The Lightkeepers, NOT The Lighthouse Keepers

Each time I tell someone about the book that I just completed, my first instinct is to call it "The Lighthouse Keepers." The title of the debut novel by Abby Geni is, in fact, The Lightkeepers. It's not until about two-thirds into the book where we learn the distinction. Our main character, Miranda, is reading a book given to her by one of the scientists on the islands.

It occurred to me that the book had not used the term "lighthouse keepers." I was glad of this. To do so would have implied that the primary task of those people had been to maintain a building, a human structure, instead, the book had referred to them as the keepers of the light itself. There was something important in that. Something fundamental... ...Perhaps there were only two kinds of people in the world - the takers and the watchers - the plunderers and the protectors - the eggers and the lightkeepers.

Miranda is a nature photographer who has chosen to live on the Farallon Islands, about 30 miles off the coast of California, to take photos for a year. Having never heard of the Farallon Islands, I had to quickly look them up, at the start of the book, to see what they were all about. In a word, wild! The Pacific is wilder there than at the coast, and the wildlife is truly wild. It's wondrous as well and Miranda sees and photographs things she never imagined she'd photograph. She's living in a cabin with the scientist who have been on the island for varying lengths of time. The scientists are like a family without the warmth. The relationships are revealed as the book progresses.

It's my habit not to read reviews prior to starting a book so I my first impression was that this book was going to be about how the adult Miranda is still trying to come to terms with the death of her mother when Miranda was 14. Yes, that was a big part of the book. But the book is also a thriller.

Thriller isn't a genre I'm drawn to but I suppose with the addition of nature and photography, I ended up loving this book. I found it difficult to get into. Some evenings I had trouble reading for long and not because I was tired. It's also not surprising that last night after finishing the book, I had terrible dreams about birds attacking. Yes, there are scenes reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds in the novel. If you're frightened of birds attacking, this might not be the book for you.

The story is told through unsent letters that Miranda writes to her mother who has now been dead for decades. I love her description of why she did mail some of her letters to the Dead Letter Office of the post office. The letters give us a chance to learn more about Miranda and how badly scarred she has been by the death of her mother.

I loved all the references Miranda makes to photography in the novel. About how painters and people who draw can focus on an event and then afterwards create a visualization of the event while photographers have to be focused (pun intended) on capturing the event in the moment. She talks about the purpose of photography. At the end of the book Miranda writes this:

I have imagined my pictures to be immutable and honest, as sure as the ground beneath my feet. But now I see the truth and photography are fundamentally at odds. A snapshot is a two-dimensional representation, like a painting or a sketch, carefully prepared, framed, and cropped. It is the world represented by the mind of an artist, rather than the world as it actually is. The photographer can cherry-pick what will be included in a collection of images; they can be selected or omitted with purpose, then assembled and arranged so that, as a whole, they might suggest any story at all.

As a hobby photographer, I understand her conclusion very well. It also reminds me of things I've read about Facebook, about people portraying their lives as better than they actually are, by only sharing the wonderful photos that represent their lives. It's no wonder that Instagram now has a way to add photos in "Stories." We can take the photos we think add to our story, we crop them and edit them and end up with the story we wish to present to our audience. I'm not sure if this message will resonate as clearly with people who aren't avid (okay, obsessed) photographers but it spoke loudly to me. I don't think this is the reason why I loved the book.

Until the very end of the novel, we only learn about the other human characters, the scientists living on the islands, through Miranda's eyes. As such, they remain sort of mysterious to us. The culture of the islands is that the past is not discussed. Maybe because Miranda is different because she's not a scientist, she gets some of the characters to share bits of their past with them. That adds to the thriller/mystery.

I was not surprised by the ending of the novel. In fact, I was able to predict how it would end pretty early on. I had to read to figure out how the plot would move from point A to point B. Since I'm not a regular reader of thrillers, I can't say if this would diminish the enjoyment to someone who is a thriller reader.

As I prepare to facilitate the discussion in my community book club, I am all set to do more research on the Farallon Islands. I'll add a postscript to this post if I learn anything that I think it very important or very interesting. When a member recommended this book for the club, she said that it might not be a book that the other club members would enjoy. I'm really curious to see how many enjoyed the book versus how many didn't... or how many didn't finish reading it.

I gave this book 4-stars on goodreads.com. I loved the book but it might not be for everyone.