

Paperback, 175 pages

Published February 11th 2009 by Publishing Genius, Penguin Books

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Mar 17, 2011 karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

if you are a fan of the surreal and you like poetry, this book will probably please you more than it pleased me.

almost everyone who has rated it on here has given it four or five stars, and i have to kind of assume they are right, and that my not liking this is some sort of personal anomaly, like how i hate the big lebowski but love every other coen brothers film ever. clearly, something is awry.

and it can't just be that i resent characters who resent perpetual winter, and try to kill the perso...more if you are a fan of the surreal and you like poetry, this book will probably please you more than it pleased me.

almost everyone who has rated it on here has given it four or five stars, and i have to kind of assume they are right, and that my not liking this is some sort of personal anomaly, like how i hate the big lebowski but love every other coen brothers film ever. clearly, something is awry.

and it can't just be that i resent characters who resent perpetual winter, and try to kill the personification of february, who is also kidnapping their children. because i would love constant february, constant biting wind and snowdrifts, that would be just fine as far as i am concerned. and after the field trip that invaded the store today, i think we could do with fewer children...

here is a page, taken out of context, but it gives you a sense of the tone of the book:

february has destroyed dozens of our limbs. infected men stay in bed where they are sad and useless. the rest of us stay up at night sketching plans for a new war strategy. we take turns pacing, crumpling paper, disregarding each idea that springs from our cold mouths. selah makes tea with two crossed mint leaves floating on the top of each cup. without an idea, we question if we should even continue our daily assault of warm-weather tactics. a few of the man have dressed for the day in long pants and sweaters. they throw up their hands and walk out the door. selah is standing in the doorway trying to make out the mountains behind the clouds. she drops her teacup. then she says i should come look. i walk over, and she points to her feet and raises her finger up to the roofs of the town. the hot tea has burned a path through the snow from our front door and down into the town.

and there is something lyrical and delicate and lovely that part of me can identify, intellectually, as such, but the emotional rest of me is left cold (no pun intended). i am not terribly well versed (pun intended) in poetry, but the stuff i like is usually less ethereal than this. if you are a poem and you are going to be surreal or convoluted, in order to make me pay attention, you had better be showing me fear in a handful of dust, you know? and this is very poetic prose, which floats and meanders and does tell a story, but in a way that is whimsical and playful-with-fonts, and i think i just prefer my prose more nailed-down.

but i do like that the book mentions dfw.

but again, i assume the fault is my own, just judging by the overwhelmingly positive responses of everyone else who has read this. there must be some sort of faulty cog in me that needs tightening.

WHO WILL TIGHTEN MY COGS!!!???(less)

39 likes · like · see review

Jul 12, 2010 Jasmine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american

I read this book, it took about an hour. I think that the book really could have used a couple more fonts and some more funny sizing of text, but I accept that an author has to be careful that they haven't gone overboard. I do have to say I always appreciate an author who knows that it is unnecessary to use the entire page, I feel so accomplished when I am reading a book quickly even if that is because there is only one sentence on some of the pages. But really not every book with a funny format...more I read this book, it took about an hour. I think that the book really could have used a couple more fonts and some more funny sizing of text, but I accept that an author has to be careful that they haven't gone overboard. I do have to say I always appreciate an author who knows that it is unnecessary to use the entire page, I feel so accomplished when I am reading a book quickly even if that is because there is only one sentence on some of the pages. But really not every book with a funny format is good I mean there is at least one that I still have been able to sit down and finish because I just didn't care so perhaps we should recognize there is more to a book than font, although font totally gets me to start a book. As do the pretty new penguin covers.

Now by this point I was already committed but there is a great quote to start this book: "The most serious charge which can be brought against New England is not Puritanism but February." Now I still remember being a child in New England and being not too old I remember a snow fort that was build in the back yard one year after a blizzard, and well I loved winter as a child. On the other hand I remember the first time I ever drove in snow, it was 4am and I had just come home from a school trip and again it was a blizzard and I drove out of the school driveway and into a ditch, since this was back before I had a cell phone I got a ride home and my mother yelled at me for leaving the car, apparently they won't tow a car without a person. Eventually the police found it and made an exception. The point being that year I drove a truck that fishtailed and spent more time calling my friend matt to pull me out of ditches then driving. This was the beginning of the downfall of February. And we come to today, I live in a city basically so I can avoid driving because who ever wants to do that again. Periodically my roommate wakes me up in the middle of the night to make snow angels on the roof, or I hit a guy in the ear with a snow ball and winter and I seem to have come to somewhat of a truce. I hate being cold, but I love snow. So to make this relevant to the book I have to say there is something about the winter that make you terrified that it will never end. I mean I am more a fall type of girl, I like when it is a bit windy and 60 out. But I am well versed in the problems of seasonal depression and people falling through ice fishing holes.

