Sarah Selecky

This is going to be one of the tougher reviews for me to write. There's a lot going on in these ten seemingly quiet, unassuming stories. Each one is its own world yet there's a few common threads that run through them all.

The first is a quiet desperation. Each of Selecky's characters--all beautifully realized with a quirky yet minimalist touch--seem to be desperately searching for something...understanding, friendship, love, success... So at times, they all seem to come from the same village. Yet, each one does bring something different to each story.

There's beautiful, oblique observances in each of the stories. Selecky has a wonderful eye for details most of us miss. When she mentions them within the story, however, they immediately set the perfect tone, or emotion.

There's a slight preponderance of healthy lifestyle plot points. This character's a vegan, that one sells healthy, organic food, this one creates all-natural cleaning products, those ones live off the grid on an island and make candles. Everyone's very arty. I'd love to see the author break out of that occasionally and give us someone who's a little more gritty.

There is also, at times, a sometimes frustrating lack of resolution to many of the stories. At a yard sale, a son is grieving the loss of his father. His mother is moving on, but the neighbour's relationship with the grieving son, while hinted at, is never fully revealed. It's things like that that frustrate me. I know it's considered literary and I know it's deep but dammit, I like a beginning, a middle, and an end.

So yes, this is a tough review to write because I love the writing, I love the characters, I love the situations, I love the observances, but I don't always love how some of the stories more fade away than finish.

Still, would I read more of Selecky's work? Hell yes.… (mere)

From Amazon:
"A sharply funny and wise debut novel about female friendship, the face we show the world online
and letting your own light shine."

My thoughts:
I've been eagerly anticipating Canadian author Selecky's first novel since I read her wonderful short-story collection in 2013. Radiant, Shimmering Light is everything I expected, and yet it's different.

Lilian Quick is a financially struggling pet portraitist, who sees pets’ ‘auras’. Her cousin Florence, whom she hasn’t seen in 20 years, and is now known as Eleven, contacts her to offer her a job in NYC. Lilian does accept and is caught in the phenomenon that is Eleven.

The book is wickedly satirical and full of self-fulfilment lingo "Pg161 Fifi is the creator of the groundbreaking New Mind New Yoga, an organisation that works to reduce unhealthy striving, cultural appropriation, and patriarchal dominance in contemporary yoga communities."

At the same time, it is warm and wise.

You'll love Lilian and you'll love this book.… (mere)

Lilian Quick is an artist who paints pet portraits. Out of touch with her cousin, Florence, Lilian has been following her on the internet as Florence emerged as Eleven Novak, a self-help guru. The two women reconnect and then Eleven invites Lilian to join her Ascendency brand in New York. This was an enjoyable novel about two women reconnecting after decades apart. I enjoyed it as the characters were older than a lot female characters in similar books (my age bracket), however they still read as young which is the way I feel.… (mere)