Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Canongate
Pages
329
Description
Lou Connor wants to escape her emotionally crass family and life of poverty, so she travels from Sydney to the USA as an exchange student. But her host-family, the Hardings - who live in a prefabricated mansion in a nameless Chicago suburb - are in suffocating pursuit of a particular form of suburban perfection. From the very beginning, nothing is as it seems.
Description
Sixteen-year-old Lou Connor is presented with the chance of a lifetime. Born in Australia to a family mired in poverty, she's accepted by a student exchange program and embarks on a trip to Chicago to spend a year with an affluent American family. It's an opportunity to leave her unemployed, shiftless parents and her equally unimpressive sisters behind. But the question is, will Lou truly be able to break free of her past?
In the protagonist of Lou, Hyland has created a smart and perceptive young woman who spends her last few days at home reading poetry at the kitchen table, while her parents lounge on the couch, watching TV. And Lou's host parents, despite their initial appeal, seem as emotionally inaccessible as her Aussie ones.
An unusual coming-of-age story, How the Light Gets In is also a stunning social satire. For Lou's host family, a younger version of Jonathan Franzen's Lambert clan, leaves her feeling isolated and alone, and her reaction is a horrifying self-sabotage. Hyland seems to be questioning the current zeitgeist in a stinging rebuke: If Lou can't make it despite the rare gift she's been given, then what hope is there for the rest of our kids? Readers who enjoyed the exploration of a family's dysfunction and its effect on a teenage protagonist in last season's Like the Red Panda are sure to enjoy this debut, too.
In the protagonist of Lou, Hyland has created a smart and perceptive young woman who spends her last few days at home reading poetry at the kitchen table, while her parents lounge on the couch, watching TV. And Lou's host parents, despite their initial appeal, seem as emotionally inaccessible as her Aussie ones.
An unusual coming-of-age story, How the Light Gets In is also a stunning social satire. For Lou's host family, a younger version of Jonathan Franzen's Lambert clan, leaves her feeling isolated and alone, and her reaction is a horrifying self-sabotage. Hyland seems to be questioning the current zeitgeist in a stinging rebuke: If Lou can't make it despite the rare gift she's been given, then what hope is there for the rest of our kids? Readers who enjoyed the exploration of a family's dysfunction and its effect on a teenage protagonist in last season's Like the Red Panda are sure to enjoy this debut, too.
Collection
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2003
Physical description
329 p.; 8.2 inches
ISBN
1841955485 / 9781841955483
Similar in this library
User reviews
LibraryThing member Djupstrom
Kind of like a female, modern Catcher in the Rye, but without the cleverness. It was just alright.
LibraryThing member jayne_charles
This was very readable in terms of the writing style, and the theme was interesting enough – a gifted Australian teenager from a deprived background travels to Chicago to live with a family on some kind of exchange scheme. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I expected to though – it was a bit like
Show More
driving down a long, straight road where the scenery doesn’t change. However much you don’t want to, you find yourself drifting off. In the novel, protagonist Lou makes various social faux pas, mostly by thinking the correct thing to say then saying something inappropriate. She drinks/smokes/takes drugs, alienates her foster parents, is given another chance, then messes up again, and the circle goes on. There didn’t seem to be the normal plot trajectory where everything builds up to a moment of drama. When the game changer occurs, which sends the plot ricocheting to its conclusion, it was something so minor and unconnected with the previous events that I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Having spent a couple of hundred pages feeling as though Lou largely brought her problems on herself, was I supposed to suddenly forget that and sympathise totally? I’m just not sure – about that, and about the novel as a whole. Show Less
LibraryThing member jennifermary
Wanted to keep reading til the end but disappointed with the ending. Sydney girl from dysfunctional family flies to the U.S. to live with exchange family. Smoking, boys become and issue and she is taken away from her host family and ends up in a facility for failed exchange students. Bleak
Show More
portrayal of usual teenage issues. Show Less
LibraryThing member Cecilturtle
Lou is a decidedly unlikable character: self-centered, disrespectful, unaware and withdrawn. In other words, she is a typical teenager, seeing life through her narrow lens and unable to open her eyes to the impacts of her own actions, only the impacts of others unto her. She has reason to have a
It is only in second part of the story, when she is finally able to connect to Gita and Lishny that she realizes that she is not alone - and thus the light starts to get in. She learns her final lesson when she, herself, becomes a victim of someone else's selfish act.
