Fort Starlight

by Claudia Zuluaga

Broke and stranded in a half-finished tract house in a swamp, Ida Overdorff discovers the strange community around her—a millionaire living in a tree house, two feral child thieves. Ida clings to her dream of returning to New York while weathering storms both meteorological and emotional, and comes to understand that nobody's luck—even hers—is all bad. Claudia Zuluaga 's fiction has appeared in Narrative Magazine , Lost Magazine , JMWW , Linnaean Street , and the Best of the Web series. Zuluaga is a lecturer in the English department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY) in New York City.

Genres: Fiction

232 pages, Paperback

First published August 19, 2013

Reviews

[tee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Give me books like this to read for the rest of my life. Something that I constantly do is wonder if I have something wrong with my attention span. Book after book, I battle to get through to the end. I dread picking them up, I hold my eyelids open, I bribe myself ... "just one more page, make it five more pages, god I hope it ends soon." I thrash, I groan. But then I come across gems like this that I chew through. The world falls silent around me and I become one with every single word, sentence, paragraph. Books like these make me feel like they're speaking to my very being. That we're breathing in the same rhythm. I read this one 'til late, it was the first thing I picked up in the morning (when a book beats Instagram, I know it's good), I took it to the park, I read it while the kids watched Addams family and then I was sad I was finished, which is another rarity. Usually, even when I've enjoyed a book, I'm glad it's done. But this one made me wanna google Ida and see how she's doin'. I wanted a juicy letter from the boys' aunt, filling me in with their progress. Do they still wipe snot on the furniture, do they still have a penchant for Coke. Has the manager at Karr's found a reliable bakery manager yet? Books like this one remind me to continue seeking out the gold and to not blame myself for struggling to pay attention - it's not my fault that everyone bar Zuluaga and Jeanette Winterson (okay, and a handful of others) are below average writers. Not my fault at all.

And yet a couple of people have stumped me by asking, "what's that one about?". It was a simple, if not startling answer with a recent read; a mum at the school cornered me and asked what it was about (The Shining Girls) and unable to come up with something that sounded remotely intelligent, I blurted, "a time travelling serial killer!". I mean, it was. But why on earth don't I get asked what I'm reading when I'm reading smart shit. Oh this old thing, just a bit of Russian lit to start my day off. as I sip on black coffee and flick a speck of sand off my polished, stylish boot. Yknow, rather than time travelling serial killers, a warm bottle of diet coke clenched between fat knees, and bare feet 'cos lord knows where I left my shoes at last. It was a guilty pleasure book and I always get busted on the guilty pleasure ones (don't even ask how I fared when queried on "Tampa").

Anyway. with this book I did no better with trying to explain what it was about. Oh, it's about nothing really. My partner rolled his eyes when he asked what I was reading and I said, "a book". My mother in law insisted I elaborate, Well, a girl who goes to a town and she lives in this house with a flapping tarp, there's a dead boy in a canal and some parentless children but the story isn't about that. Doesn't mean you won't hold your breath wondering if something's about to happen though. Not it's not frustrating, it's delicious. It's a held in orgasm.There's bakery food and a treehouse and a mysterious dude on a bike. It's bleak but it's fucking stunning. It's about ... passing through and belonging and ... personal growth. But not in a Coelho way. It's about parents that are terrible but not bad enough. It's about neglect. It's about Florida heat and swampy canals. It's about coping and making do. It's about connections and about how sometimes people fall together into a family. it's about the donuts you get to take home when you work in a bakery. It's about nothing and everything, depending on what your rhythm is, how fast you breathe in and out, how slow your heart thuds. The story is in between the beats, it's in the air that you're pulling into and pushing out of your lungs. If you feel this book, then I think you feel me.

Gonna add Zuluaga to the little flock of favourites that I have. The ones who in my fantasies I convince into living with me in abandoned lighthouses in sleepy seaside towns. I provide food and praise and shoulder massages and they simply write me books for the rest of my life. It's a pretty good deal, I give good massages and make a mean tofu scramble.

