Light of Day

by Jamie M. Saul

“An exhilarating emotional roller-coaster ride.”
— Washington Post “Haunting, beautifully-written, and heart-wrenching.”
—Harlan Coben With his shattering, extraordinarily affecting debut novel, Light of Day , author Jamie M. Saul made a powerful, incontrovertible a major American writer had arrived on the literary scene. The author of The First Warm Evening of the Year , Saul mesmerizes with the unforgettable story of a small-town Midwestern professor struggling to come to terms with a devastating tragedy and the strange and terrible mystery at its core.

Genres: Fiction, Mental Health, Drama

336 pages, Hardcover

First published May 10, 2005

About the author

I was born and raised in the Bronx, New York, attended public school there, and graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School, an all-boys school, at the time, with renowned alumni that includes Richard Avedon, the great photographer; novelist James Baldwin; playwrights and screenwriters Paddy Chayefsky and Neil Simon; and several famous actors, film directors, and athletes. I received my bachelors degree in English from Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana.

For most my life, all I wanted to do, which is to say the only thing I wanted to be, was a writer, and all my energies were directed toward that goal. Most everything else about me that is pertinent can be found in the P.S. material at the back of the Harper Perennial edition of my novel Light of Day. I can add that my life has been and still is fairly unremarkable. I have very little in common with the characters of Light of Day. I don't have any children. I have never been divorced nor abandoned by a wife, and except for being a guest professor at Yale, I've never held a position with a college or university. I will say that I have a dislike of facile thinking; one's mind should always stay open and remain keen to change and new ideas. To quote e.e. cummings "…even if it's Sunday, may i be wrong."

I have a deep love for baseball, and enjoy American and foreign films. This interest in film began the first time I saw Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) a dazzling film directed by Jacque Demy, with music by Michel Legrand, and starring a young Catherine Deneuve. Since then, I have discovered and enjoyed the works of some of the great filmmakers, including Jean-Luc Goddard, Francois Truffaut, Alain Resnais, Federico Fellini, Roman Polanksi, Ingmar Bergman, Billy Wilder, Alan Rudolph (get your hands on The Moderns for a visual treat), the Coen Brothers, and who am I leaving out? Stanley Kubrick, Bernardo Bertolucci, Roberto Rossellini, Luchino Visconti, Akira Kurosawa, Woody Allen, Martin Scorcese…

My interest in art and artists also began around the time I discovered foreign cinema, and the artists I admire are also mentioned in my P.S. material, but I will add that along with Paul Cézanne, I consider Marcel Duchamp among the most important artists and thinkers of the modern era.

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read alot of mysteries like Robert Crais, Stephen White, Walter Satherwaite, Thomas Perry, Anne Perry (notice how I worked all of these in?) but I never put them on Goodreads. This book however, could be considered a mystery in a way, but a mystery with ethical challenges. Not that you don't find ethical challenges in the more formulaic mysteries, but they are such cream puffs, such bon bons. This one is about a single father, a professor, who has more or less sacrificed his life (snore, formulaic) to raise his son. But the novel is not formulaic. Well, maybe it is, but with more girth. When an unthinkable thing happens to his beloved son, the professor, Jack, can't stop trying to work it out. Eventually, he does. What would any of us do?

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I should not have liked this book...but I really did like it! On the one hand it was depressing as hell and didn't end the way I had wanted it to-one the other hand I was engrossed throughout and couldn't stop reading. The characters are so well drawn that you end up feeling as lost as Jack, and really get to know Danny and Anne even though you only meet them in memories. The "surprise" at the end of part II shouldn't have been as shocking as it was-I had kind of figured that that's where the story was heading-yet I was blown away at the reveal. I don't have the words to explain this experience, I'm just glad that I had it.

[Victoria · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book opened strongly, and finished stronger still - unfortunately it completely lacked a strong middle. Those pages drew on (and on!), slowing the pace of the book down to a miserable crawl, more or less ruining it. It really felt like a particular betrayal after the interest generated in the beginning pages, and when it started picking back up, it only made the middle section feel even worse.

For a book that left the plot to the beginning and ending, it had terrible characters to sustain it through the slow middle. No one was particularly likeable, and almost all of them seemed completely unreal. Any moments of reality captured didn't include any of the characters.
Female characters were particularly lacking in this novel. Those that did appear were only given weak motivations and no real, clear or distinct voice.

I felt like some of the "minor" characters were more interesting than the main characters, and the book could have perhaps spiced up the lagging middle by including their portion of the story. All in all, the book was entertaining enough to finish, but it ultimately did not feel like my enjoyment was equal to the time spent reading it.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was meh, ok. I had to speed-read some chapters because they were just so long and over the top. I'll admit, I skipped to the end and back-tracked. I don't usually do this but I was just so frustrated with the endless, heartbreaking morose and mourning, not to mention the repetitiveness. I understand that's the author's special technique but I found it pointless and annoying. Even though it had chapters that went on and on and on with no point, I was left with questions and a lot of holes. The police couldn't track down Danny's mother? Really? Come on...especially since she left them to pursue her art and it seemed like she was on the brink of being famous. An artist supposedly as good as her doesn't just fall off the face of the earth. I would have liked to have read something about her learning her son's fate and how it would have affected her status in the art world. Didn't get the whole Marty character and kept waiting for an ulterior motive on his part. I also didn't get how Marty's divorce equated to Jack's tragedy. Not exactly on the same scale of effed-upness.

