Light a Single Candle, by Beverly Butler

A semi-autobiographical YA novel about a teenager whose life changes when she becomes blind. Casey is fourteen and already having problems with failing vision, but doesn't realize that anything is wrong beyond needing new glasses until a doctor with a less than ideal bedside manner informs her that she has glaucoma and will become blind without an operation; the operation is a failure and she becomes completely blind.

She's understandably shocked and upset, but soon realizes that people's reactions to her blindness might be a bigger problem than the blindness itself. Her best friend abruptly dumps her, and she and her parents are contacted by an absolutely horrible woman who runs a school for the blind, who tells her that it will be impossible for her to go back to her regular school, even with support, and she can only survive in a blind boarding school. Cathy, upset at her former friend's reaction and imagining it repeated throughout the school, agrees. But the school is awful and academically unchallenging, designed to funnel the girls into being housewives and the boys into making the cane seats for chairs, and Cathy wants to go to college...

How Cathy fights her way through other people's expectations, adult and teenage bullies, and life that changes out from under her makes for an excellent novel, thoughtful and well-written and just plain enjoyable to read. It reminded me a bit of Mary Stolz. Cathy is a very likable and distinct protagonist, not an everygirl; she has a strong personality, which leads to her dealing with some things with unexpected ease (she has a good visual imagination, so she can picture things well enough that she sometimes forgets that she's not actually seeing them) and others with unexpected struggles (loving her guide dog is easy, but training her is hard.)

The supporting cast is very well-drawn, and the book as a whole is distinctly unsentimental. There's a subplot about a guy with a crush on her who she finds gross but feels like she ought to at least give a chance, since people say romance is great, which made me cringe with its hideous relatability.

Beverly Butler also became blind at the same age, though I don't know if the reason was the same.
The novel was published in 1962, but I suspect that the details of what it's like to be a blind teenager are a bit older, if they're autobiographical; probably closer to the early 50s or even 1940s. Or maybe not. The Americans with Disabilities Act was only passed in 1990. In any event, the book has the detail and messiness of real life, and is additionally an interesting window into what it was like to be a blind teenager in whatever time it was.

Butler wrote a sequel plus a bunch of other books. I'll keep my eye out for them as I really enjoyed this.

comments