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The Lighthouse cover art

The Lighthouse

By: Michael D O'Brien
Narrated by: Kevin O'Brien
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Publisher's Summary

Ethan McQuarry is a young lighthouse keeper on a tiny island, the rugged outcropping of easternmost Cape Breton Island on the Atlantic Ocean. A man without any family, he sees himself as a silent vigilant, performing his duties courageously year after year, with an admirable sense of responsibility.

He cherishes his solitude and is grateful that his interactions with human beings are rare. Even so, he is haunted by his aloneness in the world and by a feeling that his life is meaningless. His courage, his integrity, his love of the sea and wildlife, of practical skills and of learning are, in the end, not enough. He is faced with internal storms and sometimes literal storms of terrifying power.

From time to time he becomes aware that messengers are sent to him from what he calls the awakeness in existence, the listeningness. But he cannot at first recognize them as messengers nor understand what they might be telling him, until he finds himself caught up in catastrophic events, and begins to see the mysterious undercurrents of reality - and the hidden face of love.

They that go down to the sea in ships, trading upon the waters, they see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. - Psalm 107: 23

©2020 Ignatius Press (P)2021 Ignatius Press

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good story, narrator wasn't at his best.

The narrator has a nice reading voice, and it was good while he read the descriptions and plot. However, his character voices were wildly cartoonish, like a 90s action manga dubbed into English, especially the boy's voice. If you can get past that, it's still a good listen.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good bones.

Someone needs to explain to the narrator how to pronounce quay. And to tone down the overly comic character voices.

The book itself was beautiful. A little on the nose at times with its evangelism. You could certainly tell it was published by Ignatius press. I wish someone had suggested to the author that it already accomplished that end without making every Catholic in the village an image of the good, true and beautiful.

The handling of the 'orphanage' impact, for example, was delicate and compassionate but then this was reversed with Ethans summary about what kind of fish are in the net. This was already thematically true. It felt forced and not very much like Ethan at all.

I think of Flannery O'Connor or Tolkien (or indeed the original gospel of Mark) who could show not tell and I feel like this book was so very close to reaching the same heights. In fact, with a little editing, the reader would find those truths without being hit on the head with them. Perhaps he could consider a second edition, pared back just slightly.

That aside, the author demonstrated great delicacy of character portrayal, development and tone. It will stay with me.

I would recommend the read maybe, over the listen.

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