The Bright Forever: A Novel

Once in a while you run across a novel that is just so different, so amazing, you spend a long while afterwards thinking about it. This is one of those novels. I am beyond joyful I chose this to read. There is absolutely nothing more I could think to add to the wonderful editors' descriptions. Oh if I could only write the way they do. This is a dark, suspenseful story. I love finding out how the title of a book came about - the prelude to the story begins with: "On the banks beyond the river We shall meet, no more to sever; In the bright, the bright forever, In the summer land of song." which is apparently from a hymn written many, many years ago. This novel is not just about finding out who caused the death of a little girl. It's about flawed characters, but mostly exquisite writing. I usually find that citing passages are the best way to relay why I loved an author's brilliant writing: The first chapter of the novel ends with the character saying: "I still remember that summer and its secrets, and the way the heat was and how the light stretched on into evening like it would never leave. If you want to listen, you'll have to trust me. Or close the book; go back to your lives. I warn you: this is a story as hard to hear as it is for me to tell." Additional poignant passages include: "As I stood there with my father, I sensed that I was moving into something-something hard. I wanted to duck under whatever we were walking into, and just keep moving through that summer." "So that was how their friendship began, with this moment in the garage when they both admitted, without saying as much, that they were less than satisfied with the way their lives had turned out. They never said the words. They never said "lonely". They never said "afraid". They never spoke of yearning or the wrong turns they'd taken over the years and the hard places they'd come to, but it was all plain in what they did say, which was, Mr. Dees knew, as much as they could risk because they were just starting to know each other and how much could anyone stand to feel pulsing in another person's heart?" "Name your heaven", Ray said. It was a game he liked to play. Together, they came up with as many names for prosperity as they could. Names called outside the bright forever, Clare thought, recalling that old hymn that promised a "summer land of song". "When he finally spoke again, it was like there were twigs stuck in his throat, bits of dried leaves, dead grass, straw, a bird's nest made from misery." "When someone you love disappears, it's like the light goes dim, and you're in the shadows. You try to do what people tell you: put one foot in front of the other; keep looking up; give yourself over to the seconds and minutes and hours. But always there's that glimmer of light-that way of living you once knew-sort of faded and smoky like the crescent moon on a winter's night when the air is full of ice and clouds, but still there, hanging just over your head." "In a shaky voice, he started to sing that old hymn, the one I sometimes sang around the house. I didn't know that he'd been listening, had taken it into his heart: 'But the night will soon be o'er; In the bright, the bright forever, We shall wake, to weep no more.' "As full of horror as it was, he would carry it with him the way he did the martins' dawnsong, a memory all fall and winter, until he heard them again come spring. It would be his to recall, this night when Junior traveled so deeply into his love for Katie that he came to something else, something savage and seemingly not born of love at all." "I don't ask you to excuse him, only to understand that there's people who don't have what others do, and sometimes they get hurtful in their hearts, and they puff themselves up and try all sots of schemes to level the ground-to get the bricks and joints all plumb. They take wrong turns, hit dead ends, and sometimes they never make their way back." "That's how it happens with people at the end of misery. All the torment builds up and then lives explode, and there they are, broken forever." "The day was clear. I remember that, one of those bright days when it's still summer but we've already made the turn toward autumn, and sky is blue. Here in the flatlands of Indiana you can hit a straight stretch of road, and you can see all the way to the horizon. If it ever happens to you, you might swear, as I did that day, that if you can just keep moving-keep driving long enough, fast enough-you'll come to the edge of the world, that point where land rises up to meet sky, and you'll have no choice; you won't be able to stop. You'll just float out into all that blue-call it Heaven if you want-and just like that, you'll be gone." Do NOT miss the author's "On Small Towns and The Bright Forever" after the story ends. I gained incredible insight into small towns in a part of country I've never been. And at the end of the author's writing in this section: "When it came time to begin work on The Bright Forever, a novel that asks you to consider the imperfect lives of people, as distasteful and as glorious as they often are, in a fictional small town in Indiana, I carried that moment with the Candy Man with me. All I needed was the curiosity and the courage, as do you-that and the sense of wonder over how splendid and heartbreaking we all can be, no matter if we live in New York, Los Angeles, London, Baghdad, or itty-bitty Sumner-to see where the road might lead." Also read the list of questions posed by author Bret Lott - he begins each of his questions with interesting statements, i.e. "The most striking element of this book is the wide array of points of view." "Another remarkable feature of this story is that the chapters can sometimes be very short, like shards of glass from a broken window." "This novel poses the eternal question 'What if?' in a matter of life and death." "A good book often brings about a change in the way the reader 'reads' his or her own waking world-the one in which he or she lives once the book has been put down." Hopefully I have ignited the interest in you to read this incredible novel.

