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Keeper of the Light
Colin McRae seems to have found his life's fulfillment in his position as Keeper of the light at Highland Lighthouse in Cape Cod. His life changes when he must travel into Provincetown to find a housekeeper and companion for his ailing sister. The only person available is a young mysterious girl who is thought of as the town "dummy" because she is mute. Life at Highland Light would never be the same again.
378 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1996
30 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 19, 2015
I had enjoyed the last book I read by Brad Meltzer that when I took it back to the library I went over to the shelves to get another of his books, but by accident picked up a copy of this book, which was the next one in line after the group books by Meltzer, and the cover — an unlikely picture of a lighthouse (unlikely because it shows an East Coast lighthouse as a silhouette against sunrise clouds in a darkening sky) — caught my attention, because I have a thing for lighthouses, and the come-on script on the back cover identified the time as 1797, which also intrigued me.
The story is about a young (mid-20s) man, Colin MacRae, from a well-to-do family in Boston, Massachusetts, who decided to go into the lighthouse service and after serving his apprenticeship was assigned to Cape Cod’s Highland Light, which had been built in 1792 –accompanied by his 30-year-old sister, Catherine, who was in very poor health but still counted as family, which was a requirement of lighthouse service at that time. After six months, Colin was nearly exhausted, since he had to do all the work around the lighthouse, including the cleaning and maintenance, as well as taking care of his ill sister, so he set out to hire some help, but the only person available in the community was a 16-year-old girl who could not talk, and who came with a very large dog named Rex that she had rescued from the sea when he was a puppy.
Am I going to spoil the story by saying what happens. One of the more interesting parts of the book to me was the portrayal of life as it was lived in New England at the end of the 18th century. As you might expect, it was not an easy life. I did not expect it to be easy, but I was a bit taken aback by the apparently valid portrayal of the difficulty and meanness of the times. I was a bit put off by the overt Christianity of Colin and his sister, but the storyline easily overcame that, providing a fascinating background for the complexity of the personal interrelationships between these three main characters and also with a bevy of other characters in the community and back in Boston.
I do not think I will go looking for other books by Ms. Metzer (this was the only one on the library shelf), but I end up being very glad that I read this book.
The story is about a young (mid-20s) man, Colin MacRae, from a well-to-do family in Boston, Massachusetts, who decided to go into the lighthouse service and after serving his apprenticeship was assigned to Cape Cod’s Highland Light, which had been built in 1792 –accompanied by his 30-year-old sister, Catherine, who was in very poor health but still counted as family, which was a requirement of lighthouse service at that time. After six months, Colin was nearly exhausted, since he had to do all the work around the lighthouse, including the cleaning and maintenance, as well as taking care of his ill sister, so he set out to hire some help, but the only person available in the community was a 16-year-old girl who could not talk, and who came with a very large dog named Rex that she had rescued from the sea when he was a puppy.
Am I going to spoil the story by saying what happens. One of the more interesting parts of the book to me was the portrayal of life as it was lived in New England at the end of the 18th century. As you might expect, it was not an easy life. I did not expect it to be easy, but I was a bit taken aback by the apparently valid portrayal of the difficulty and meanness of the times. I was a bit put off by the overt Christianity of Colin and his sister, but the storyline easily overcame that, providing a fascinating background for the complexity of the personal interrelationships between these three main characters and also with a bevy of other characters in the community and back in Boston.
I do not think I will go looking for other books by Ms. Metzer (this was the only one on the library shelf), but I end up being very glad that I read this book.
January 28, 2009
I have not finished all of it yet, but overall it is a good book. My aunt went to school with Patty Metzer (The author)
April 10, 2011
This is such a sweet and intriguing story!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews