![]() ![]() ![]() The Lights is highly entertaining literary fiction, excelling at sleight of hand with arch humor and misdirection. Himself a Michener fellow, McGreevy is also cocreator of The Son, a recent television adaptation of Philipp Meyer’s novel of the same title for AMC, starring Pierce Brosnan. ![]() The Lights: A Novel is the second novel from Brian McGreevy. As Leda and Harry compete for influence over Jason, we come to understand Leda is a predator who preys mostly upon herself. Leda falls in with fellow students and best friends Harry and Jason (“imaginary Norman Mailers and George Plimptons toasting their defiant political incorrectness”), forming a dysfunctional threesome. Physical and emotional dislocation, combined with the fierce and paranoid competition among her fellow writers, bring out the worst in Leda, an academic overachiever (“Lisa Simpson–ing”) and insecure twenty-something who drinks too much and believes in portents. In this instance, “Hogwarts” refers to the Michener Center for Writers (MCW), the prestigious graduate program in creative writing at the University of Texas at Austin. Leda and Mark relocate from New York City to a gentrifying East Austin when Leda receives her Hogwarts letter. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |