Light from Other Stars by Erika Swyler

Light from Other Stars by Erika Swyler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is such a beautiful and at times subtle book. It's literary science fiction, ala Le Guin. It's the love story between parents and children, and between childhood friends, and about the closest adult friends.

It's a story about a fully independent woman and why she's so independent, and how her life is full of everything that matters.

And it's about time, and how the real physics of time is so magical-seeming, and how our time in an important relationship is just a touch between two people's very separate time on earth. It's about how our era defines and intimately impact us. It's also about a love of science in general, which I definitely share.

Also, as someone who lost my father whom I had a very close relationship with, I could relate so much to the grief, and I could relate also to the beauty in that grief. Swyler conveyed that in such an evocative way.

A gorgeous book overall.

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The Mermaid Girl by Erika Swyler

The Mermaid Girl by Erika Swyler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a lovely short story that's also the prequel to The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler. So you should read that first. You should read that anyway because it's good.

Here's one of my (many) favorite lines because it's real and common, and no less terrible because it's common:

He'd seen it in his friends. Frank and Leah were comfortable. They'd settled into lifelong friendship; like a limb you'd not known you were missing until it appeared. Reliable, essential, but not something you burned for. No one ached; he told himself it was good to ache.

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The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler

The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

First of all, the language, emotions, and moods in this book are beautiful. In particular, I liked how the book approached and tried to explain the feelings of grief, otherness, and loneliness. How otherness can make you lonely and how loneliness can make you other. How family and family history affect both. How losing family makes you both. The feelings involved in trying to carry family even when they refuse to be helped.

There are a lot of things going on in this book. The book alternates the perspective of Simon in the first person present with the story of a carnival family in third person past tense. The two parts inform the story and move it along. In the present, Simon's problems layered on top of each other in a way which made me understand the character and his motivations without stressing me out. Simon's problems and challenges kept me interested and involved. The book is also filled with magical realism in the past story, carried into the present by the mysterious book seller.

Finally, the characters, especially the modern-day characters are very real to me. I feel Simon's restless laziness and quiet desperation. I love love love the character Doyle. I love to hate Frank. Even the mother, a ghost at the beginning, is filled in through the other character's longings for her.

P.S. I also like this cover that tells you a bit more about the book:


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