The Light A Body Radiates

by Ethel Whitty

Eileen MacPherson is a child of eight when her beloved sixteen-year-old brother, Francis, leaves home after a violent family episode. Over the next 25 years, everything she understands to be true changes but she never wavers in her yearning to understand the forces that have torn her family apart. The Light A Body Radiates tells the story of Eileen’s passionate search for explanations in whispered fragments of conversation she overhears whenever she can slip into a room unseen. She gathers a whole storehouse of truths and myths, including her own, that lead her to a deeper understanding of how people, who love each other deeply, can find it impossible to bridge the gulf dividing them.

While navigating the uneven road that leads to becoming a woman, Eileen’s loyalty to family and home is pitted against her desire for love and art and a wider worldview. Along the way, she uncovers the cracks and crevices in her family’s well-defended hearts and minds. The discovery that Francis is gay is only one piece of a larger puzzle-and when, in the end, it is a devastating AIDS diagnosis that brings Francis home, Eileen learns how love can transcend the forces of poverty and culture and distance.

Set in working class Cape Breton, against the backdrop of the 60s revolution, the AIDS epidemic of the 80s, and the “culturally imperative migration” that urged so many away from the places they called home, The Light A Body Radiates is a story that engages powerfully with questions of place, secrets, loyalty, and what it means to “take care of your own.”

288 pages, Paperback

Published March 29, 2018

Reviews

[Magdelanye · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only way to keep a story alive is to tell it. You have to make the stories your own. That's the way with stories. People either don't tell you the whole thing or different people tell you stories that contradict each other. If you're a storyteller, it's your job to make it a story that wants to be told....If it's a good story, you'll remember it. If not, you can forget it. p58

Ethel Whitty has certainly made this unforgettable story her own. In fact this this calm and ambitious examination of familial ties and the decisions that strengthen or imperil its bonds, reads as a memoir as we follow the intrepid narrator determined to have an impact on her own life.

I wondered how I was going to figure out what I thought mattered. Was it something that just came to you, or was there a method?....Somehow it didn't seem like the things I thought mattered were really big enough to matter. p155

What matters most to Eileen, growing up in the bustle of a large and loving rural family, is her beloved oldest brother, whose impact on her life, even from a distance, ignited a spark that transformed her point of view. I love it that EW never resorts to cheap tricks nor moralizing but invests her characters with mindfulness and ethical reasoning. The 'love that can never be mentioned', is mentioned. The courage that the characters need to own their truth is found.

In my mind I was always searching for the people, who must be there, who might see the world from my perspective. p103

If I had any issues with this book, it was the impression I got that the last bit was brutally condensed. The elegant pace is jolted with too many references, as if a time keeper had announced, the bar is closing in 15.

But maybe that was EW's thoughtful intention.

[James Fisher · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Light a Body Radiates comprises a good story in its 280+ pages. Told from the point of view of Eileen (who is only eight when the book opens) it traverses the decades from the Fifties to the Eighties. At the outset, the festering tension between Francis, the oldest son and his father Neil hits the breaking point and Francis soon leaves his Cape Breton home, eventually ending up in Toronto. This rupture is devastating to Eileen, who adores Francis and doesn't understand the rift that sent him away and wonders if he'll ever come back. Meanwhile, life goes on for the MacPherson family, and new stories are formed and the old ones fill in the gaps for the maturing Eileen.
The full review is here: http://bit.ly/lightradiates

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book reads like it's been awhile since the author has been to NS but some detail was very good. My main critique is a lack of any relief from pathos. Even the saddest life has elements of humour, but this story ran from tragic low to tragic low. Could have been more enjoyable and believable with a lighter touch

[Ingrid Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book radiates light through its lyricism and detail. i was brought into a world both familiar and strange which is for me part of what i look for in a book. the main character, her love for her people and yearning for a larger life makes her easy to love. tragedy and delight and the atmosphere of place continues to resonate inside me. a really satifying read.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible family characters. A beautiful relationship particularly between Eileen and Francis. Honest, dreamy, and I cried at the end. I really enjoyed this novel of light. Thank you Ethel Whitty

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely understated story of family and growing up.