Culture. Eat it
25 September 2017
As from the pages of a diary, Lucy’s voice stands out to tell her story, I give you:
The light we lost by Jill Santopolo.
Everything begins on September 11, 2001, the day Lucy meets Gabe, the day America has one of the worst and most painful moments of its story.
The time period is thirteen years.
Lucy collects a number of memories: she graduated, become executive producer of a children’s broadcast, she met another man (Darren), she become a mother.
Lucy lives fully or at least she tries.
Because the story is inhabited by Gabe’s ghost who, with short raids, breaks out, putting the reached equilibrium at risk.
Still, there’s a feeling that Lucy’s appearance looks like a long wait.
Jill Santopolo writes what it will be called as the most controversial debut of the year, published in 30 countries.
What makes it so desirable? Not its originality, but certainly the suggestive writing of the author.
“Have you ever changed your mind, Gabe?”,
“Did it work, at least in the beginning?”,
“If I had heard what my heart and brain wanted to tell me about, would we be here today?”.
Lucy interrogates Gabe as if he’s in front of her eyes and maybe that’s a bit like that.
It is precisely those questions left unresolved that make us perceive how true are passion and loss, the sense of abandonment, and the strength that comes from it.
Many have said this novel strikes the eye at One Day by David Nicholls.
I don’t fully share the reference. Lucy is strong but compromises.
She is in love but not completely loyal with herself. Lucy is not Emma.
Her only point of view is perhaps not enough to make this love story unforgettable.
I wouldn’t be able to live a present so full of past, as Lucy does, but her story – The light we lost – contains a hint of love that I embrace:
It was a passion that transcended time, space, logic.
I hope you find such a love, such a powerful love that you will feel like going crazy.
And if you find it, welcome it.
Hold it tight.
When you allow yourself to live such a love, know that maybe you will suffer.
And you will get hurt.
But you will also feel invincible and infinite.
Reading time
a day
Ph. Sara Cartelli
© The Eat Culture
Author
Bio:
She is an art historian, optimistic and empathic by nature. She imagines a world where sow kindness enjoying the little things. She's in love with stories since she was a child, for the Eat Culture she eats books and arts. Per aspera ad astra says the only tattoo on her skin. It reminds her that the road that leads to her dreams is not always easy but that she never gives up.
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