I actually enjoyed the insights in the appendix more than several chapters of this book.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Owens is a university professor whose wife decided to leave him and their very young son to pursue her artistic career. This is a devastating blow to both Jack and their son, Danny. Jack and Danny eventually build a life for themselves in a quiet community with friends and trusted colleagues. Their bond with each other is unbreakable until Danny is found dead of an alleged suicide, Jack's world spins out of control, and he is left with many questions. This is a very well written book about the effects of grief and the guilt surrounding a suicide. One haunting question remains the premise of this book for both Danny and Jack: which is more important- truth or loyalty? This is a book that will remain with me for a long time as I ponder the truths and loyalties of both of their lives.

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a touching story about a father who loses a son to suicide and then tries to pull his life together. It has a lot of psychology and a lot of heart.

[Cheryl Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very engaging novel by a first time author. It pulls you in and holds you until the end. It's an easy read and a good way to relax on these cold winter (spring?) afternoons!!

[Jen Rasanen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished reading this for my book club. Loved the book. It was not at all what I expected. Jamie M. Saul's writing pulled me in and kept me wondering "What next" until the end.

[Cindy Grossi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely beautifully written and heart wrenching

[Alejandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Emotional.
For me, slow pace and at times, the extensive details, detracted from the book. But still worth the time investment to read.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part I found this book depressing and sad. It got better the last quarter. Which is more important, honesty or loyalty is a thought provoking and can be a hard question to answer.

[Linda Manley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow, what a novel. Jamie Saul had me thinking all the way through this book. I thought I could see where this story was headed, but I was wrong.

My heart went out to Dr. Jack Owens and his son Danny. Neither Jack or Anne felt ready to have a child, yet they decided to have the baby they had created. They both loved their son. Anne was an artist and felt she needed something other than being the mother and wife to her family. When Anne left, Jack did everything based on giving the best life he could imagine for his child. I admired his dedication and what a good father he was.

How sad and yet this story certainly could be a true and accurate road for a parent to take under these circumstances. I wanted to see the future and the past all at the same time.

I will read the other work(s) of Jamie Saul. He has a wonderful way of writing.

[Debby · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title and the back cover was deceiving when I picked up this book . I read the surprising beginning then skipped a huge chunk of the middle and read the last two chapters .
The theme of the book is good ,I just found it tedious ...the descriptions off track ...things like this happen in the news and is courageous of the author to try to tackle the subject ,yet it did not convey me the deep feeling I would expect with such sadness and the turn of events .
I would have been better as a short story !

[Anny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh.

I really didn't enjoy reading this book. It was long. There was a lot of unnecessary fluff in the middle. I never really locked step with the writer's rhythm. And the book is depressing as hell.

But I have spent some time since finishing it thinking about it so there was some redeemable quality to it.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book, but the pacing was a bit off. I really enjoyed the story and I was very drawn to find out what exactly had happened.

The ending threw me. I turned the page, expecting to find more story, and instead found the afterward.

Overall, a read I don't regret and one that I'll probably recommend to others, but I won't read it again.

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, I am not sure why this book is only a little over 3 stars. This was an amazingly written book. Very dark as it deals with the catastrophic loss of a child through suicide. The author describes so vividly what is is like for Jack, the father, to deal with the loss and slowly put his life back together. Poignantly written.

[Nancy Keyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met Jamie this summer and was so immediately drawn to him and his lovely wife I was very curious about his writing. I read that "Light of Day" was "dark". Of course, the story is sad but I found the writing quite "gentle". Most of the characters treated each other with a kindness that you don't often see. I loved the long, long sentences and the way they were crafted.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saul tells the tale of a father in rural Indiana who is trying to come to grips with his 15-year old son's suicide. Through almost all flashbacks, we get fleshed-out characters and stories. This is not a real uplifting story, but it is a good one.

[Judy]

This book was hard to read, yet I could hardly bear to put it down. It was almost a mystery and definitely a tragedy. I would not recomment it to anyone who is easily upset. Would I read it again? No. Am I glad I read it? Yes. Just be prepared to be very saddened at the end of the book.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't get into this book at all. The imagery wasn't bad, but I just couldn't stand how depressing it was reading this book. I often considered stopping, but I wanted to see if I was right about the ending. I was pretty close to right, but not happy about it.

[Kay · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a horrible book. It was depressing throughout and could have been half as long. It is the worst book I have ever read and I read a lot of books! I can't believe I read the whole thing. Just awful!

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book was very well written and the emotions of the main character came through loud and clear, which is the point of the book. I found it to be depressing and quit in the middle, which I never do. I think it is a good book but I was not in a mood to feel sad whenever I read it.

[alicia grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

I probably would have liked the story more if it wasn't so darn depressing.It's a good read about a single father and his son though.It's very hearbreaking but real.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Couldn't decide if repetition was an intentional style choice or lack of attention. Distracting regardless. Not a feel good book at all.

[Carolyn Monaghan]

Had to put this one aside. Too depressing.

[Kristen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Depressing. If you want to read about a teenage suicide after he makes stupid mistakes and commiserate with a father for chapter after chapter, then read it. Not my kind of book.

[Angie · Rating 2 out of 5]

wonderful writing, terrible ending.

[Janet Nuss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the kind of book I normally read. Very moving and sad. Huge twist I didn't see coming and the kind of ending that Stephen King would appreciate. It is a well written and thoughtful book.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my goodness, excellent book!

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A haunting story of how you can do everything right and life still happens. Heartbreaking and gripping. Good read.