Radiance: A Novel

by Louis B. Jones

Mark Perdue has so many problems that when he starts feeling chest pains on the tarmac at LAX, it dawns on him that a heart attack might be an efficient way out. Once an eminent physicist, he hasn't published or had a new idea in a decade. The younger professors at UC Berkeley pity him, and he's taken to using the back staircases to avoid their looks. At home, his wife has been inconsolable since the recent late–term abortion of their afflicted fetus. And he can't deny it any longer—he is decidedly losing his mental faculties to chronic Lyme disease.Now Mark is visiting Los Angeles with his ambitious daughter, Carlotta, so she can attend a "Celebrity Fantasy Vacation," in which she is promised three days and two nights of the rock star lifestyle. On stage, Carlotta sings her way to a new self–confidence, giving Mark a glimmer of joy in her sense of victory. But then she disappears with her newly acquired paraplegic boyfriend to take an excursion to the Hollywood sign and gets them all arrested, Mark included. Mark now faces a night in jail—and maybe a hint of what he really needs to be happy.

Genres: Fiction, Drama

226 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2011

About the author

Louis B. Jones is the author of three New York Times Notable Books - Ordinary Money (Viking 1990, Penguin 1991), Particles and Luck (Pantheon 1993, Vintage 1994), and California’s Over (Pantheon 1997, Vintage 1998). His newest novel, Radiance, will be published by Counterpoint Press May 2011. He is an NEA fellow and a fellow of the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. He has written screenplays – originals and adaptations of his own work – for studios and for independents. He's been a regular reviewer for the New York Times Book Review and has served as visiting writer at a number of colleges around the country. For some years he has acted as the Fiction Director for the Squaw Valley Community of Writers.

Reviews

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book through the first reads program.

This is not only a story but an inspiring and intelligent novel. As the completely original plot line commences, the reader sees things in the eyes of a physicist. The reader uses this lens to examine love in many stages: the mature love that Mark has for Audrey, the lust that he feels for Blythe, the immature love of Bodie and Lotta, and the fatherly love that Mark has for Lotta.

Not only is there an examination of love but a thorough examination of humanity and philosophy. My favorite portion of the book is the section where Bodie and Mark are spending time together in a jail cell. The writing is genius as the two intelligent men challenge each other over numerous subjects. I absolutely loved it.

This book gets five stars for making me think. It is lovely.

[Hock Tjoa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Radiance (published in 2011) begins disarmingly with a familiar scene. A San Francisco parent (Mark) accompanies a teenager to an (expensive) Fantasy Celebrity Vacation in Los Angeles, enabled by a recent inheritance and prompted by the discovery that his daughter (Lotta) had started shopping among senior high schools in Connecticut. She plots to leave us. But barely has the "Fasten Your Seat-belts" sign been turned off than we find ourselves in deep, heavy territory.

Mortality, late-term abortion, and the quality of life are the weighty considerations homing in like predator drones at the reader almost from the beginning of Radiance. "Death abides always there in constant contact ... in the Periodic Tables of Elements' basic, cool powders and metals and crystals and colorless odors, while the sensation of 'life' is merely the rarest, briefest tingle through all the galaxies' endless tonnage."

The turmoil faced by the parents who eventually decided on the late term abortion is hinted at by the abandonment of her vocation as a corporate lawyer by the perfect wife who then dons the hair-shirt of a middle-aged mom apprenticed as a carpenter, driving herself into exhaustion working with Habitat for Humanity. Atonement by heavy labor without lunch breaks. The sonograms had revealed a "hydro-cephalic condition," the fetus appeared "cretinous-looking." Teenage daughter, whose "ethical equipment was somewhat simplistic," initially declared for termination, upholding a woman's right to choose and the prospect of a short and unhappy life for what would become her brother. Within a month she had changed her mind.

Then she met Brodie.

He was a senior, a "paraplegic boy drummer" at the Fantasy weekend who had learned "to extract his rewards from the world by asserting intellectual dominance." His own condition was a "defect from birth" and "now he's got the grateful-to-be-alive gospel." Teenage daughter reports that he declares the lost life would have been "the same as ours in terms of absolute value." Father dreads the inevitable conversation, the impending battle "with those innocent certainties."

Somewhere between the Hollywood sign (Los Angeles continued to look, to this northern Californian, "like local news crime scene footage") and the Santa Monica Police Precinct (it has wheel-chair access), and while enduring in the holding cell "the 120-volt clang of its inner electromagnets" and the old metal bars "painted the old Wrigley's Doublemint green," Mark concludes, "the truth is, a physicist and a lawyer are worth more than a paralyzed, retarded, blind baby. [Otherwise] the evening sound of dishes is as great as the Milky Way or the sensation of cotton fabric is as profound as the Seven Wonders of the World."

