now available from Black Heron Press
Synopsis of New Light by Annie Gilson:
Beth Martin wakes up one day
feeling
that she has wasted her life. She goes to Saint Louis to visit
her
college roommate and take some time to get her bearings. But at a
party she experiences what she can only call a vision, which she finds
disconcerting, but also strangely compelling. Also
compelling is her
seeming chance meeting with a neuroscientist who is researching vision
phenomena. Beth accompanies him to New Light, a visionary commune
in
the Missouri Mountains where she meets its charismatic leader and is
befriended by some of its members. Their conception of American
life
challenges the mainstream in a number of ways, most notably in their
openness to sexual and emotional experimentation. Beth is
intrigued by
the sense of possibility she finds at New Light, but is also disturbed
by the enormous power its leader wields over the members' lives.
In
the end she must address questions of faith and responsibility, loyalty
and desire, jealousy and tolerance.
"New
Light is a lively and
intelligent piece of fiction. It offers a reader an insightful
excursion
into the world of contemporary American utopian/communal life.
Told in a
fluent way by a sympathetic and engaging narrator, the story is both
intriguing
in itself and one that stands in the American line of fiction about
utopian
experiments which extends from Hawthorne's Blithedale Romance to the
present. New Light is a
romance that works on a number of
levels, from the literal interaction of the main character and her new
friend Houdini to that of the social, historical and philosophical
matters conjured by her tale. Clearly Gilson is a professionally
mature writer who holds to high standards of craft and art."
--- Alan Cheuse
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About the Author |
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website on fantastic
realism (under construction) |
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Read a sample Chapter from New Light (Acrobat Reader required. Download a
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Visit the web site of Black Heron Press; publisher of New Light |