Hatteras Light: A Novel

by Philip Gerard

Brand new in shrink wrap.

Genres: Nonfiction

232 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1997

About the author

Philip Gerard is the author of 13 books, including The Last Battleground: The Civil War Comes to North Carolina. Gerard was the author of Our State's Civil War series. He currently teaches in the department of creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the pleasure to discover this incredibly talented story teller quite by accident. Hatteras Light was the first of his novels that I read and I was so swept up in his character creations that I found myself in the midst of them as the story developed. And being an old sailor, I really appreciated the personalities and attitudes with which Philip imbued them. The story was so real, I felt the salt spray. If you want to read a truly gifted storyteller, rush right over to Amazon and order a copy of this one. I own a copy, but I don't want to part with it!

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is historical fiction. The setting is a small village in North Carolina at the foot of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. The residents are fisherman who run the lighthouse and man a rescue boat that goes out when a ship breaks up on a reef or shoal. Keeping the light shining to warn passing ships of the rocks and shoals is in the DNA of the villagers .The time is close to the end of the First World War. A German submarine is using the light for a navigational reference and it is lying in a nearby shipping lane waiting for passing ships. It sinks three or four ships during the first part of the novel. The residents have seen it several times, have rescued the survivors of its attacks and feel responsible for doing something about the sub but have few options. The only one with some chance of success is to put out the light during a storm and hope the sub, lacking its navigational reference, hits the rocks. Since putting out the light has never been done and it puts ships in the vicinity at risk, this splits the community. This is a well-written story with a good plot, several interesting sub-plots and interesting characters.

[Corto · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up while visiting the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras, NC (which is not to be missed, if you're in the area), and was immediately sucked in to a fantastic sea story. In short, the novel is about the arrival of a German submarine during the last year of WWI, and the contest between it and the Hatteras islanders- the core of whom man the local Life-Saving Station and lighthouse.

Gerard does a fantastic job weaving in a great plot, intriguing and compelling characters (whose interrelationships form the subplot), and a great feel for the era. While the historical events require a bit of suspension of disbelief (to my knowledge, the Germans didn't harass the shipping lanes off the Outer Banks in WWI), he writes them convincingly and in detail (especially in regard to seamanship), along with a somewhat gritty representation of the culture of the Outer Banks before it became a massive resort complex.

Highly recommended if you are a fan of nautical fiction. I'd love to see some type of sequel.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

About ten years ago, I had the privilege of doing a weekend non-fiction writing workshop led by Gerard at Hub City Writers Project’s Writing in Place conference. He was a funny, kind and incisive teacher. After the workshop, I read (and loved) his essays, but I never sought out his fiction. Gerard died late last year, and I looked up his novels. I loved Hatteras Light. It’s a man’s story for sure. (What some of my friend’s call “boy books”) but his female characters ring true, and he does a remarkable job portraying a particular kind of man—the rugged, works-with-your-hands rural men of a bygone time. (WWI in this case.) I really loved this novel.

[Stacy Bearse · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid novel about life on the Outer Banks of North Carolina during the waning days of World War I. At the core of the story are the courageous men of the U.S. Lifesaving Service and the keepers of the local lighthouse who dealt with the aftermath of German U-Boat attacks on coastal shipping. Gerard's debut novel is part war story and part romance. Brilliant local color and the islander's intense pride-of-place make it an inspiring read.

[Eventer79 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this story. A suspenseful story, set in places that I know, easy to read.

However, I had to deduct a star - I really am very tired (and will keep mentioning!) of the endless roll of male authors who portray their male characters as rugged heroes full of aspirations and thoughts of their own, but the women are largely trophies to be claimed or set aside, who can't possibly have any complexity beyond cooking and marrying and "inexplicable" mood swings (sarcasm font). This trend really needs to perish already. There were female characters with potential but they were brushed off as usual; a shame, could have added a lot of heart to the book if they had been treated as full people. Women during all chapters of history deserve a better remembrance!

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

My parents first took me camping on the Banks when I was five and you could camp under canvas out on the sand! The Light has been part of almost all my life and the stories of its keepers and the life-boatmen fascinating. I was excited to find this book in a library book sale and delighted to read that it was based on fact. I liked it but couldn't quite bring myself to give it four stars, mainly because of the style in which it was written. I know the author was attempting to tell the story from multiple points of view but unfortunately it made it very disjointed and occasionally difficult to follow.

[Meglie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picked up this book while staying in Ocracoke. It was cool to understand more about the island history, the life saving stations and how they were intertwined with WWII. I had also visited Portsmouth for the first time so it was a reminder of how that island used to be a hub for all activity and now is a deserted island. I was not a big fan of the characters/character development and the writing.

[Meade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the perfect book to read on the beach during my week at the Outer Banks! It had beautiful writing, and it was fun to look out over the waves and imagine the events taking place on those very waters. This was a fictional but historically-based account of the life saving and lighthouse keeping team during WWI when a U boat shows up off the coast. Very interesting with good characters.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice, enjoyable novel about the people of the Outer Banks during World War I, specifically 1918 when the war was literally coming to them. While fiction, there are enough references to real locations that while reading I could easily envision the vantage points of the action I have visited, many on multiple occasions.

[Valentine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Philip Gerard teaches creative writing at UNC Wilmington and his students are incredibly lucky to have an accomplished story teller sharing his knowledge and skills with them. He writes in such a seamless and conversational way that almost instantly the reader is transported back to the big war and the fear of German U-boats cruising the east coast. He makes the lighthouse keepers come alive. Their support network which includes wives and other family members as well as friends make the story so well rounded that there is no leading character other than the lighthouse itself. If you are at all interested in 20th Century America, then Hatteras Light is a MUST read.

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book for its original storyline and interesting setting. It took me a little while to warm to the characters, so I felt like I was just getting to understand them better as the novel drew to a close. This left me feeling like I wanted to know more about what they would do after the events of the story. I found the characters Malcolm, Patchy and Max Wien the most interesting.I felt some of the other characters needed to be developed more.

There were some interesting themes explored in the novel and I liked the fact that the Germans weren't all just portrayed as "baddies." They were, afterall, just men caught up in the tides of war.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a short fictionalized version of what it was like to live on the Outer Banks during the German sub attacks during WW2. Though it was fiction, it was historically accurate about how freaky it was to have u-boats so close by.

[Artie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does a really good job of capturing a unique time and place in history. I've always been fascinated by the people who manned lifesaving stations in the era before motorized boats became the norm.