Right I said that I was going to make this relevant, well I lied, I cannot bring myself to summarize this book for you. If you want to know what it is about go read it yourself. I mean it only takes an hour and it will be a much better use of your time then sex in the city 15 or whatever else you were planning on doing. (less)

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Jan 03, 2009 J.A. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Anyone who has read Shane Jones’ work knows he can write, knows he is in fact a very complex and astute author, but the soon to be released novel ‘Light Boxes’ shows the true capability and brilliance of Jones’ language. ‘Light Boxes’ is Publishing Genius Press’ first take at a novel and realistically, this monster text of microburst fiction was an absolutely perfect choice.

To begin with the design, as this is a debut novel for both Jones and PGP, editor Adam Robinson’s signature polish and use...more

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Apr 15, 2009 February rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is a terrible book of lies! This book makes me out to be such an awful person when in reality I'm not.

Please don't read it.

76 likes · like · see review

Sep 06, 2012 Kelanth, numquam risit ubi dracones vivunt rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: narrativa

Io sono Vomitevole.
Non tanto per i 13,50 euro e nemmeno per il tempo perso, poco per fortuna, ma più che altro per l'idea che sia sufficente mettere tanti aggettivi, fare frasi sconnesse, non inserire dialoghi, impaginare paragrafi "alla viva il parroco", per credere di fare un buon racconto.
Pirla io che ci sono cascato.

P.S.: Per tutto il racconto, ho tifato per Febbraio.

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May 22, 2010 Amy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: amazon-vine, 2010-books-read

I usually like strange and different novels, but this one just didn't do it for me. The entire novel feels like it is the dictation of a long dream or that it is written under the influence of a hallucinogen. For content, I would have given it 1 star except that I can see that the author is being original in his approach to the novel. He "steps outside the [light:] box" by using fonts and characters' points of view in a very unique way. The storyline of the book has a very fleeting, dreamlike qu...more

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Feb 24, 2009 Zach rated it 5 of 5 stars

A delicious frosty treat of a book!

Death to February!

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Sep 26, 2012 Parrish Lantern rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, on-my-shelves, myths-fables-fairytales, pomesallsizes

Thaddeus Lowe, lives with his wife, Selah, and their daughter, Bianca, in a small town that appears to be unnamed. For some reason an individual called February has decreed that it should remain winter for all time, so for the last three hundred days this demiurge has imposed a perpetual February upon this town and it’s environs, everything is dull, dark & grey, highlighted only by the frigid white of the snow as it drops from the leaden clouds that circle like crows overhead. On top of this...more

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Apr 28, 2011 Alana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011_04_april, reviewed

The inhabitants of a town wage war against February itself in an attempt to regain lost seasons, children, and dreams. This was all I knew about Light Boxes when I purchased it. I believe I'd seen it listed in some trusted source somewhere, perhaps noting Shane Jones as an interesting new voice in fiction. That, combined with the lovely cover, was enough to intrigue me so that it made its way in to my shopping cart if not in to my purse for an immediate perusal. I bought it and it sat in a stack...more The inhabitants of a town wage war against February itself in an attempt to regain lost seasons, children, and dreams. This was all I knew about Light Boxes when I purchased it. I believe I'd seen it listed in some trusted source somewhere, perhaps noting Shane Jones as an interesting new voice in fiction. That, combined with the lovely cover, was enough to intrigue me so that it made its way in to my shopping cart if not in to my purse for an immediate perusal. I bought it and it sat in a stack of other books, so placed to remind me that I wanted to read each and every one of them "next" but I didn't pick it up until April -- perhaps I should have read it during February itself for a better sense of scene, but Jones conjures up the grueling month quite clearly (even for those of us who enjoy winter, it becomes bleak in its unending state). Do I call it poetry? Free verse? Surreal fairy tale that bleeds in to a horror story? A melding of fiction and poetic conjuration of imagery? An attempt to explain via metafiction the experience of Seasonal Affective Disorder? Well whatever it is, and it may be all those things combined, it's not your usual narrative, even when the story concerns a month made both flesh and eternal. Light Boxes is sad and thoughtful and, despite the ongoing nature of February, surprisingly brief in its tale.

