Lee Martin’s The Bright Forever was short listed for the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 and since he is a professor at The Ohio State University, I thought it appropriate to read as my last book in Ohio.
The book is set in 1970s Indiana and is told in multiple voices of people from the town. It centers around who is guilty for the disappearance of a 9 year old girl, Katie, on a summer evening. The book is labeled “literary suspense” and you really are kept in suspense about who did what to Katie until the last 5 pages of the book.
The book does have writing worthy of a Pulitzer short list, but the characters are all so unlikable that I couldn't really connect. The front jacket flap compares it to Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, which, if you’re in the market for a book about what happens to a family after their daughter is murdered (and really, who ISN'T?), I would definitely recommend over The Bright Forever.
The book is set in 1970s Indiana and is told in multiple voices of people from the town. It centers around who is guilty for the disappearance of a 9 year old girl, Katie, on a summer evening. The book is labeled “literary suspense” and you really are kept in suspense about who did what to Katie until the last 5 pages of the book.
The book does have writing worthy of a Pulitzer short list, but the characters are all so unlikable that I couldn't really connect. The front jacket flap compares it to Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, which, if you’re in the market for a book about what happens to a family after their daughter is murdered (and really, who ISN'T?), I would definitely recommend over The Bright Forever.
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