Recap A NORTHERN LIGHT by Jennifer Donnelly

Elysium is as far as to
The very nearest room,
If in that room a friend await
Felicity or doom.

What fortitude the soul contains,
That it can so endure
The accent of a coming foot,
The opening of a door!

~ Emily Dickinson (1830-86)

The way the book structure is a bit confusing at times, but the word-of-the-day helps keep track of where the thoughts change. Some of the flashbacks become muddled as the flashbacks and current activities converge. However, the story moves well and keeps an intensity that would otherwise, make the story a bit long winded and less exciting. Donnelly's writing however is well crafted.

We discussed the juxtaposition of the beginning paragraph being so serenely pastoral in detail and then sharply changed by the last line of the page. It really is the entire tone of the story. While Mattie is trying to find the beauty of life she is constantly reminded of the struggle and despair that surrounds her life. While the tone of the book is somewhat mysterious it is more about the journey of Mattie than the mystery of the murdered young woman.

One of the themes we really saw in this book was the price of knowledge. At first Mattie sees knowledge as freedom in her mind through reading and writing, but knowledge comes in many forms and can be harnessed to a burden. As the lose of innocence starts to envelop Mattie, she realizes that knowledge certainly has power, but in very unexpected ways.

Along with knowledge came the idea of the Power of Words. Weaver's strength and weakness was in his reaction to words. It was both what cause of problems for him and what brings him back to his senses. Words in Grace's letters had the power, in real life, to convict Chester and, in the story, helped Mattie set her life in a new direction. Words as weapons are shown through the word "fights" between Mattie & Weaver, but also in the way words can bring people down or lift them up such as Weaver's temper towards the trappers and Royal's careless words towards Mattie.

Power of Words also connects with the idea of Promises. In the end, Mattie chooses to break both her promises to the now dead women in her life in order to survive herself. She needs to leave in order to make a better life for herself and realizes that she is not responsible and cannot control her sisters lives, but only live her own. Furthermore, it is her breaking of the promise to burn the letters, that will resolve the murder of Grace Brown. Justice couldn't prevail had the letters not been saved. In breaking these promises, Mattie realizes that she can save herself and give something, perhaps, to others that she could not if she kept the promises requested of desperate women who were in some stage of dying.

Character notes: Mattie was a good leading character, although a bit too naive at times for some of our sensibilities. Weaver was a strong character and it was nice, if not a little questionable because of the era, to see such a strong minority character. We all enjoyed the relationship between Mattie and Weaver. We all were very disturbed, but again acknowledge that the era certainly supported, the relationship between Royal and Mattie. Royal in modern times is just plain creepy. He is after Mattie for a specific objective which doesn't actually include loving her. He treats her more like an object than a person. When Mattie wonders if a woman can be unmanned or even unbrained, the consensus was that "yes" she was unbrained by Royal. She let herself be the "dumb" girl when he gave her attention. Other interesting characters included Mattie's father, sister Lou and Emmie. These were all very complex characters dealing with things that made them less of a person for most of the book.

Mattie's dad just couldn't function after the loss of their mother. He was inept and in such deep despair that he couldn't see what his family really needed. Yet, there were moments where he was genuinely concerned. Mattie learned to understand him, but could not abide or agree with him in the end.

Lou had been dad's favorite and was obviously the Tomboy of the family, but was there other underlying currents. She was wild and uncontrollable. Our discussion questioned if this was just because of the loss of basically both her parents' affection or if perhaps she was having serious sexual identification issues and how, during that era, would that have been handled?

Emmie was a woman who was taken advantage of. had no self-respect. Was the realtionship between Emmie & Royal's father ever a loving one or simply a trade-in-kind for his support. She was considered the "problem" in the community, but she was given the chance to pull herself together and get some dignity back when Weaver's mother needed help.

These characters were neither all good or all bad. They were complex and more human than many characters in YA and adult lit.

This book referenced the early literary women Jane Austen and Emily Dickinson. This book left us deliberating over the question of "words vs love". This was often a struggle and/or underlying theme of these earlier authors. Can you have both? Can this still be a challenge today for young women?

Members of the club... please add your input and thoughts on this book. Next book: Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers.