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How the Light Gets In (Paperback)

by M.J. Hyland (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
RRP: £6.99
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How the Light Gets In + Carry Me Down + This is How
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Product details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd; New edition edition (2 Jun 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1841956112
  • ISBN-13: 978-1841956114
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 180,477 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

A powerful debut from a young Australian novelist that features one of the most likeable but contrary figures you are likely to meet in contemporary fiction Lou Connor, a gifted, unhappy sixteen-year-old, is desperate to escape her life of poverty in Sydney. And when she is offered a place as an exchange student at a school in America it seems as if her dreams will be fulfilled. Her host family has a beautiful house in Illinois and couldn't be more welcoming ...until she starts having to live in the suffocating and repressed atmosphere of their suburban mansion and things begin to go terribly wrong. How the Light Gets In is an acutely observed story of adolescence reminiscent of American Beauty in its dissection of engrained prejudices and middle-class hypocrisy. In Lou Connor, Hyland has created a larger-than-life protagonist who mesmerises the reader with her vivacity and vulnerability, from hopeful beginning to unexpected, haunting end.


About the Author

M.J. HYLAND was born in London in 1968 to Irish parents, and spent her early childhood in Dublin. She now lives and works in Melbourne. Her short stories have been published in Australia, the USA and Ireland and she also edited the literary magazine, Nocturnal Submissions, for a number of years. She is currently working on a second novel.
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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An absorbing account of teenage life., 18 Nov 2004
By Joanne Schofield (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: How the Light Gets in (Paperback)
Surrounded by poverty, crime and a family whom she feels she has nothing in common with, Lou Connor is 16 when she gets accepted as an exchange student in America. This is her big chance to escape from her unhappy existence in Sydney and when she meets her host family, The Hardings, and sees them live the American dream, she desperately wants to become part of their lives forever. But Lou has always been used to freedom - her family seem disinterested in her life to the point where she can do whatever she wants, so she soon becomes suffocated with the Harding's rules and regulations, to the point where the only way she can breathe is to rebel.

I didn't particularly like Lou when I first met her, but with time I began to understand and empathise with parts of her personality. It becomes obvious almost instantly that she is a lonely, mixed up young girl, desperately trying to escape from her unhappy existence. She is a frustrating character; she appears to have no feelings whatsoever for her own family and seems intent on getting as far away as possible from them, and is blind to the fact that she creates many of her own problems. But it is important to remember that she's only sixteen, a particularly self-absorbed age - I try to forget about what I put my own parents through at that time.... But as she starts to show genuine remorse for some of her mistakes it becomes impossible not to warm towards Lou.

I haven't read a book in ages which has so accurately depicted the turmoil of teenage years. The author writes so wonderfully and uses the first person narrative so effectively that the reader is able to climb into the character and I think this is what makes the book such a success. Her prose is perfectly written from a young girl's point of view and so raw that it often feels more like a memoir than a novel. Her descriptions of a tormented teenager are unbelievably evocative and simmer with angst, bitterness and confusion.

'How the light gets in' is a wonderfully honest depiction of a tormented and troubled teenager. Beautifully written, it perfectly sums up the feelings of anxiety and uncertainty those teenage years can bring.

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars a new holden caufield, 29 Jun 2004
This review is from: How the Light Gets in (Paperback)
This book has been compared to Catcher in the Rye quite a bit; it's a big call but a fair one I think. Lou, the narator, has the same sharp, skewed observstins of the world and a fine way with language (as, of course, does the author). Some of the descriptions of people in particular (like flo bapes and the hostel councillor) are fantastic and often very funny.
I read this in a day as the writing is clear and uncluttered and there is a great sense of tension as you wait for Lou to finally make the big mistake you know is inevitably going to come. This last is, I think, part of what makes the book good - Lou wants to do the right thing and to live out the american dream but you can see she is simply unsuited to accept the crappiness and stupidity of life that this requires. This makes her seem simultaneously brave and niave.
all in all, a great read.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading and re-reading!, 20 Jul 2008
I don't re-read books very often, but I could read this book every year and not get bored. There are always new brilliant thoughts to be discovered like: "I want to try a little cereal from each box, like a sampler of cereal and I decide to do it, because it's the kind of mildy eccentric thing that makes Henry happy."

The main character Lou is a very intelligent person, but keeps getting into trouble. Coming from a very run down family in a very run down flat in Sidney it clashes with the ideals of her host family she's going to stay with during her year in the States as an exchange student. (There are a few short flash backs of Lou's old life that are brilliant and gives you a very good picture of who she is and where she's coming from. I especially like the letters written by Lou's mum.)

The book is divided into three parts. The first part is about Lou arriving and getting to know the family and going on a two week road trip with them. The second part is about Lou starting school and getting into all sorts of trouble. Trying to fit in, but gets misunderstood. The third part is about what happens to Lou after she's been expelled from the family after taking drugs.

Even if it doesn't feel like a lot of action there's a real roller coaster to be travelling with Lou's mind and the first person narrative is very precise and offers a lot of insights about American life and the hypocrisy that's going on.

I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to read about a troubled teenager from a very unique perspective.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars How the Light Gets In
Lou Connor is a bright teenager leaving her unhappy childhood in Sydney to find the American Dream,as an exchange student placed in a wealthy and loving American family. Read more
Published 11 days ago by DDH255

4.0 out of 5 stars Edgy and rewarding
An edgy but very rewarding story of 16 year-old Lou, who gets a scholarship to spend a year with host-parents in America - going to school and experiencing everyday life with a... Read more
Published 2 months ago by E. Shaw

3.0 out of 5 stars Typical Hyland
Dark, dark, dark and like my previous comment on an M J Hyland book (Let me Down) also deeply disturbing. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Richard K. Norman

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful Debut for Young Something Novelist
What can I say about this book?

It made me feel as if I'd plopped my genitals into a cold dish; shrivelled but also alert from the shock. Read more
Published 22 months ago by P. Waits

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, if almost as asphyxiating as the culture it describes
I really enjoyed Hyland's later novel but I'm finding this one a little excruciating in the hyper-'gawkiness' of its principal character. Read more
Published 23 months ago by rumbletumble

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
Lou is 16 and moves from Sydney to Chicago as part of an exchange program. Secretly, she is not planning on going home and hopes that life in America will provide her with what... Read more
Published on 12 Mar 2007 by Mandy

5.0 out of 5 stars tremendous
I loved this book. You can feel the excruciating embarassment of Lou as she is forced to deal with patronising suburban america on escaping her chaotic poor family in australia... Read more
Published on 20 Feb 2007 by P. J. Mowat

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