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A Light in the Window
Newlywed and small-town girl Ricky Wayne is sent to live with her new husband's powerful family when his unit is shipped overseas and she learns that her new family will stop at nothing to break up their marriage. Reprint.
414 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1948
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About the author
Mary Roberts Rinehart
557 books428 followersMysteries of the well-known American writer Mary Roberts Rinehart include
The Circular Staircase
(1908) and
The Door
(1930).
People often called this prolific author the American version of Agatha Christie. She is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it," though the exact phrase doesn't appear in her works, and she invented the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing.
Rinehart wrote hundreds of short stories, poems, travelogues, and special articles. Many of her books and plays were adapted for movies, such as The Bat (1926), The Bat Whispers (1930), and The Bat (1959). Critics most appreciated her murder mysteries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ro...
People often called this prolific author the American version of Agatha Christie. She is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it," though the exact phrase doesn't appear in her works, and she invented the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing.
Rinehart wrote hundreds of short stories, poems, travelogues, and special articles. Many of her books and plays were adapted for movies, such as The Bat (1926), The Bat Whispers (1930), and The Bat (1959). Critics most appreciated her murder mysteries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ro...
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 1, 2018
The plot description for this novel is one of the most stunningly inaccurate and misleading I ever read. Ignore it.
The central young couple did indeed have a whirlwind courtship. But the young groom, Court, didn’t join the military afterwards, he was already in an army camp, and they met at a camp dance. He goes overseas and she doesn’t see him for 2 years, and the novel opens the day in 1919 that he comes home. His parents are not trying to break the couple up. Bride Fredrica, “Ricky,” does have a difficult, sometimes contentious relationship with her mother-in-law, but the well-drawn mother, Elizabeth Wayne, is not a bad person, just too ambitious for her son, and thinks they married too young. She’s absolutely right, as the developing story shows. She in fact tries to prevent anyone else breaking them up, though her way is a rather controlling way. And Ricky likes and gets along with her warmer, more understanding father-in-law just fine.
The novel is a departure for Rinehart, who wrote only occasional serious in-depth novels. This is one. And largely, it’s successful. Don’t expect romance or romantic suspense. It’s about as unsentimental a family saga as you’ll get, about love, war, victory, war’s aftermath, PTSD, and something Rinehart knew well, the publishing business. It’s the Wayne family business, and she gives an interesting insider’s take on it, as it grows and weathers all those changes in America from 1919 to 1945.
Every character, even very minor ones who appear only occasionally, seems real and multi-dimensional, which impressed me, since characters who symbolize historic events and social change can often be “types” and that’s a bore to me. I liked or at least understood them all, and Rinehart’s skill at presenting them as people, rather than passing judgment on them as lineups of good and bad guys, shows her skill as a writer.
Yet it’s not a fun book. The characters and their complicated feelings and mistakes make for a lot of pain and anxiety and secrets related to wartime romance and the pregnancies that can result. Ricky and Court really are not a very good match, but they work things through. The affection they have, yet their lack of real understanding of each other, are very believable, and the success of their marriage is as partial and patchy and yet sincere as a writer could concoct. I seldom read painful realism but I can say this book was hard to put down.
The book does end on a pretty positive note — the younger generation, ready to rebuild in 1945, seems to have it more together than their parents, or grandparents, did. It’s not particularly cheerful, but it’s worth a read if you like realism that shows life and love to be imperfect but worthwhile.
The central young couple did indeed have a whirlwind courtship. But the young groom, Court, didn’t join the military afterwards, he was already in an army camp, and they met at a camp dance. He goes overseas and she doesn’t see him for 2 years, and the novel opens the day in 1919 that he comes home. His parents are not trying to break the couple up. Bride Fredrica, “Ricky,” does have a difficult, sometimes contentious relationship with her mother-in-law, but the well-drawn mother, Elizabeth Wayne, is not a bad person, just too ambitious for her son, and thinks they married too young. She’s absolutely right, as the developing story shows. She in fact tries to prevent anyone else breaking them up, though her way is a rather controlling way. And Ricky likes and gets along with her warmer, more understanding father-in-law just fine.
The novel is a departure for Rinehart, who wrote only occasional serious in-depth novels. This is one. And largely, it’s successful. Don’t expect romance or romantic suspense. It’s about as unsentimental a family saga as you’ll get, about love, war, victory, war’s aftermath, PTSD, and something Rinehart knew well, the publishing business. It’s the Wayne family business, and she gives an interesting insider’s take on it, as it grows and weathers all those changes in America from 1919 to 1945.
Every character, even very minor ones who appear only occasionally, seems real and multi-dimensional, which impressed me, since characters who symbolize historic events and social change can often be “types” and that’s a bore to me. I liked or at least understood them all, and Rinehart’s skill at presenting them as people, rather than passing judgment on them as lineups of good and bad guys, shows her skill as a writer.
Yet it’s not a fun book. The characters and their complicated feelings and mistakes make for a lot of pain and anxiety and secrets related to wartime romance and the pregnancies that can result. Ricky and Court really are not a very good match, but they work things through. The affection they have, yet their lack of real understanding of each other, are very believable, and the success of their marriage is as partial and patchy and yet sincere as a writer could concoct. I seldom read painful realism but I can say this book was hard to put down.
The book does end on a pretty positive note — the younger generation, ready to rebuild in 1945, seems to have it more together than their parents, or grandparents, did. It’s not particularly cheerful, but it’s worth a read if you like realism that shows life and love to be imperfect but worthwhile.
March 11, 2011
The story of three generations of the Wayne family from the end of WWI through to the end of WWII.
My local library had this in the mystery section--which is where and why I grabbed it--but it is certainly not a mystery. This is a very different and I suspect personal story for Rinehart (the writing and publishing ring quite true). By today's standards it is not well constructed technically, but the story kept me interested all the way through.
My local library had this in the mystery section--which is where and why I grabbed it--but it is certainly not a mystery. This is a very different and I suspect personal story for Rinehart (the writing and publishing ring quite true). By today's standards it is not well constructed technically, but the story kept me interested all the way through.
January 10, 2022
I was surprised at the book cover’s description. I was expecting a mystery, but instead it is a tale of life between the end of WWI and end of WWII, mostly in America. Very interesting from start to finish, all fiction but it felt as if the author lived through all this herself, it was very real. The jacket also implied that Court’s parents hated Ricky. This was never in the book. They were apprehensive, but never hated her, and later got to love her. Throughout the book it was mainly concentrating on Court and Ricky’s marriage under trying circumstances. I enjoyed it, very realistic.
March 15, 2025
The description on the cover is very, very misleading. I don't understand who wrote it and why. They must have read a different story. I went in expecting a thriller where a young wife has to escape a malevolent inlaw or something.
Instead, I get a story about said wife's family life.
I don't usually read this genre so I felt tricked. I pondered dropping stars for that. There is absolutely no mystery here.
Instead, I get a story about said wife's family life.
I don't usually read this genre so I felt tricked. I pondered dropping stars for that. There is absolutely no mystery here.
May 11, 2020
An interesting look at a family with upper-class problems that begins with World War I and a hurried marriage and ends during World War II, and more hurried marriages.
September 22, 2020
Could not finish
July 21, 2011
This was a strange novel with a rambling story line, but I must admit I enjoyed it as a "historical document", to quote Galaxy Quest. She covered a family's life from World War 1 through World War 11 with a lot of references to politics of the day and it was very interesting to see the perspective of someone who actually lived then.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews