The Light of Day by Graham Swift

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Synopsis from Goodreads: On the anniversary of a life-shattering event, George Webb, a former policeman turned private detective, revisits the catastrophes of his past and reaffirms the extraordinary direction of his future. Two years before, an assignment to follow a strayed husband and his mistress appeared simple enough, but this routine job left George a transformed man.

Suspenseful, moving, and hailed by critics as a detective story unlike any other, The Light of Day is a gripping tale of murder and redemption, as well as a bold exploration of love and self-discovery. This powerful novel signals yet another groundbreaking achievement from Graham Swift, the author of the Booker Prize-winning novel Last Orders.

Author details from Goodreads Graham Colin Swift FRSL (born May 4, 1949) is a British author. He was born in London, England and educated at Dulwich College, London, Queens' College, Cambridge, and later the University of York. He was a friend of Ted Hughes.

Some of his works have been made into films, including Last Orders, which starred Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins and Waterland which starred Jeremy Irons. Last Orders was a joint winner of the 1996 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction and a mildly controversial winner of the Booker Prize in 1996, owing to the superficial similarities in plot to William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. Waterland was set in The Fens; it is a novel of landscape, history and family, and is often cited as one of the outstanding post-war British novels and has been a set text on the English Literature syllabus in British schools.

[[deleted user]]

I was hoping to try a new discussion technique for this book as I find the GR system is not very good and I lose track when all questions are in one single topic. However the only way I could come up with to improve this was to create a new folder for the discussion - unfortunately GR limits folders so that won't work either.

Rant over we will just have to have 1 thread and work with what we have, if anyone has any bright ideas let me know.

1) Are you looking forward to reading this? Have you heard of this book before and what are your expectations?

[[deleted user]]

1) I had not heard of this book before but based on the description I am looking forward to it. What I have read so far is very good and I am enjoying it.

[Dree]

I had not heard of it either, and requested it from the library. I have way too many books to read this month (which is nothing new), so we'll see if I get to it. If I do and I like it, I'll definitely finish!

[Gail]

1) I actually own this book - amazing! I will definitely get to it and am looking forward to it.

[Diane]

I started this today and i am having a hard time getting into it. I hope it improves soon.

[Paula]

I hadn't heard of it either, but it sounds interesting. I generally have low expectations of 1001 books I haven't read before - it usually takes me a few tries to start enjoying them.

[[deleted user]]

Diane wrote: "I started this today and i am having a hard time getting into it. I hope it improves soon."

I think once you get into the swing of the narrative moving back and forward in time and start piecing the stories of each time span together you will enjoy it more...

[Kristel]

I really liked Graham Swifts, Waterland when we read it and after that, I bought this book when I saw it at a used book sale. I am looking forward to reading it.

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

I finished it today and loved it once I settled into the style.

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2) The Guardian called this book "Sensational and romantic" do you agree with this statement? Think about who loves who are their feelings returned, would life be better if they weren't in love? Is love to blame for what goes wrong?

Remember to use your spoiler tags for those who have not read yet :)

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3) Think about guilt - which characters feel guilt and what are they guilty of, is their guilt justified?

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4) We are never actually told in black and white what happened on the fateful day of 2 years ago instead we get a build up from what George sees and what he is told based on this what do you think actually happened?

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5) What did you think of the narrative technique?

[[deleted user]]

Book wrote: "2) The Guardian called this book "Sensational and romantic" do you agree with this statement? Think about who loves who are their feelings returned, would life be better if they weren't in love? Is..."

(view spoiler)[ I would agree that this is a beautifully written love story but I don't see it as a romance in the traditional sense, there is no happy ending and everyone is in love with the wrong person.

George loves Sarah although they have never had a date, never been intimate and are only united by the worst event in Sarah's life. I am unconvinced as to whether Sarah shares his feelings or just needs a friend and support.

Sarah loves her husband but he loves Kristina. Does Kristina return his love? all we know about her is that she is leaving and returning home.

In terms of how things turn out things would have been better if the characters could have stopped loving the wrong person and moved on. Sarah should have left her husband when she discovered the affair and that would have stopped everything that came after. It would have made a dull book though :) (hide spoiler)]

[[deleted user]]

Book wrote: "3) Think about guilt - which characters feel guilt and what are they guilty of, is their guilt justified?"

(view spoiler)[ Sarah feels guilt for killing her husband and yes that is a justified guilt, I think she should also feel guilty about letting George give up his life for her but I don't think she does. Sarah feels guilt for inviting Kristina into her home but this is not justified she couldn't have known where it would lead and it should never have lead there.

George is a corrupt cop but he feels no guilt about this and would do the same thing again as he feels the ends justify the means. He feels guilt about not understanding his daughter and this is a justified guilt. He feels guilt for not preventing what happened but that is not justified he couldn't stop it.

Do Robert and Kristina ever feel guilty? I assume at some point she must because she leaves but he just comes across as not caring who he hurts because Kristina is his great passion. (hide spoiler)]

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6) Ratings and reviews does this book deserve its place on the list?

[[deleted user]]

Book wrote: "4) We are never actually told in black and white what happened on the fateful day of 2 years ago instead we get a build up from what George sees and what he is told based on this what do you think ..."

(view spoiler)[ I think Robert went back to Sarah knowing he couldn't live without Kristina but that he didn't have it in him to kill himself and he provoked her into raising the knife at which point they end up fighting and he ends up dead. I blame him as much as I blame her (hide spoiler)]

[[deleted user]]

Book wrote: "5) What did you think of the narrative technique?"

I really liked the narrative technique, I liked the way that George was our only narrator and that he was telling us about what happened 2 years ago, what is happening now and what happened when he was a child. Each switch in chapter marked a switch in time and the narratives built up to reveal both the past and the present. I think a straightforward linear narrative would not have had the same impact.

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Book wrote: "6) Ratings and reviews does this book deserve its place on the list?"

This was a 4 star read for me as it has been removed from my edition of the book I don't know why it was originally included but based on the books I have read so far I would have kept it as an example of a love story about obsessive love and guilt.

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

5 and 6. I gave it 4.5 stars. I actually loved it. I loved the voyeuristic feel of it, and the spare prose. I loved that we lived inside his thoughts which jumped around in time because that is how our brains actually work. I have no idea why it was included on the list, but I am glad it was because I enjoyed it very much.

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

3. Guilt pervades everything it seems. (view spoiler)[Sarah feels guilty about killing her husband. Yes, that is justified. George feels guilty about not preventing the killing. Not justified. He could not have stopped it. There are things that he should feel guilty about -- being a corrupt cop, for example. But he doesn't. (hide spoiler)] Guilt is a strange thing, we often let it take over and color everything. And we often have it misplaced.

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

2. Yes, I think it is a romance just not one we should aspire to have. I have fallen in love with the wrong person before and been in romance that was dysfunctional. It is still a romance... just a bad one.

4. (view spoiler)[I think that Robert provoked Sarah into killing him. It was the result of a fight about Kristina. I think he was an arrogant and selfish man who only cared about himself and that pushed her over the edge. (hide spoiler)]

[Gail]

I finished this book and I gave the book 4 stars. I enjoyed the back and forth of the events being narrated and the fact that as Kelly mentions, I started out thinking it was a detective book and it became a love story.
I will answer the questions once I have learned how to use spoiler tags....

[Gail]

2) The Guardian called this book "Sensational and romantic" do you agree with this statement? Think about who loves who are their feelings returned, would life be better if they weren't in love? Is love to blame for what goes wrong?

(view spoiler)[ I think blaming love isn't the right question. You might as well blame life. Few of the characters get their love returned to them in the way that they want it returned. In a funny way, the only somewhat normal relationship is between George and Helen. It is a difficult relationship but it is a love that goes both ways. I think that the build up throughout the book, in which you really want to know exactly what happened, is an interesting way to build a love story and in that way it is sensational. (hide spoiler)]

3) Think about guilt - which characters feel guilt and what are they guilty of, is their guilt justified?

Again, I think in the book reflects a human condition in which everyone carries some guilt (view spoiler)[ George has guilt around not being able to protect his Mom from his father's infidelity, not being able to prevent the murder he in hindsight thinks he might have been able to prevent. He even has guilt about letting down his first wife and not truly seeing his daughter. (hide spoiler)]

4) We are never actually told in black and white what happened on the fateful day of 2 years ago instead we get a build up from what George sees and what he is told based on this what do you think actually happened?