This is what makes this book so interesting and compelling: young Lou, who is far from perfect and still has so much to learn, does change even in an infinitesimal way to grow toward adulthood. The quintessential coming of age novel.
Show More
chip of her shoulder, but so concentrated is she on her own perceptions and goals that she fails to see how she sabotages herself.It is only in second part of the story, when she is finally able to connect to Gita and Lishny that she realizes that she is not alone - and thus the light starts to get in. She learns her final lesson when she, herself, becomes a victim of someone else's selfish act.
This is what makes this book so interesting and compelling: young Lou, who is far from perfect and still has so much to learn, does change even in an infinitesimal way to grow toward adulthood. The quintessential coming of age novel.
Show Less
LibraryThing member safetygirl
australian teen comes to america as an exchange student to escape her lower class family. living with an upper middle class family in a chicago suburb seems perfect at first, but lou just can't seem to be the good girl she and everyone else wants her to be.
LibraryThing member escondidolibrary
Australian teen, Lou, comes to America as an exchange student to escape her lower class family. Living with an upper middle class family in a Chicago suburb seems perfect at first, but Lou just can't seem to be the good girl she & everyone else wants her to be.
LibraryThing member coolmama
I was drawn into this absorbing first novel by MJ Hyland.
It tells the story of Lou Conner, a brilliant 16 yr old who leaves her poverty striken home in Sydney and gets places in a one year exchange program in a suburb of Chicago.
Told from Lou's point of view, she is a brash, self-destructive,
It tells the story of Lou Conner, a brilliant 16 yr old who leaves her poverty striken home in Sydney and gets places in a one year exchange program in a suburb of Chicago.
Told from Lou's point of view, she is a brash, self-destructive,
Show More
hormone fueled teen. Her host family is odd, especially from her lens. The father is always crying, the mother loves to hug others, she is ignored by the snotty daughter, and the son borders (or not?) on sexual abuse. I am still trying to work out the ending. Show Less
LibraryThing member lost_in_pages
I enjoyed this book immensely, but less for the story, characters, or conclusion than for the writing. Lou's perspective is so often thought provoking. She isn't necessarily right, yet her assessments ring true clearly with some things while she appears oblivious about others. It is stated that Lou
Several times while reading, I paused to savor a passage or paragraph. I laughed often with pleasure at this novel's wit. It has a crushingly bitter ending, however, managing to be both inevitable and unexpected at the same time.
Show More
has a high IQ, yet she fails to be smart over and over again in the ways that would benefit her, more out of childish beliefs than due to self-destructive impulses. Hyland captures that contrast in a way that is fair and believable.Several times while reading, I paused to savor a passage or paragraph. I laughed often with pleasure at this novel's wit. It has a crushingly bitter ending, however, managing to be both inevitable and unexpected at the same time.
Show Less
LibraryThing member nocto
Hmmm. Well I thought I'd enjoyed Carry Me Down when I read it a couple of years ago but it looks like my memory is playing tricks on me from the looks of what I wrote at the time. Interesting. I did however really like this book.
Sixteen year old Lou moves from her own family in Sydney to somewhere
The first person narration means that we see how everything falls apart from inside Lou's head. This makes it really compelling to read and you don't end up agreeing with what others think of Lou (or at least I didn't).
I was enjoying the book loads and preparing myself for being let down by the ending - mostly because I couldn't figure out where the author was leading to at all. But I wasn't let down - it was very well concluded.
Sixteen year old Lou moves from her own family in Sydney to somewhere
Show More
near Chicago to stay with the Harding family as an exchange student at a local high school. She makes her own family out to be, on the whole, a pretty appalling bunch living in near squalor and the American family who take her in are very much in the well off, large house, tanned with perfect teeth mould. Lou is obviously clever but is clearly going to have real trouble fitting in here. The first person narration means that we see how everything falls apart from inside Lou's head. This makes it really compelling to read and you don't end up agreeing with what others think of Lou (or at least I didn't).
I was enjoying the book loads and preparing myself for being let down by the ending - mostly because I couldn't figure out where the author was leading to at all. But I wasn't let down - it was very well concluded.
Show Less
LibraryThing member oldblack
Gave up on reading this. Not well written, in my opinion. Characters were caricatures without depth. Unrealistic situations. Why bother reading?
Subjects
Awards
Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Shortlist — 2004)
Waverton Good Read Award (Longlist — 2004)
Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award (Finalist — Fiction — 2004)
The Age Book of the Year Award (Shortlist — Fiction — 2004)
Call number
YA A Hyl