[Robert Intriago · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was reading a review of Southern writers in the New York Times about a week ago and came across three names: David Woodrell, Michael Farris Smith and Ms. Claudia Zuluaga. Since I tend to like the dark side of literature and I already had read Woodrell, I decided to read Ms Zuluaga's book because it seemed like a short read, 228 pages.

Nietzsche coined the phrase: "What does not kill you, makes you stronger" and this book is an elegant reflection on that theme. Ida, a downtrodden 24 year old from New York heads to the Southeast part of Florida to sell a piece of land that she bought when she was 18 years old and in High School. This is a tale of a personal struggle and the endurance of the human spirit when faced with obstacles encountered in nature and other obstacles posed by other human beings.

The story is populated with the strangest group of people that despite their shortcomings are trying to find a better way of living, regardless of their circumstances. They help each other and find a way to survive the roadblocks that nature puts in their way. It is an uplifting and dark story, that is well written, fast paced and with real life characters from different walks of life.

[Myfanwy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh man. This book is so freaking good. It's got so much of what I love in a book. I could have read it in one sitting if I'd been allowed but instead I had to read it in two days.

It is beautiful, heartfelt, harrowing, and funny. The case of characters do not let you down and the ending will leave you weeping (but in a good way).

It is very much a book of place but in a way that place brings certain types of people together, and I love that. I love it.

I loved Ida. I loved the boys. I loved them all. All of their stories came alive in me. All spoke to me.

I'm going to be buying this book for lots of people in the coming months. Pressing it into their hands. Telling them to read it right this second. I hope you will, too.

[Peg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you, Robert, for finding this gem. I would normally give it 4 stars but I think I will be thinking of these people for a very long time. Lovely to spend a very cold afternoon in Southern Florida with all the heat and mosquitoes and lizards and.....Great to come back to this beautiful winter wonderland.

[Dev Holan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captivating story, interesting characters. I loved reading this.

[Glen Troiano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprisingly fun to read!

For the first 25% of this book I kept wondering when something was going to happen. Then, I realized it had been happening the whole time. With a unique storytelling style, Ms. Zuluaga has created a reading experience, a story, characters, and tons of atmosphere. Don't read it to find out what happens. Read it for the sheer joy of reading it.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect read. So beautiful and completely satisfying.

[Najia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last twist was unexpected

I’m usually pretty quick to pick up the plot and anticipate twists but here, though I expected a twist, I didn’t see this one coming.

[Jamie Barringer (Ravenmount) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book well enough, except that it didn't seem to have much of a plot, and it had even less resolution. Rather than actually telling the stories that might create a climax and resolution, this novel just gives a summary of the various characters involved, the way documentaries summarize the stories of what happens after the events depicted in the film. Thus, finding the dead parents was practically a non-event, and the transition from the setting in which the majority of this book takes place to the setting at the very end where the houses are gone is entirely off-screen, making the last chapters of this book disorienting. We never find out what happened with the con artist whose con was the focus of the first part of this novel, either, and Peter is far too mysterious and caricatured, more like a cardboard fill-in for a character rather than a real person.

I still enjoyed this novel, but it just felt too unfinished to rate more than 3.5 stars on the goodreads scale. Since this site doesn't do half-stars, and the writing style was ok, I rounded up, so this book gets 4 stars on goodreads from me.

[Sarah Yaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG I loved this book. I haven't gotten around to write a review (because I'm an unwitting luddite and am only now learning how to even use Goodreads), but I saw that this book is a semi-finalist for a first novel prize, and decided it was time. The book is atmospheric. The minute you open it you step into the swampy not-so-perfect Florida where the polish has come off the promise once offered by a fly-by-night real estate developer. While the development is unable to flourish, the people who have hooked to this star find each other and you end up discovering a caste of characters you can't get enough of. The natural world dominates and the connections between the characters comes from the animal need to find community and belong. It is so awesome. And look, I'm not the only one who thinks so. So do the judges at the VCU First Novel Award...

http://wp.vcu.edu/firstnovelist/2014/...