Brodie persists in asking "What is everything made of these days, ... below atoms and quarks and super strings?" Mark wonders whether "it would be odd if inquiring into his ideas as a physicist should seem more insolent than kissing his daughter." But he affirms that "two plus two would eternally equal four ... even in the emptiness before the beginning of time.... The principle alone furnished the radiance to have made matter originally bead up out of nothing."

[Tuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 star. Interesting novel from the viewpoint of a middle class physicist who has way more problems than getting cited in the journals. Health problems, lost baby problems, 16 year old daughter problems, lust problems.... and more. There is some comedy, some science, lots of pop culture, and driving around LA, and chondria, hypo and otherwise. The .5 star pushing this book toward 4star is the very interesting ideas of theoretical physics in relation to common human drama. the less than 4 stars comes from rather flat and not so funny funny parts. Maybe i will try some earlier novels as his fans seem to prefer them.

[Aaron Ambrose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those rare things - a literary sequel. The original story, "Particles and Luck," is one of my all-time favorite novels. I belatedly learned about this sequel, published in 2011, and that triggered me to re-read the first book and get my paws on this one. Like the first book, "Radiance" takes place over about 10 hours in the life of Mark Perdue, a physicist with a boy-wonder past who's since dried up. Again most of the action takes place overnight, during a figurative darkness of the soul. The plot is beside the point - everything that happens, every character who appears, is a shiny bauble for Jones to bat around and play with for 8 pages, or a sentence, whatever his curiosity dictates. Highlights for me were the barkingly funny, highly non-PC observations on concerns like marriage, a daughter's first sexual experience, genetic disorders, abortion, and survivor guilt. Jones is brilliant at dissecting conflicted hearts - and forgiving them - and this book is a cantankerous little jewel of a novel.

[Akemi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this beautifully written story about a physicist and his daughter on a ‘Celebrity Vacation’ together. The concept of the Celebrity Vacation is in itself an amusing and effective place to begin the story and throughout what at first appears to be a facetious event all of the characters are drawn out by their experiences. In a short window of time we learn a lot about the protagonist, Mark, and his daughter, through carefully constructed details and delicate descriptions and we see how this weekend in the ‘celebrity’ world changes each of them and their relationship. Mark is a great protagonist, I wanted to root for him (and I did throughout) but there were many ways in which he tried to sabotage his own popularity as a main character. He is far from perfect which I felt made him believable and relatable and made me want to find out what would happen to him all the more.

[Marci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only on page twenty-something but realized that the main character, Mark Perdue, is the very same fella as in Particles & Luck. I read it too long ago to recall all the specifics, other than that it amazed me in challenging my decidedly non-scientific and philosophically out-of-practice brain while making me laugh. It will be nice to see how Mark Perdue has fared after all this time.

Okay finished. I recognize the voice and found this book as articulate and interesting (as a non-science person I enjoy the philosophizing of someone who isn't right-brained spell themselves out, and their world, so well that my own brain grasps the character so fully) but didn't find it as funny or touching as I've found him before, despite there being ample cause in the story. And it's not a judgment on how the Noddy thing was handled or Mark's feelings or non-feelings. Still a great read that I zipped through, and my only chance to read these days is when I'm nursing. So that's saying something. Looking forward to devouring the next Louis B. Jones venture.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Radiance was a puzzle for me. I really did like the way the book turned out, with the starlet obsessed with stardom coming into her own, but it was the in between that was a blur. A self-depreciating father, a mother who we never really get to know, a family tragedy...all of this whirls into a cacophony of literary prose that makes the reader want to continue, want to see what happens, no matter what the opinion of the book previously was. On a moral sense, I didn't like how easily the author addressed adultery but I suppose that is the way the world has gone, in this day and age. Louis has a way with words, and if you want a good coming-of-age story, with a number of life lessons along the way, this would be good for you. I just thought there were too many elements that didn't quite jive together nicely for me.

[Grandma · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a few days to get through this one. It was a very well written story and the story itself was interesting. I just didn't get really drawn in by the characters. I have to say that this is not a book I would normally pick up because I tend to read romance novels. But I want to try to expand my reading and so I enter the contest here on Goodreads and won a copy of Radiance. I am very glad that I read it because it is making me rethink other titles as well. I will definately keep my eyes open for more books by Louis B. Jones.

[Meryl Natchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Louis B. Jones is that rare author who can articulate complex feelings while seamlessly moving the plot along. This is his fourth book--and it's right up there with his best. See some excerpts at http://www.dactyls-and-drakes.com/lit.... And if you haven't yet, read his earlier books.

[Cindi Dimichele · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this a 4, because I couldn't give it a 3.5. This was my first Kindle "read"; it was ?????? ical plot. The thing I did not like was the ending. It's one of those books I felt like the author couldn't think of a way to wrap it up, so just ended it.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

A "philosophical novel," according to the NYT review.

Too much "philosophy" & too little story. If the book had been longer, I wouldn't have finished it.

[Shelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh, I had to make myself finish this book.

[Rachel Ford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written. Quirky, deep, and full of questions. A great book by a masterful writer.