Those who have grown up in oppressive winters will indubitably find a kindred spirit in Shane Jones, who envisions the horror of all horrors to be an endless February of ice, snow, and bitter wind. In this town, flight has been outlawed and so, earth-bound, the inhabitants cannot do anything but kindle within their breasts a revolution against February and hope that the sparks are not blown out before something takes hold. Layered worlds provide a scene that feels like an MC Escher drawing, opening holes in the floor that turn out to be gaping wounds in the sky, and children stolen from their beds tunnel underground to provide scraps of messages that convey hopes and war plans. I know of no clear way to describe this novel beyond these swirling images that dance like snowflakes. Yes, there is a story involving a father who must soldier to lead the war against February on after his daughter disappears and his wife dies in her grief. Perhaps it's best to approach this novel as a long free-verse poem, or, like Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams, short observations that are tied together by theme and a strange, twisting narrative. In the end, it's not really that "main" narrative that stuck with me so much as the amazing details or vivid descriptions. Did I mention flight was banned? Think on this one idea for a moment... the concept of individuals burning and destroying anything that might rise above, like balloons or even birds... the concealment of treasured items... the painting of kites on a child's arms with the knowledge she will always have to wear sleeves to be safe, but at least she will never forget. The imagery is haunting and while the "story" might not be something that provides a sense of satisfaction, it does not fail in provoking wonder.

The narrative hinges on the experience of February as lingering and oppressively endless. Perhaps it's because I do not experience Seasonal Affective Disorder and actually take great delight in winter but the brevity of the book that I mentioned earlier extends beyond page count. Despite the knowledge that it must be so, the eternal February never sunk in for me, like ice melting through one's clothes. Though I also mean that it took me a little more than an hour to read this in its entirety. When I finished, I wasn't quite sure what to think. I still don't quite know what to think, but I am most definitely thinking of it and on it. So much was unexpected and left open. I had not expected the emphasis on layout and design to convey the poetic message. It could arguably be too kitschy to have such reliance but I never even considered that until after the fact. The design helps the scenes in many ways, though at times it was distracting. I also hadn't quite realized there would be such emphasis on vignettes stitched together to provide structure. The through narrative is exceedingly loose in retrospect, even if the reader does feel compelled on while reading, like a traveler lost in a blizzard who spies a light ahead. Perhaps that's the thing, though, I hadn't realized much of anything before I wandered in to Shane Jones's strange world and that might be just the way to go.

I will, however, likely have to sit on this book some time before I can start suggesting it to people in earnest. New York has just come in to bloom after a winter that had many begging for relief (not unlike the town inhabitants of this novel, though New Yorkers failed to come up with active plans to combat the lingering weather) and so to suggest that they read a novel about eternal winter amidst blossoming daffodils and tulips... well, perhaps not. It is most definitely a novel that benefits from a "right place, right time" attitude and to impose it upon a reader in any other situation would not be to anyone's benefit. Still, should you feel yourself in need of surreal experimentational literature at any point (particularly during a snow storm or chilly night), then I would recommend this slim volume. And I would ask that you report back to tell me if you can look at owls in the same way as you did before reading this book.

PS Goodreads fans should get a kick out of the fact that February himself ( http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/22... ) thinks this is "a terrible book of lies."(less)

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Jun 13, 2010 Zachary Bush rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had heard of Shane Jones, don't know him personally, and had not read any of his work. That being said, this is (in my odd opinion) one of the best books I've read over the past 5 years...especially from modern prose writers, who can be a bit sloppy, wordy, and way too consumed in character exploration and thought...not story telling! This is a modern myth. this is a novella of prose poetry. Loved it. Mr. Jones, if you're out there, thank you.