(view spoiler)[ I think that when Sarah saw that Bob was an empty shell on returning home she was horrified. I think that she had it in her head that he was returning home to her and their love story. On seeing him, she realized either because he said something like "I have only come home to pack" or more likely that he was simply no longer the man she loved nor the man that would ever love her like before, that she lashed out with a knife that was already in her hand or close by. The book implies that he stepped into the knife, that he welcomed the release. (hide spoiler)]

5) What did you think of the narrative technique? I grew to like it very much. I think it worked for the story being told in which the thinking of our narrator went back and forth between the various days described.

6) Ratings and reviews does this book deserve its place on the list? 4 stars and yes, I think it belongs. The book drew me in and kept me on the edge of my seat even though in the end it wasn't a detective story it was a love story.

[Daisey]

1) Are you looking forward to reading this? Have you heard of this book before and what are your expectations?

I had not heard of this book before, but found it available on audio so decided to give it a try. I ended up enjoying it much more than I expected from the blurb.

2) The Guardian called this book "Sensational and romantic" do you agree with this statement? Think about who loves who are their feelings returned, would life be better if they weren't in love? Is love to blame for what goes wrong?

Yes, I agree that it is romantic, but not at all in a traditional way. There are several dysfunctional love stories in this book, but I don't think you can blame love for the mistakes of the book.

3) Think about guilt - which characters feel guilt and what are they guilty of, is their guilt justified?

I think most of the characters probably guilt of some sort, but most of the guilt is George's. We don't know for sure about the guilt of anyone else, but he often thinks of his own.

4) We are never actually told in black and white what happened on the fateful day of 2 years ago instead we get a build up from what George sees and what he is told based on this what do you think actually happened?

(view spoiler)[I tend to think that when Bob came home, Sarah realized or he straight out said that Kristina leaving was not going to fix anything. This led to a fight or attack that led to his death.
I find it interesting that it seems she killed him so quickly. (hide spoiler)]

5) What did you think of the narrative technique?

It took a little while to get the flow of this technique, but once I did I really enjoyed it. The back and forth build up was a big part of what kept me wanting to read more.

6) Ratings and reviews does this book deserve its place on the list?

I gave this book 4 stars and I think it is a good example of a different type of obsessive love story to be on the list.

[Dree]

I just finished this today, and like others it was a 4-star read for me. I enjoyed the narrative style, I found the puzzle of trying to put together the different events in his life (and the associated people) to be interesting. It felt like Swift made the reader a detective in the reading of the story and putting the puzzle back together. I kind of wonder if I missed something.

I think this book does deserve a place on the list, it is quite unlike anything I remember reading before. The style works well and makes for a different kind of book. It requires some effort from the reader to put the story of George's life together.

[Diane]

1) Are you looking forward to reading this? Have you heard of this book before and what are your expectations?

I did look forward to reading this book. I enjoyed Waterland, so I anticipated liking this book as well.

2) The Guardian called this book "Sensational and romantic" do you agree with this statement? Think about who loves who are their feelings returned, would life be better if they weren't in love? Is love to blame for what goes wrong?

Sensational, yes. I'm not sure about romantic. Certainly not romantic in the conventional sense. I don't necessarily think love is to blame for what went wrong. It would be easier for some of the characters if it weren't for love.


3) Think about guilt - which characters feel guilt and what are they guilty of, is their guilt justified?

Webb feels much remorse and guilt about various things, which is central to the story. I'd like to think that Sarah feels guilt, but this isn't emphasized.


4) We are never actually told in black and white what happened on the fateful day of 2 years ago instead we get a build up from what George sees and what he is told based on this what do you think actually happened?

(view spoiler)[I think Sarah realized that her husband breaking off his affair wasn't going to fix their relationship. She probably sensed that his heart would never be hers again and reacted. I would have liked to know more about the event than the book provided. (hide spoiler)]


5) What did you think of the narrative technique?

