The Bright Forever

This book is dark. It involves the abduction of a nine year old girl from a small Indiana town in the summer of 1971. Unfortunately, this story happens all the time in real life and I wouldnt doubt it was based on one or more true stories. It was totally believable. There are two men in the town with dirty secrets. One has a thing for children. The other is addicted to drugs. They are next door neighbors and use and blackmail each other. The story builds like a jigsaw puzzle, a piece at a time. Each time you think you know what really happened, there's something else. The author examines the guilt of all the characters, raising complex issues of morality. You do find out what really happened, as well. There is "closure" on that matter, which sadly is often lacking for families that actually go through an experience like this. I think it's definitely worth reading, although some may find the story upsetting. I'd be interested in this author's other books.

THE BRIGHT FOREVER is a haunting, evocative story about a little girl who never comes home from a trip to the library, and the complex, fractured lives of the people who have played a role in her brief existence. The novel is a treat to read: brilliantly suspenseful, thought-provoking, and beautifully and compassionately written.

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.

In a summer night in 1972 Tower Hill, Indiana, nine-year-old Katie bikes to the library but fails to return home. Her family owns the "itty-bitty" town's biggest business a glassworks firm and is considered Tower Hill's First Family so when something happens, townsfolk react. Katie's parents and her teenage older brother seem to love Katie, who always appeared contented. Her summer math tutor reticent lonely Henry kissed the preadolescent on the day she vanished and has stolen hair from her bedroom; he feels guilty for his pedophilic desires but his student respected him something he has never known especially during his abusive childhood. Remarried widow Clare knows her charming abusive spouse Raymond has drug induced blackouts and wonders could he have killed the girl. Raymond knows that pathetic Henry has a crush on the little girl and uses it. Though hope remains at first, as days pass, a stunned town believes the First Daughter is dead. The searchers become angry while pondering their own transgressions; increasingly the conversation turns towards avenging vigilante righteousness. Readers will appreciate this tense thriller that brings the underlying tension of the Ox-Bow Incident to the 1970s. The seemingly simple act of riding a bike turns ugly forcing everyone to introspect on their own sins as the changing perspectives enable the audience to understand the actions and reactions over a few days to the missing child; especially intriguing is Katie's parents wondering if they are being "punished". The collective guilt (though overdone) insures that THE BRIGHT FOREVER turns eternally dark for the townsfolk as the loss of innocence means no counterbalance to the eternal gloom of adulthood's reality shattering youthful dreams. Harriet Klausner

This novel got me through a long plane ride -- it's both riveting and beautifully written although definitely emotionally painful as well. I love the way Lee Martin captures the rhythm of small-town life and I equally admire the way he gently leads the reader into a compassionate view of even the most potentially loathsome of characters. Two thumbs up!