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Feb 03, 2009 Claudia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Light Boxes delights in the landscape of childhood fantasies and literature; there are balloons, kites, teacups, parchment letters, secret passages, and ghosts. This is the kind of book that is best digested in one sitting. Jones has an intuitive feel for mixing the everyday with the sublime. The personification of February, the explorations of utopia and our own sense of mortality, put me more in mind of George MacDonald than Lewis Carroll. There is an archaic sense of loneliness, and deep symp...more

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Mar 11, 2009 Kevin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: small-pressy-or-obscurish, weird-lit

This debut novel shows a lot of promise. The wonderful plot is mesmerizing like a good fairy tale even though the story goes flat sometimes.

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Mar 16, 2009 Chess via Email rated it 5 of 5 stars

A very impressive first novel for Shane and Publishing Genius.

1 like · like · see review

Mar 28, 2009 Kathryn Born rated it 3 of 5 stars

I agree with all the good things said about this book. The premise is nifty, the metaphors and images are very good. But I'd like to see this author go to the next level, and work with a development editor and create a more polished work.

I understand the idea that this is a fable and people are archtypes, but you have to describe people. You have to describe places. The girl is described as having black hair. Ok, then, everyone in town is white? Is that just the default assumption that we're su...more

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May 21, 2013 Valentina Luberto rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Un libro di cui consiglio di non conoscere la trama, su cui informarsi il meno possibile, da cui decidere di lasciarsi rapire e sorprendere in corso di lettura.
Questo romanzo non è sicuramente un romanzo tradizionale, nello stile, nello svolgimento della trama, nella veste grafica, nel layout.
Se avete voglia di leggere qualcosa di nuovo e originale, siete approdati tra le pagine giuste!
Poesia, creazione di atmosfere suggestive e lontane nel tempo ma vicine al vissuto più intimo di ognuno, capaci...more

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Apr 12, 2013 Taggart Mosholder rated it 4 of 5 stars

Light Boxes is a novel that gives the reader an interesting glimpse into the world of Post Modernism. Through utilizing an acknowledgment of "the man behind the camera," Jones is able to add a contemporary twist on the classic model. Light Boxes is set in an imaginary town, where problems begin when the month of February refuses to pass. In February, all is freezing, gloomy, and sunless. There is no flying. There is no talk of flying. It is outlawed. By the time the story begins, it has been Feb...more

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Feb 27, 2013 Patrick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Found this very short and (quite literally) small book buried amongst the shelves at my local library. It’s a story about a town of people stuck in perpetual winter, and in particular the efforts of one couple, Thaddeus and Selah, to save the town and their daughter Bianca. February is the everlasting month in which they live, but it is also the name of a presence who may or may not be the author himself, a sad and strange man living in uneasy closeness with ‘a girl who smelled of honey and smok...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Rafael rated it 3 of 5 stars

Lots of mixed feelings and ambivalent thoughts about this book...

I can't decide whether the way it was written was dull and poorly developed work or rather far-fetched artistry. Perhaps, it is so clever that I lack the capability to fathom it's beauty and craftiness. Yet, I enjoyed reading this book just as it was written and would not alter any of it were I to rewrite it.

I like the plot, although it is not truly discovered but into the last third of the book. The plot is at first vague and amo...more Lots of mixed feelings and ambivalent thoughts about this book...

I can't decide whether the way it was written was dull and poorly developed work or rather far-fetched artistry. Perhaps, it is so clever that I lack the capability to fathom it's beauty and craftiness. Yet, I enjoyed reading this book just as it was written and would not alter any of it were I to rewrite it.

I like the plot, although it is not truly discovered but into the last third of the book. The plot is at first vague and amorphous, sailing to a different direction every passing second, and then, materializes and precipitates a bit too quick(pretty much at the end of one chapter/account a person is alive and in the first sentence of the following is found dead and vice versa). The story itself is absorbing with all those gruesome events mixed with hopes and dreams and the accounts of different people. People who all appear to be on an opium high due to the apparent lack of focus on one subject and the random thoughts they unexpectedly give away:the kind of thoughts that weren't anything to be hidden but weren't meant for other's to hear due to their unimportant nature(e.g. She was taken away yesterday. I really miss eating my aunt's sandwiches).