[Margo Littell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ida's search for real-estate salvation sets Fort Starlight in motion, and her journey to Florida puts her in the way of other seekers of the Sunshine State's dubious promise. Even in the wreckage of failed property development and environmental drama, Ida and those she encounters forge a new and unexpected community stronger than any duplicitous money-making scheme.

Zuluaga tells a great story, and she also expertly balances poignant storytelling with evocative descriptions of Florida's inherent weirdness. Read no further than the first page--a description of two blackbirds' flight over Florida--to get a sense of this novel's brilliant world-building. A perfect summer read.

[Lynnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hesitate to call Fort Starlight "charming," because that evokes a kind of story that this isn't. The characters are rough around the edges and know it. Yet I feel like these people are friends -- I'm sorry I can't email Ida or check FB to catch up on everyone. This is a gorgeous read that is funny and horrifying and heartbreaking and joyful. I put this on the shelf with the books I read again and again.

[Great Writers Steal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the book a great deal; Ms. Zuluaga painted a lush and beautiful setting and populated it with interesting characters.

Writers will also be happy to know that the book offers a number of lessons in craft: http://www.greatwriterssteal.com/2013...

[Ashley Austrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this book in two (long) sittings, so obviously I loved it. The characters were interesting and complex, the setting felt alive, and by page 30 I already didn't want it to end. Excellent read and I look forward to more from Claudia.

[Tara J · Rating 5 out of 5]

A simply phenomenal novel. Beautifully crafted prose and characters that are so deeply drawn, their stories deeply felt. You will love it.

[Cassondra Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been a few years since I've read this and I want to do it justice with my review, so I'm waiting until I've finished my second go around. I will say it's one of the loveliest books I've ever read and It's always at the top of my recommended reading lists.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun and funny novel of living on the edge (of poverty [well, really, she is very very poor], town, reality, love, modern world). takes place in florida swamp subdivision, at the start of its collapse.

i wonder if author is basque? she's from up ny.

*Been busy building an opac, so just making placeholders for books I’ve read in march and april 2014. This is the opac though.
http://stwr.ent.sirsi.net/client/defa...


blurb from alan heathcock "The great joy of reading this novel was to be steeped in place, its blackbirds and alligators, its grasslands and rivers, the storms which blew in with regularity, but also for its indelible cast of characters, misfits all, who I grew to love as they forged on with pioneer hope, sowed the grace of second chances, and displayed the generous care of family beyond blood. Claudia Zuluaga has written a powerful novel, rate in its elegance, and Fort Starlight introduces a wonderful new voice into the world of literature."

hear hear alan !!!

[Kenneth Hursh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starlight has a cast of local odd characters who interact with down-on-her-luck Ida.

Ida’s conflict was trying to earn enough money to leave Fort Starlight after discovering coming there in the first place was big mistake. Her most interesting relationship was with a pair of unsupervised children, which led to a chilling reveal. Zuluaga hinted that another local child, who had gone missing, would play a part in Ida’s story, but unfortunately that subplot never had anything to do with Ida. A disappointing and curious waste of words.

[Ayla-Monic · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautifully crafted novel. Full of swampy imagery, you can almost taste the mud and feel the sticky heat on the nape of your neck.

I really connected to this book: themes of families lost and gained, and chasing dreams that you don't feel you truly deserve struck a chord that really resonated with me.

The story is dark but hopeful, extraordinary but believable.

Be prepared to set aside a good chunk of reading time when you start this book, as you will unlikely be able to set it down.

[Wanda Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good read, Itwill keep you wanting to read more. I love the characters and related to each of them. This is very well written and makes you feel like no matter what adversity you may be going through there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

[Angela Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! The writing style was beautiful, it flowed nicely and was a pleasure to read. The characters were vivid and the moments in time were very real and very memorable.

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love! Love! Love!

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you liked "The Glass Castle," you'll like this one. A well done mood piece.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent mystery type novel. Noir-ish