It took me a long time to get into the narrative technique and the style of writing. I thought the narrative technique was clever, overall, but perhaps the prose didn't flow as well as it should. I guess my complaints are more about the writing style than the narrative technique. I think there was a lot of room for improvement here.

6) Ratings and reviews does this book deserve its place on the list?

I am in the minority here, giving the book only 3 stars. It took me a long time to get into the story and then it fell a little flat for me. I also think that too much was left to the reader to infer on their own. Don't get me wrong if I seem hyper-critical, I didn't dislike the book. It just didn't work for me the way that it worked for others. Perhaps the book does deserve its place on the list for its narrative technique if it is the first of its kind in this style.

[Kristel]

Well, first off I don't remember how to do the spoilers. There must be a way to find these. So that being said.

I did not enjoy reading this book. I never felt compelled to pick up the book or to keep reading the book. I found it tedious.

I do not think this is love at all. Perhaps it is a story about how we can fool ourselves in to thinking something is love when it isn't. No I don't think his love is returned. Yes, I think he is wasting his time. No, this is not a romance, it is obsession, maybe.

My rating is 3.5 stars. I did not feel that this book added anything to the development of the novel and really could be removed without any real loss. His work, Waterland, is superior to this one.

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

Kristel wrote: "Well, first off I don't remember how to do the spoilers. There must be a way to find these. So that being said.

I did not enjoy reading this book. I never felt compelled to pick up the book or t..."

Kristel, before the spoiler, type < spoiler> with no spaces, and at the end type < /spoiler> again without spaces

[Kristel]

Kelly wrote: "Kristel wrote: "Well, first off I don't remember how to do the spoilers. There must be a way to find these. So that being said.

I did not enjoy reading this book. I never felt compelled to pick ..."

Thanks, Kelly, I did finally find it. I just find GR so frustrating. I tried not to make any statements that would be spoilers.

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

Kristel wrote: "Kelly wrote: "Kristel wrote: "Well, first off I don't remember how to do the spoilers. There must be a way to find these. So that being said.

I did not enjoy reading this book. I never felt comp..."

Yes, Goodreads needs to improve all of this! To post a photo is so hard! And we shouldnt need the codes for bold, italic, etc.

[Kristel]

Kelly wrote: "Kristel wrote: "Kelly wrote: "Kristel wrote: "Well, first off I don't remember how to do the spoilers. There must be a way to find these. So that being said.

I did not enjoy reading this book. I..."
I am okay with using html codes but it is frustrating that codes differ between sites. I haven’t done much for photos as far as comments.

I would be happy if the format allowed for better discussions.

[[deleted user]]

Kristel wrote: "Kelly wrote: "Kristel wrote: "Kelly wrote: "Kristel wrote: "Well, first off I don't remember how to do the spoilers. There must be a way to find these. So that being said.

The discussion format is frustrating...

[Pip]

1. I had not heard of this book, but I loved Last Orders and quite liked Waterland, so I looked forward to reading this one. In the end I bought an Audio version, read by Graeme Malcolm, and I really enjoyed his rendering of the story, with excellent accents, especially for Rita.

2. I agree that the plot was sensational and that George's relationship with Sarah was romantic. (view spoiler)[ It would be better for George if he did not love Sarah, though his love of her did give his life purpose. It would have been better for Sarah if she had not loved Bob. And even Rita would have been better off, presumably if she had not been so fond of George. (hide spoiler)]
I don't think that love, per se, can be blamed for what happened.

3. Sarah's guilt is justified, George's is not.

4. (view spoiler)[ Sarah is preparing to welcome her husband back, but his obvious anguish at having parted from Christina enrages Sarah and she impulsively stabs him fatally. I don't think that her budding relationship with George3 is something that she thinks about at the time. (hide spoiler)]
5. I really enjoyed the back and forth technique for most of the book and I was excited to listen to piece together the narrative. I started to get impatient toward the end. I would have liked to have had more information about what happened to George when he left the police, I didn't think there was enough information given and that really frustrated me.
6. This gets 4 stars from me because it was entertaining and suspenseful and on the whole I really enjoyed it. I wonder if I would have rated it quite so highly if it had not been for the wonderful reading by Graeme Malcolm?