What upset me a bit about this book is that it focuses on the townspeople plotting a way to fix the problem, and as it reaches the climax, one encounters that all their actions were all an exercise in futility. Then, the real source of the problem and the solution make their entrance here. Two thirds of this book are the failed attempts of a town to solve a mystery and how non-fructiferous their actions were, and the last third is a real plot where sudden unfolding of events occur. Would've loved that this last third was more lengthy and further developed. Instead, I am left with little insight on two interesting characters who appear to be the protagonist and antagonist responsible for all of the events occurred in the town and an abrupt solution to the tragedy which appeared to be impossible to solve at first. There was hesitation too, as the solution was something that could have happened at the beginning of the story-as no research or repeated effort was needed- but just suddenly happened after the town was stained with countless tragedy that could have been avoided. In my opinion, mystery should be something that even with insightful explanation, cannot be fully comprehended, rather than something that cannot be fully comprehended due to unsatisfactory displaying of the facts and not enough explanation. Unfortunately, the latter form of mystery is what I got from this book.

If you like a book where all the characters seem as confused and lost as you are regarding what is happening in their town, and where the events are displayed like a hazy dream, I completely recommend it. But as much as I tried, I couldn't fall in love with this book's story nor style.

---This is my first review ever. Constructive critique is heartily welcome!---
(less)

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Feb 18, 2013 Sheri rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

The epigraph to this book is a quote by Joseph Wood Krutch and reads: "The most serious charge which can be brought against New England is not Puritanism but February." As a resident of Wisconsin reading this in the middle of February, I chuckled to myself in a knowing way as I cracked this book open.

After reading I am not convinced that Jones's argument is not contradictory. Certainly the long (900+ days at last count) winter month of February in the novel brings lots of depression, angst, deat...more

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Nov 06, 2012 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: experimental

I had seen this book at the bookstore for a while now and been intrigued by it -- the story of a town locked in endless February and written in an experimental style -- but I was nonplussed by the idea of spending $15 for a book I knew I would finish in an hour. I found it for $6 at Book People and Austin and finally bought it.

...and I really enjoyed it. It was fun, well written, and I was engaged in the story of the The Town.

...and then I got to the end and hated it. I was filled with dread as...more

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Jul 27, 2012 Eccentrika rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult, fantasy

Io AMO le storie fantastiche (datemi un libro dove la fantasia supera l'immaginazione e sarò felice) ma almeno che abbiano un senso!
"Io sono Febbraio" mi ha molto delusa! Basandomi sulla sinossi mi ero immaginata tutt'altro! Invece mi sono ritrovata a leggere una storia senza capo né coda, un esercizio di stile elaborato, confezionato e impaginato in maniera originalissima e deliziosa, ma... sotto tutta questa esteriorità non rimane davvero niente! Sembra che l'autore l'abbia scritto in preda a...more

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Apr 11, 2012 D.M. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature-and-fiction

I borrowed this little book from my local library, intrigued by the cover illustration and seeing that inside it was a cross between prose and poetry, going by the style and change in fonts. My first thought was oh oh, more of that quirky latest fashion in post modernism and thus my immediate impression was not great. Also, I am greatly put off by reviewists: note this from the back cover "replendent, and somehow edible...". Well, that's one glowing opinion.

(To note for readers of this review, t...more

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Mar 31, 2012 Carolyn DeCarlo rated it 4 of 5 stars

- felt imaginative, duh
- bothered by gaps in narrative that we never get to see, although had the conscious feeling while reading that i should try not to feel bothered by this and just enjoy it
- ending and build to ending felt like a quick fix for the gaps
- thought this book was probably a 3/5 for me but that it's the kind of book that sticks with you so i gave it 4/5
- confirmed with others that it is the kind of book that sticks with you, sticking with my 4/5 rating
- scoffed that the film opti...more

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Aug 18, 2011 Lauren rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011, favey-fave-faves

I rarely read the praise that is attached to books. While glancing at the page of praise for Shane Jones' Light Boxes, it is less the praise itself which is important, and more the length of each statement. These are not trite one-liners, but actual statements about this work. To me, this says that there is a lot to be said about Light Boxes.

This work is deceptively simple, yet beautiful, elegant, extraordinary, and rather exquisite in its simplicity. It utilizes language, rather than manipulati...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Pam rated it 4 of 5 stars

CONTAINS SPOILERS!

This story is beautifully written, and much of the prose reads very poetically, not so much in the sense of rhythm and rhyme, but more in the overall feel the words give you. When I first started reading it, I thought maybe it wasn't my type of book, but a couple pages later, I became very, very interested in both the plot and the characters. The book does get confusing at points. For example, February is a month/season as well as two separate characters.

