How The Light Gets In by Joyce Maynard

 

My thoughts

This is the sequel to Count The Ways and it's another great read. Very heartfelt and realistic. It will touch your heart just as the first book did. 

When Eleanor moves back to the farm to take care of her dying ex husband Cam things take a turn for her. She's a fierce and very loyal mother. One who never put anything before her children. The way she talks about each child proves how deep her love is. She didn't have that growing up. She had a few things happen to her that she fought against to keep her focused on her family. 

Cam betrayed her royally in Count The Ways yet she still forgave him. She did hold a few grudges for many years as I believe any mother would. But she did forgive that also. The drowning of their youngest child, Toby, was just so hard. They could not move past it. 

Eleanor, in my opinion sacrificed her life for others a bit too much. As do most women. Family should be important. It's just that women are usually raised to give up their hopes and dreams. Let men do what they do and you take care of children. Cook. Work. Pay bills. Clean. Though Can did a lot he didn't ever have a real job that helped take some of the worry off of Eleanor's shoulders. He would even get angry if she suggested he get a job. A real job.

Her children were young when they divorced and the middle child, Ursula, blamed her for it. She has anger toward her mother for many years. Eleanor just moves along and does what she has always done. Forgives....

This book has a lot in it. From 2009 to 2024 you get a real feel for things that are actually happening. From climate change to the election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, to the outbreak of Covid, to the insurrection on January 6th. She wrote these things with grace and honesty. I think it added to this story because of how Ursula's husband joined the insurrectionist to try and take down democracy.

This was an excellent book. Heartfelt and honest. Powerful and thought provoking. I cried hard in many places. Toby had my heart as we got to know more about him. Eleanor raised three wonderful children. She gave them her undying love and gave up so much of her life even after they were grown. 

Thank you #NetGalley, #WilliamMorrow for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

Five big stars and I highly recommend it. With plenty of tissues.

About

From New York Times bestselling author Joyce Maynard comes the eagerly anticipated follow-up to her beloved novel Count the Ways—a complex story of three generations of a family and its remarkable, resilient, indomitable matriarch, Eleanor.

Following the death of her former husband, Cam, fifty-four-year-old Eleanor has moved back to the New Hampshire farm where they raised three children to care for their brain-injured son, Toby, now an adult. Toby’s older brother, Al, is married and living in Seattle with his wife; their sister, Ursula, lives in Vermont with her husband and two children. Although all appears stable, old resentments, anger, and bitterness simmer just beneath the surface.

How the Light Gets In follows Eleanor and her family through fifteen years (2010 to 2024) as their story plays out against a uniquely American backdrop and the events that transform their world (climate change, the January 6th insurrection, school violence) and shape their lives (later-life love, parental alienation, steadfast friendship). With her trademark sensitivity and insight, Joyce Maynard paints an indelible portrait of characters both familiar and new making their way over rough, messy, and treacherous terrain to find their way to what is, for each, a place to call “home.”