Today is the day! "As Bright as Heaven" is released! I am grateful to have been given an opportunity to read this new novel from Susan Meissner in advance of its publication date, thanks to Penguin Random House and Bookish First!
As a fan of historical fiction and family sagas told from varying perspectives, I found the book to be an enjoyable read. The subject matter, a family new to Philadelpha, coping with the outbreak of the Spanish Flu epidemic, is a heavy subject, but the author writes in a very approachable manner which should appeal to a wide variety of readers.
I can easily see this book being optioned for a screenplay and I would love to see how it would come alive in film. Some of the minor issues I had were related to character development, and I think that an adaptation would be forced to wrestle with some of these issues.
I loved getting to know the four points of view of the Bright family women and girls. Pauline, the family matriarch, and her three daughters, Evie, Maggie, and Willa. I believe that the story could have been enriched by possibly eliminating the point of view of the youngest child, Willa, and adding the perspective of Pauline's husband or Uncle Fred, who opened his home to the family initially, drawing them to Philadelphia in the first place for the purpose of training the girls' father in the art of mortuary science. Willa evolved as she got older and later served an interesting role in introducing the era of prohibition into the novel, but honestly, this seems like a loose direction intended to perhaps create an opening for a follow up novel on the lives of the three girls' transition to adulthood.
In addition, I wanted to love Maggie and Pauline, too, and I certainly was rooting for them throughout the novel, but their motivation behind actions and lack of self awareness as to what drove them to make certain decisions could be frustrating. Were Pauline and Maggie's pull toward helping in the morgue meant to indicate that they are tragic figures? Why couldn't they just speak their truths? Perhaps these are questions that Meissner intentionally left open ended as a way to explore the gray area of moving through uncertainty and tragedy, but I had a hard time coming to terms with what made them tick and why they took the risks they did.
Further, there was a lot of blind faith in asking the reader to come along with Maggie's love for Jamie when there is no development of that relationship once they are older and little understanding of what really cinched the transition from youthful puppy love to full blown adult adoration. I found a similar thread in the story line with Evie and Conrad. I don't doubt these character's capacity to love those that they do, but I want to see more about the how and why of it, especially with the ground laid earlier in the novel regarding the loving and natural relationship between the girls' parents.
I would have done a few things differently, but I'm the reader, not the author, and despite these nits, I do believe that "As Bright as Heaven" is a worthwhile read for those of us that enjoy historical fiction, women's stories, and family sagas. There is a little bit of noise which obstructs the primary story line, but it does not in any way detract from a satisfying conclusion.
As a fan of historical fiction and family sagas told from varying perspectives, I found the book to be an enjoyable read. The subject matter, a family new to Philadelpha, coping with the outbreak of the Spanish Flu epidemic, is a heavy subject, but the author writes in a very approachable manner which should appeal to a wide variety of readers.
I can easily see this book being optioned for a screenplay and I would love to see how it would come alive in film. Some of the minor issues I had were related to character development, and I think that an adaptation would be forced to wrestle with some of these issues.
I loved getting to know the four points of view of the Bright family women and girls. Pauline, the family matriarch, and her three daughters, Evie, Maggie, and Willa. I believe that the story could have been enriched by possibly eliminating the point of view of the youngest child, Willa, and adding the perspective of Pauline's husband or Uncle Fred, who opened his home to the family initially, drawing them to Philadelphia in the first place for the purpose of training the girls' father in the art of mortuary science. Willa evolved as she got older and later served an interesting role in introducing the era of prohibition into the novel, but honestly, this seems like a loose direction intended to perhaps create an opening for a follow up novel on the lives of the three girls' transition to adulthood.
In addition, I wanted to love Maggie and Pauline, too, and I certainly was rooting for them throughout the novel, but their motivation behind actions and lack of self awareness as to what drove them to make certain decisions could be frustrating. Were Pauline and Maggie's pull toward helping in the morgue meant to indicate that they are tragic figures? Why couldn't they just speak their truths? Perhaps these are questions that Meissner intentionally left open ended as a way to explore the gray area of moving through uncertainty and tragedy, but I had a hard time coming to terms with what made them tick and why they took the risks they did.
Further, there was a lot of blind faith in asking the reader to come along with Maggie's love for Jamie when there is no development of that relationship once they are older and little understanding of what really cinched the transition from youthful puppy love to full blown adult adoration. I found a similar thread in the story line with Evie and Conrad. I don't doubt these character's capacity to love those that they do, but I want to see more about the how and why of it, especially with the ground laid earlier in the novel regarding the loving and natural relationship between the girls' parents.
I would have done a few things differently, but I'm the reader, not the author, and despite these nits, I do believe that "As Bright as Heaven" is a worthwhile read for those of us that enjoy historical fiction, women's stories, and family sagas. There is a little bit of noise which obstructs the primary story line, but it does not in any way detract from a satisfying conclusion.