A plane crashes in Montana, and this is the story of those left behind. A young man waiting for his girlfriend at the airport, an old woman awaiting the return of the husband who left decades ago, the couple who witnessed the crash and the mysterious stranger who appears at their door. It's mostly a sad story, as to be expected, dealing with the aftermath of a tragedy. The stories are interesting enough to pull me in and make me want to find out what happens. I like the way the characters were complicated and, for the most part, well drawn. ( )

The book had an excellent start, a slow middle. As I neared the end, I was worried that it wouldn't tie up well, but it tied up almost everything fine. I would highly recommend giving this one a shot, though it's definitely not for everyone. ( )

This is the second J. Robert Lennon book I've read, but this book, THE LIGHT OF FALLING STARS, was his first novel, and an amazingly complex and multi-layered work of fiction. It's hard to believe it was his first. A plane crash in Montana is the event that unites the several stories given us here. The central characters are all somehow connected to that crash - relatives, lovers, ex-spouses and eye-witnesses. The stories, which slowly converge and - mostly - come together, are fairly compelling. You want to know what happens next, in other words. The main problem I had with the book was that I didn't particularly like any of the people. None of them seemed to come across as very admirable or sympathetic characters. The younger ones seem directionless and vague in their aspirations - if indeed they have any defined goals or aspirations. And even the older ones - Trixie and Bernardo - are not very likeable. There is not much resolution to be found in any of the separate stories. But life goes on; maybe that's what the novel is about. In any case, perhaps Lennon bit off just a little more than he could chew with so many characters and subplots.

For my money, I preferred the other Lennon novel I read a while back, called ON THE NIGHT PLAIN. A much tighter book with better-defined and sympathetic characters. (See my review.) So I don't think I'll give up on J. Robert Lennon yet. If I run across another of his books, I'll probably give it a try. ( )

"A plane crashed. It was August, a hot, dry day."
This book tells the story of the couple who saw the plane crash in their backyard, taking with it part of their house, of a young man waiting for the love of his life in the airport (if only he'd taken the car to fetch her back...), of a woman divorced for many years waiting for the returning husband (but only a ghost will return to her... ) and of Italian Bernardo, single survivor, afraid to revisit his emigrant son Antonio.
Their stories are masterfully told, every character very quickly becoming a true person, and several stories interlocking. A very satisfying read. I liked Pieces for the Left Hand by the same author a lot, and after this book, I'll be on the lookout for more work by J. Robert Lennon.
My edition is the Granta Paperback Original. ( )

An interesting proposition, but ultimately rather dull. Surely, given a storyline based around a crashed aeroplane, it must be possible to wring some emotion out of the reader but I remained remote from all the characters from start to finish. The blurb on the back says the story is about 'the randomness of loss'. Fair enough, but it seemed to me the author went out of his way to flip randomly from one character to another without ever really getting under the surface of the situation.

I thought we were getting somewhere with Christine and her kidney transplant, but this promising plotline evaporated like all the others. ( )