Light of Day

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY APR 25, 2005

Journalist and TV writer Saul's excellent debut features a grim and compelling narrative marked by individual scenes that feel forceful and dynamic. On a May afternoon, Jack Owens, a professor at a small Indiana college, learns that his 15-year-old son, Danny, has committed suicide. Long divorced from Danny's mother, who abandoned them for the New York artist's life, Jack has nothing but "always the silence, the absence of Danny." Saul sets himself a difficult task portraying a grieving parent from a close point of view in a way that feels authentic but not suffocating and he acquits himself admirably in earnest, strong prose: Jack "was lying on his bedroom floor naked, the telephone pressed under his cheek. He was holding on to one of Danny's baby pictures and mumbling to himself.... He could not remember coming down here, or who he'd tried to call, or when." An understated mystery propels the narrative: was Danny's death a suicide, or could it have been murder? What were the reasons for either? Saul subtly offers both clues and red herrings, and he handles the final revelation with control. Though the singular, grieving perspective of Jack can be claustrophobic, this is a gripping, emotionally charged tale.