The Age of Perpetual Light
Stories
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Short stories that “situate themselves as natural heirs to such masterpieces as Denis Johnson’s ‘Train Dreams’ and James Joyce’s ‘The Dead.’” —The New York Times Book Review
Beginning at the dawn of the past century, in the early days of electrification, and moving into an imagined future in which the world is lit day and night, each tale in The Age of Perpetual Light follows characters through different eras in American history: a Jewish dry goods peddler who falls in love with an Amish woman while showing her the wonders of an Edison Lamp; a 1940 farmers’ uprising against the unfair practices of a power company; a Serbian immigrant teenage boy in 1990s Vermont desperate to catch a glimpse of an experimental satellite; a back-to-the-land couple forced to grapple with their daughter’s autism during winter’s longest night.
From the prize-winning author of The Great Glass Sea, these stories explore themes of progress, the pursuit of knowledge, and humankind’s eternal attempt to decrease the darkness in the world.
“A rich, often dazzling collection of short stories linked by themes while ranging widely in style from Babel-like fables to gritty noir and sci-fi . . . engrossing, persuasively detailed, and written with a deep affection for the way language can, in masterful hands, convey us to marvelous new worlds.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“A storyteller of the first order.” —Joshua Ferris, author of the National Book Award finalist Then We Came to the End
“A spectacular talent.” —Lauren Groff, New York Times–bestselling author of Fates and Furies
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Weil (The Great Glass Sea) showcases his narrative abilities in these offbeat and spirited stories. The opening, "No Flies, No Folly," follows the hardscrabble life of a Russian Jewish peddler named Yankel Yushrov, now living in the United States, sometime in the middle of the 20th century. While showing an Edison lamp to an Amish woman, he falls breathtakingly in love. Yankel appears again in the final story, "Hello from Here," writing a letter home early in his emigration. In "Angle of Reflection," a group of adventurous teenagers looking for the wreckage of a Soviet satellite suffer a life-altering tragedy. "The First Bad Thing" has a hard-bitten noir flavor, starting with an unnamed man in a truck on a dark night who picks up an unnamed woman obviously on the run from something. Other stories include a showdown between a group of frustrated farmers and a power company encroaching on their bucolic lives, and a couple's unsteady (mal)adjustment to a new life in cramped quarters in New York. Weil's stories have the scope and detours of longer work, and often seem to move on their own, following the protagonists' unpredictable lives. The breadth of subject matter and styles is impressive, defying easy categorization and making the stories all the more memorable.
Customer Reviews
Stunning
Absolutely gorgeous writing, which had me in tears throughout and balling in the end. I thought so much of my grandfather at times, and the lives we lead today. This book is capable of opening your eyes and “seeing the light” of where we cam from and are headed. Pure genius. The last pages left me better knowing what those who sacrificed to come here must have felt..a similar story, and a real one. Worth your time, and best read in one sitting. Trust me.