The forever for the characters in this book is the opposite of bright. A gripping story, told from differing perspectives, of a parent's worst nightmare. A very well written and executed novel, all of the characters are guilty of something pretty insidious. It was tough to put it down, but also gave me the creeps.

One review compares “The Bright Forever” to “The Little Friend” by Donna Tartt. Not by a long shot. Not even close. Tartt is a great writer. Lee Martin is nowhere close to being the writer that Donna Tartt is. It’s true, I couldn’t put this book down once I started it — waiting anxiously for something that never came. It’s really about the heart of a coward, the teacher, Mr. Dees. At times, Mr. Dees reminded me of the quiet strength of Atticus Finch, in Harper Lee’s, “To Kill A Mockingbird.” I wanted to like him, but in the end I realized what a remarkably pathetic man he truly was. The other criticism I have is that one of the main characters was not developed at all, Patsy Mackey. She is barely a shadow in the story, yet she is the mother of 9-year-old Katie who disappears. I can’t understand why she is just a shadow; she isn’t even one dimensional. All of this said, “The Bright Forever” is deeply affecting. I wouldn’t read it if you are easily depressed, because the only “bright” thing in this story is “forever” extinguished.

Perhaps one has to be deeply flawed to read and enjoy this book as much as I did. The subject matter is rough. Some of the characters are disturbingly dark. Perhaps all that is required is an unflinching acknowledgement that there-but-for-the-grace-of-god-knows-what go I. Couldn't we all, stripped of the fortuitous circumstances that have led us to lead decent lives, do atrocious things given very different circumstances? Don't we all have at least one thing we are ashamed of? I feel as if Martin is asking us, by deftly weaving the believable inner lives of his least likable characters with the circumstances that have strongly influenced who they have become, to look closely at the human condition. While he does not ask us to accept or like or even understand how they live their lives or what they are capable of, he asks us not to turn away. He also asks us for humility. What makes this book difficult to put down is not only the perfect pace, but also the beauty of its prose. Unlike some literary works, which require you to work too hard to keep up with the twists and turns of its language, often at the expense of the story itself, this novel achieves a satisfying balance between the two—the story marches comfortably, while the astute observations (just the right amount of them) about why people do what they do give stimulating pause. This is a brave book (few authors can travel into the dark caverns of the twisted mind, let alone do them justice) that dares to knock on the reader's heart, not to dissuade its revulsion at the truly horrific, but to awaken it to the truth that our goodness and our good fortune is not only worth protecting, but also worth appreciating. The more difficult thing, it's bravest moment, is when it asks for our compassion.

Alternating points of view from three characters as well as the occasional omniscient view in random chapters make this a densely woven story. The end wasn't a complete surprise but it was so skilfully presented that it felt meant to be. This isn't a happy story but it is a compelling one.

I generally don't read mysteries or thrillers, as I tend to be bored by them or completely uninterested in the rather shopworn plots. But this novel held me from start to finish. The author took a major narrative risk (I won't say what, to avoid revealing too much), and the story haunted me for days. In fact, I read it a few months ago, and I can still conjure the haunted feeling if I look back upon the strange plot.

The Bright Forever is one of those rare page-turners with a wise underbelly. Its suspense operates on two levels: It is, very simply, a "who dunnit" that even when you're sure you know, you can't stop reading. That's because Martin is doing something else: To the reader's surprise when the book is closed, he's left a question mark that haunts, that won't easily be answered, that this reader couldn't stop thinking about. Yes, we want to know who took nine-year-old Katie, whether she'll be found and what will be done about the evil that lies herein. Herein is small-town America, herein is a highly specific itty bitty town in Indiana and herein is the human heart at its best and worst. We get the story from four narrators: Mr. Dees, Katie's tutor; Gilley, Katie's older brother; Clare, Mr. Dees' neighbor and wife of handyman Raymond; and a wise omniscient narrator who holds their stories together and who, at the end of this fine novel, joins us in our search and gives us a day-by-day accounting. The way this novel breaks the heart is the biggest surprise because Martin plumbs the depths of our humanity by humanizing the worst in us all. How he does this not only amazes, it breaks the heart and recalls the work of Nabokov in that still startling novel Lolita. But Martin makes us look at ourselves even harder than the masterful Nabokov did in that memorable book.

I really enjoyed this book. It was written in a different way from most books. The author did a great job describing the characters from their own points of view. This was not a feel-good book, but it kept you interested to find out exactly what happened. After reading this book, I want to read more from this author.

Amazing! This is the first book of Lee Martin's that I've read and it won't be the last. The story of nine year old Katie disappearing will break your heart. I had a lump in my throat when reading the end of the book when you find out what really happened to Katie.

good read