Sometimes a Light Surprises

Sometimes a Light Surprises by Jamie Langston Turner is a poignant and beautifully written novel about how the quiet faith of just one person can make ripples and touch everyone around her. Ben Buckley has removed himself for the most part from the emotion of living after the murder of his wife Chloe twenty-one years ago. He turned over the care of his four children to his mother, allowing her to make excuses for his absence until he's no longer a part of any of their lives. Kelly Kovatch has lived a sheltered life in a Christian home-schooled family of eleven children until her mother's diagnosis of cancer forces her to seek a job at Ben's store as a designer. He initially gives her the job out of a bit of pity, but her unshakable faith and gentle spirit brings change to everyone who works at the store, including Ben's crotchety secretary Caroline, who decides to investigate Chloe's murder for herself. This is not a wildly romantic or action-packed novel. It almost feels like peeking into someone's real life and watching in wonder. Every character is fully realized; no stereotypes or caricatures here! Ben has filled his life with rituals and busyness to escape the gaping hole in his life left by the murder of Chloe and the defection of his children. His quiet awakening corresponds with the emergence of Kelly's confidence. The story builds quietly, one small piece placed upon another until it ends, naturally, wonderfully. It's a terrific book to lose yourself in for an afternoon.

This is my first time reading a book by this author and all I can say is Wow! It was low-key and not at all the norm, but riveting from start to finish. I couldn't put it down. The book is all about the healing process of a man who lost his wife and erected all kinds of emotional walls over the years in an attempt to cope with the situation. The wonderful way God put people and circumstances into his life that slowly demolished those walls is the essence of the story. In the process, the author gives us insight into several other peoples' lives and family synamics. I recommend this book if you are tired of the same ol' same ol' and want to try something fresh and new.

Who would think that the story of a dumpy and word-obsessed widower would have anything of interest to offer? Trust Jamie Langston Turner to show, in her novel Sometimes a Light Surprises, that it does. Ben has never recovered from the murder of his wife Chloe over 20 years ago. Her death was especially hard to take because of how he treated her in the weeks just preceding. If he'd hoped to jolt her out of the religious kick she was on with his sarcasm and silence, it hadn't worked. The murder aftermath was so traumatic, he couldn't be blamed for giving over the parenting of their four children to his mother, could he. Trouble is, these many years later he and his kids are still estranged. When young home-schooled Kelly Kovatch applies for a job at the Bazaar he owns and manages, he surprises himself by hiring her. Maybe it's more curiosity than anything, because she has the same last name as the religious woman who befriended and beguiled Chloe just before her death. The book is full of wonderful characters. Caroline, Ben's secretary, is convinced that he, with his obsession over the origins of phrases and office littered with lists, is a little crazy. She, herself, has a hate on for men but a love of mysteries. Some of Ben's family, especially his driven eldest daughter Shelly, and bitter Erin, are interesting studies. Then there's Kelly herself -- earnest, sincere, devout, likable but so naïve and sheltered, it's almost as if she's from another galaxy. Turner often reveals the characters through their thoughts. These are brought to us in a stream of consciousness way so we are taken on all kinds of rambling journeys to the past and the imagined future. Ben questions the value of his photographic memory as snatches from his reading in Chloe's Bible come to mind at the oddest times. Of course this is rewarding for us because the quotes add wisdom, depth and layers of meaning. Family is a theme that runs through the book. Ben's family is certainly dysfunctional but in Sometimes a Light Surprises there are second chances, grace and redemption. These things don't come in a blaze or flash but slowly, as William Cowper describes it in the poem from which the title is taken: "Sometimes a light surprises the Christian while he sings; It is the Lord who rises with healing in his wings..." (p. 399) This is a quiet but moving and gracious story with all kinds of wisdom and other delights found on its pages.

This not a romantic love story but it is truly a love story. Life's experiences make us so different, some of us turn out pretty good and some of us turn to stone. Ms. Turner brought to life these broken people and showed us their insides, and how a loving God works for our good and it is a "Light Surprise"! It is wonderfully written, not preachy but lovingly done. Thank you, Jamie Langston Turner for writing a book that touched me so deeply. I was looking for a "typically christian love story" but I could not put this book down, it was too interesting! And it was a "Light Surprise!

Since I discovered this author years ago when I read her first novel, The Suncatchers, I have been captivated by this author's unique style, the quality of her writing, her unusual sense of humor, and the down-to-earth nature of her spiritual message. These attributes have been consistent in each of her subsequent novels, and this latest one, which I eagerly awaited and just finished reading, did not disappoint me. The characters are varied, complex, amusing and intriguing. The story line left me guessing to the very end how all the strands would come together, and they did, but on a level deeper than I had expected. Early in the book, one of her characters expressed her disappointment with a Christian novel that tied everything up sweetly in the end, and from then on I enjoyed wondering how the author would avoid doing that herself.