Lux : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: A charmer
Review: Alden Warren lives year round in Cape Cod where she works at the National Park Service's Cape Cod National Seashore Visitor Center. Her mother neglected her as a child while her father spent more time in jail than with his family. Two years ago her husband Monty vanished; everyone assumes he left either to escape Alden or found a new female. His leaving has left his spouse even more imbalanced in terms of relationships except for her birds. Even with her failure with her "loved" ones, she yearns for a child, but unbeknownst to her the state sees her as poor choice.

Alden sees a car accident, rescuing the infant child of local porn star Layla. She dreams of raising the baby who is with the state. Meanwhile landscaper Lux Davis works at fixing the shrubbery damaged by Layla's accident. He desperately wants Alden, but makes no move because he feels guilty. While driving a school bus under the influence, he killed and buried Monty at the sight of the damage shrubbery he is fixing.

Cape Cod in many ways steals the show from a weird relationship drama in which the prime couple is just starting to come together, but ghosts especially Monty stand in their way. The story line hooks the reader mostly because of the scenery, but also whether Lux and Alden can find each other. However, while they struggle, fans will find no one affable to care what happens to them yet they will still enjoy this tale.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: Flook's brilliant mix of poetry and roguish characters
Review: As The National Seashore's bookstore clerk, Alden Warren focuses on stranded sea turtles and other innocents while confronting an ugly past: the disappearance of a philandering husband two years prior. Struggling to remain unaffected, she lusts after a married man while desperately trying to adopt a local foster baby living the neglected life. But everyone in town --- including the social worker she works with to gain the child --- knows Alden's interests are carefully chosen distractions from her husband tragedy. She can't get a break.

Then Alden's diversions give way to a real relationship with offbeat landscaper Lux Davis, whose wild intelligence she finds congenially refreshing. Their intense attraction results in a series of reckless adventures involving dumping deceased animals in the cars of those who malign Alden: the married man who, ultimately, can't take "no" for an answer and the social worker who can't take "yes" (I want this child) for an answer. Unbeknownst to Alden, Lux has his own morbid past surrounding her husband's vanishing.

Lux, or "Light" --- as defined by Alden's best friend, an elderly volunteer named Hyram (another well-chosen diversion) --- is symbolic. Downtrodden with a neurological condition causing him to "freeze," Lux desires Alden because she fulfills his idea of light: love with another misfit who can accept an eccentric disorder. Likewise, he represents her nirvana. The irony is in their romance's backdrop, an unmerciful, stormy ocean environment involving murder. Equally visited by inner demons related to the husband's disappearance and childhood trauma, Lux and Alden identify via inner and outer climates.

It is a rare writer who can mix poetry with roguish characters. Maria Flook does this brilliantly. Her passages, even when describing a dead turtle being belted into a car, remain ethereal. But it is a bestselling writer who accomplishes Flook's evanescence while prioritizing plot. Flook doesn't quite succeed. Many scenarios are dreamlike, diverging from the story.

An exquisite writer, Flook has been commended for her sharp, Woody Allen-like humor: In recalling one scene, a customer-weary Alden gives a new homeowner more information than is bargained for by telling the customer that the area's damp air causes year-round sinus problems. Here's hoping Flook capitalizes more on such funny witticisms!

--- Reviewed by Sara Webb Quest

Rating:
Summary: If You Love Cape Cod....
Review: I love Maria Flook. And when I say "love," I really do mean that she is one of my favorite living writers. Since the two books of hers I know best are "My Sister Life," and "Invisible Eden"--which are memoir and true crime, respectively--I didn't quite know what to expect from this novel.
In short, it's great. Though I would certainly agree with Rick Moody's assessment of her writing on the back cover of this book...something to do with being electric and vibrant yet exquisite... thereby confirming for me that she's the real deal...there's no doubt that even though Flook is a "highbrow" writer (which is to say, she's intelligent), this is a real pageturner of a book, as gripping as any cheap airport novel you'd buy solely for the plot. Does that make any sense? OK, I'll try again: even though she's smart and a great writer, this is still a cheap thrill ride of a book. Which is a good thing.
I was prompted to write this review in the first place, though, because of its setting. It's Cape Cod, but the Cape plays into the book much, much more than just your ordinary "this is set in Chicago/San Francisco/whatever U.S. city." I live on the Cape, and was able to identify with nearly every single page (as in, I knew every single landmark/tavern/beach she mentioned), but I imagine that this sort of extreme descriptive setting might be a little...well...annoying for anyone who doesn't summer on the Cape or live there or love it or at least know something about it. I understand that the Cape is integral to the plot and the mood and imagery in the novel, but still...Flook is pretty much in overdrive in this respect. Just a word of advice. Otherwise, I love this novel, and hope Flook continues to be as prolific as she has been in the past couple of years.