The thing I love the mo...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Jonas rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Recommended by a friend with similar oddball sensibilities and in a nutshell is about a village at war with February which has been going on for over 100 days and is devastating the town’s morale with perpetual cold and darkness. Flight has been banned (it provides too much inspiration) and all winged and other flying objects, especially hot-air balloons (one of the central character’s great loves) have been systematically removed, murdered and buried by a gang of mysterious priests. Each page i...more

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Feb 16, 2011 Nesa Sivagnanam rated it 5 of 5 stars

I went to Borders, saw this book, read the blurb, was interested but then put it down for some unknown reason. The next day there was a coupon in the newspaper offering a 20% discount for anyone buying this book at Borders with the coupon. Of course I went along right away and bought the book.

It's a little book and a debut at that. About 150 pages. And it tells such an odd tale in an equally odd fashion.

February has come to a small close-knit community. February decides to stay forever and ever...more

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Jan 23, 2011 Amber Ditullio rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone with SAD or other depressive disorders

Recommended to Amber by: Richard DiTullio

Shelves: general-fiction, fantasy

Rich heard about this book while listening to NPR on his drive home one afternoon. It intrigued him, so he requested it from the library. As soon as he was finish it, he repeated back to me what I've said to him several times. "You've GOT to read this book. I'm not returning it until you do." When I finished The Book of Lies last night, Rich once again reminded me that it was there and I needed to read it. So this morning, I did.

A small town has been in the merciless grip of February for an incr...more Rich heard about this book while listening to NPR on his drive home one afternoon. It intrigued him, so he requested it from the library. As soon as he was finish it, he repeated back to me what I've said to him several times. "You've GOT to read this book. I'm not returning it until you do." When I finished The Book of Lies last night, Rich once again reminded me that it was there and I needed to read it. So this morning, I did.

A small town has been in the merciless grip of February for an incredibly long time. The book starts out with February banning flight. Birds fall from the skies. Balloons and kites are no longer able to soar. It is just another nail of dreariness that exists around their town. But a small group refuses to let this stand. They come together, wearing bird masks, with talk of how they should get rid of February. Thaddeus Lowe becomes their leader, and the leader of the War Council that the members of the town create, after February kidnaps his daughter Bianca from her bed. While the story is linear, it's not what one would describe as a typical story. It far more poetic than that. Each portion of the story is, at most, a page and a quarter long. It flits from view point to view point, even once taking you out of the story entirely. There are several pages that hold only one sentence or one word. It's a winding path that, for those with various depressive disorders, can understand well.

This book IS a fictional look at what SAD (seasonal affective disorder) sufferers go through in the winter months. The sufferer can see themselves as every one of the characters presented, from Thaddeus Lowe who fights until he has lost everything, to February who states that he does not want to be as mean as he is being. I, for one, was able to recognize a lot of my own feelings in Shane Jones' writing.

That said, this is not a book for everyone. I suspect that it's one of those that you'll either love or hate but never feel ambivalent about. I do recommend it for those that suffer from depressive disorders, particularly SAD, and those that love them. The former may see themselves in the pages, while the later may understand a little more what their loved one deals with during the winter months.(less)

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Dec 04, 2010 Jamie Rose rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved Light Boxes, though I can immediately see why in my internet-review travels subsequently, some people seem to have not taken to it at all. Tonally the book had a Jonze/Gondry-esque 'quirky' indie modern-Gilliam feel to it, which even as I type it sounds awful, yet is something I tend to enjoy very much. It is a very quick read that messes about with font and type size a lot, often times reading a bit more like a poem than a novel. I've read criticisms of it that nail it for being a bit p...more

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Nov 05, 2010 Aldrin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Aldrin by: Fully Booked

Originally posted here.

It’s not discombobulating so much as overwhelming. In Shane Jones’s debut novel slash fable slash collection of fragments, February not only refers to a month but also to a man, not only to a man but also to a mental state, not only to a mental state but also to a multitude of other similar metaphors. Often, it’s all of these at once, and the effect is not discombobulating so much as overwhelming.

February--in this sentence or in any of the succeeding sentences or in any o...more Originally posted here.

