The Lights of Earth

by Gina Berriault

Book Overview

A master of the short form, Gina Berriault stands somewhere between Chekhov and Isaac Babel in style and psychological acuity--and in this beautiful new edition of one of her most beloved novellas, she traces the changing relationships between one woman and two fellow novelists.

When it was first published, Andre Dubus said of The Lights of Earth, "Like her stories, it's masterly. Its central character is a woman, Ilona Lewis,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1640095225
• ISBN13: 9781640095229
• Release Date: April 2023
• Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

A Masterpiece by an under-recognized heroine in American Literature

A sense of impermanence, impending loss and abandonment are woven throughout this wonderful novella, an unsung masterpiece from an under-recognized luminary of American fiction writers. The unnerving insight of Berriault's characters is courageous, and one can relate to the sense of abiding loneliness they carry with them. They are not the popular, successful ones, at ease with themselves and life, but both blessed and cursed with the vision. They have seen far too deeply for glib cheerfulness.

Wonderfully intimate novel of guilt, pain and betrayal

Gina Berriault's "The Lights Of Earth" is a wonderfully intimate novel which explores feelings of guilt, pain and betrayal in a woman novelist Ilona on the verge of losing a lover who's taken off to high places. Using beautifully lyrical prose, she insinuates and entices, then reels and draws you in. Ilona's sense of foreboding when she meets the hosts of the dinner party she attends with Claud foreshadows not so much her breakup with Martin but more significantly her discontinued relationship with her older semi-retarded brother Albert whom she had deliberately left behind. The feelings of guilt, pain and loss that these later chapters evoke are so real and true they moved me to tears. Berriault's genius lies in the economy, intimacy and emotional accuracy of her writing. I think Ilona realised at the end that the world isn't made of two kinds of people, those "blessed" and those not. Ilona's distress from Martin's departure is mirrored in Albert's hopeless pining for his sister to make contact and this is what gives the novel a balance and roundness that makes "The Lights Of Earth" such an excellent novel. I don't know if this is the place to discover Berriault. I do know however that I enjoyed it immensely and if the proof of the pudding isn't in the eating, where then lies it ?

Deeply affecting

This is a deeply affecting and exquisitely written book. I've gone from Women in the Beds to The Son to The Lights of Earth and feel priviledged to have spent reading time with such a talented writer. What troubles me is that I didn't know about her until she won the National Book Critics Circle Award and that I might never have known of her if Counterpoint Press and Northpoint Press before them hadn't had the courage to publish her.

Beautiful prose dense with meaning. Original and honest.

This is a great little book: a rare combination of great writing and deep emotional and intellectual insight. There are people writing today who are accomplished prose stylists but who just don't have a lot to say. And, conversely, there are writers of great depth whose writing is, well, adequate. Gina Berriault is one of a few great writers alive today who can write and think at the same time. Her honesty and complex literary style which help make her a great writer probably hurt her popular acceptance. She is not a part of the "you go girl" kind of Stalinist social realism that is so popular today which portrays things not as they are, but as they should be in order to be politically correct. Nor is she a pulp fiction romance novelist. She is more interested in reality and writing great fiction. She is not perfect and I do have some small criticisms. In The Lights of Earth, Ilona, the main character, receives a couple of notes from her neglected brother who is apparently mildly retarded. My criticism is that the notes seem a little too well written for even a mildly retarded person. Also, I believe she may be a little too generous sometimes towards her male characters , giving them a compassion or understanding that in reality may be something more controlled and manipulative. I want to emphasize that these are small criticisms of a wonderful book. As I said at the begining, her writing is beautiful, and dense with emotional and intellectual meaning. At her best her writing is poetic, even Shakespearean. If you love great writing, then buy and read this book.

Great Book! Read it, you won't regret it.

This was a great book. Berriault is a superb writer. She draws her characters with incredible skill and pulls you into the not-so-happy life of her main character. Every line of this book is beautifully written. I haven't read any contemporary authors better at crafting a sentence than Ms. Berriault. On top of all this great writing is incredible insight into the nature of human existence. Worth reading for the writing, the story, or the philosophical insights, and you'll get to appreciate all three! Though the story is a bit depressing at times, it does provide some hope in the end, which, it seems from the reviews I've read, Women in Their Beds does not.