It’s not discombobulating so much as overwhelming. In Shane Jones’s debut novel slash fable slash collection of fragments, February not only refers to a month but also to a man, not only to a man but also to a mental state, not only to a mental state but also to a multitude of other similar metaphors. Often, it’s all of these at once, and the effect is not discombobulating so much as overwhelming.

February--in this sentence or in any of the succeeding sentences or in any of the many sentences in the book that succeed at effecting in the reader simultaneous confusion and amazement, whether the word specifically means a month, a man, a mental state, or a multitude of metaphors, is in the long haul not a matter of utmost import--has outstayed its welcome for at least three hundred days in a town that by Jones’s sporadic direct descriptions appears to be a cross between a Seussian village and a set straight out of a Henry Selick production. The town would have had its “mountains on top of mountains” blanketed with arcadian contentment and its idiosyncratic inhabitants filled with the most simple joy of, among many others, flying kites were it not for February’s cruel decision to overstay. But what’s the deal with February anyway? He wants to stay a while longer, and by “a while” it means three hundred days or more. So what? The town, you see, is also very likely located in the Northern Hemisphere, that part of the world where February is synonymous to winter, and now you see February take on another form: not an entire season so much as a climate, one of cold and darkness, one of gloom and desperation.

If winter is indeed nature’s way of saying, “Up yours,” then in the novel February is practically giving the townspeople the finger. He is something of a meteorological tyrant. He loathes anything that flies and hates the very idea of flying with a passion so burning, obviously from being phenomenally cold, that he wants anything that flies banned and the very idea of flying eliminated. He enlists a band of residents obsequious enough to help him enforce his law: “They confiscated textbooks, tore out pages about birds, flying machines, Zeppelins, witches on brooms, balloons, kites, winged mythical creatures. They crumpled up paper airplanes the children had folded, and they dumped the pages into a burning pit in the woods. [...] Some of the priests felt tears roll down their cheeks but didn’t feel sadness.” Such horrifying deeds must be at least explained if not completely justified. Surely February has his reasons for enlisting priests, of all people, for his army of law enforcers and above all for punishing a town where people just want to fly kites?

February does have his reasons. Jones just chooses not to divulge them right away because February chooses not to divulge them right away (hint, hint), and it’s not until just past the halfway point of the novel that a straightforward clue about February’s intentions for cursing the town with never-ending winter as well as about the why and wherefore of the novel itself is given in the form of a list of “Artists Who Created Fantasy Worlds to Try and Cure Bouts of Sadness,” which includes J.K. Rowling and the creator of MySpace as well as postmodern literary heavyweights such as Richard Brautigan, author of one of the novel’s obvious inspirations, In Watermelon Sugar, and Italo Calvino, author of the seminal If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler (again: hint, hint).

Suffice it to say that following February’s commandment is a war effort aimed at putting an end to the unpleasant combination of frigid weather conditions and more frigid personal dispositions brought about by February, led by an intrepid husband and father named Thaddeus and a group of bird-masked former balloonists who call themselves, whether appropriately or not remains to be seen, the Solution. What takes place thereafter is a deceptively beautiful and poignant story of family and community, of strange sentences (“I vomit ice cubes.” “Thaddeus faced the Solution, holding his basket of apples tight against his chest.”) and precious phrases (“an iceberg melting in her folded hands,” “the girl who smelled of honey and smoke”), of strife and resistance, of multiple narrators and zero quotation marks, of hope and resilience, of poetic digressions and typesetting tricks (some prefer the somewhat pejorative term, gimmicks), of yearning and loss, of creation and re-creation. It is a fairy tale playfully hiding behind a façade of metafiction (Oops. Sorry, I slipped.) supposedly about the horror of seasonal affective disorder. Hence the title, Light Boxes.

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Quotes from Light Boxes

“I wanted to write you a story about magic. I wanted rabbits appearing from hats. I wanted balloons lifting you into the sky. It turned out to be nothing but sadness, war, heartbreak. You never saw it, but there’s a garden inside me.” — 23 people liked it

“They held me and told me everything would be fine, that sadness would rise from our bones and evaporate in sunlight the way morning fog burned off the river in summer. My mother rubbed the kites on my hands and arms and told me to think of my lungs as balloons.

I just want to feel safe, I said.” — 7 people liked it

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